No Electrical ANYWHERE on GS1000

[Anonymous]

Hi All,

The facts:

- Battery is good
- Fuses are all new and good
- All grounds are . . . grounded

In the 2 manuals that I have, there is no clear troubleshooting to what is happening, other than change your fuses.

Nothing works. No lights, no ignition nothing.

Is it possible that I have burnt out my ignition switch possibly and it is not relaying the power to everything else.

Please help, it has been 1.5 weeks of me trying to figure this out.

Thanks,

[Billy Ricks]

Make sure the fuses are making good contact. If they are okay I would suspect the ignition switch. They aren't hard to disassemble. The guts are on the bottom of the switch. You can usually remove just one screw on the bottom of the switch to get to the guts.

[Anonymous]

See if you have 12V on the primary side of the fuse before you do anything else.

[80gs1000e]

Did the bike run before and now suddenly is dead in the water? What's the history with your bike?

I would try and bypass that ignition switch or take it out/apart and inspect it. Go from there. Any traumatic events with the bike like falling over or getting mashed up? Have you gone over every wire looking for melted or fused connections/wires? On my 1000 and my friends, groups of wires somehow got fused/melted together....probably from rubbing or something crazy. Cut them out, re-soldered all connections....and all's well now.

[Anonymous]

The bike was running fine, no serious problems, just the normal creaks and tweaks a 25 yr old bike will have.

I did do one thing. The throttle control was loose on the handlebar because the bar is smaller in diameter than the stock bar.

I inserted a piece of rubber between the bar and the body of the throttle control, nice tight fit. Didn't notice anything wrong. BUT because I generaly ride with the light on, I left the ignition open so I could move the bike around while working on it, and thus left the light on the entire time. SO the battery was run down.

I charged the battery (it's only a year old and well maintained), and it is at full charge.

After re-installing the battery, NOTHING. No power anywhere. That's why I think there must be something else that I have burnt out or something.

I'll try checking the ignition switch.

Is there something else I should look at? Maybe something other than the fuses?

Thanks

[Billy Ricks]

If you don't have lights or anything it's not in the kill or starter switch. If the fuses are all making good contact and you have a good ground it looks like ignition switch to me. I can't be sure of your wire colors, but chances are you'll find an orange and a red wire going into the ignition switch. Try connecting those two together somehow and see if you get power.

[saaz]

All the power goes through the fuse box and the ignition switch.

Make sure there is power on both sides of the fuses. Mine built up a layer that stopped the main fuse from contacting properly, in fact a few times. The symptom was not power anywhere. Cleaning all the fuse contacts and tightening them solved the problem.

It may sound simple, but make sure the main fuse does work..some can burn out at the ends and not be obvious. Checking voltage can reveal this.

Also simple..make sure the positive and negative battery leads are connected securely. Clean the contacts and do them up tightly. Check for voltages at the battery and the fuse box.

Otherwise, check to make sure that power is going to and back from the ignition switch.

I have a 78 Gs1000 so have been through all this. Never assume anyhting when checking electrical circuits....

[Anonymous]

OK, here's what is going on. NOTHING!!!

I double checked my fuse panel, main fuse checks ok.

I checked the ignition. So far this is what happened:

This is with the ignition at the first stop

- red, to ground = 11 volts
- orange, to ground = 10.8 volts
- white, to grnd = 0
- brown, to grnd = 0

Ignition now at second stop, starting mode:

- red to ground = 11
- red to white = 10.8
- red to brown = 10.8
- orange to grnd = 11
- orange to white = 10.8
- orange to brown = 10.8

I never touched orange to red at anytime because they are both HOT from the battery.


Is there something I have missed.

Maybe it is the fuses?

When checked them (red on the left side and black on the right side of the fuse or clips) I only got a reading from the main fuse. But nothing from the others.

Please help me!

[Einar J Skog]

Hi

Take a lead from + at battery and down to any of the other fuses, and see if you got light or power to the start switch.
I think the problem is between Ignition and the fuses.
The red lead come from main fuse.and the power goes in the orange lead back to the other fuses.
If you have a electrical shema, you should see the logic ??
If you need one I can Mail you one for the 1980 mod.

Einar
GS1000GLx

[Anonymous]

Have you tried resistance readings on the fuses, sometimes a fuse can blow without discoloration. Check you main because that is the only one that can cause all those symptoms. Other than that the only thing I can think of without seeing the bike is you have a short to ground somwhere. Also try jumping your bike using your battery charger. Simply connect the charger with battery hooked up. Turn on your key ans see if your lights come on. If you do not have a halfway decent charger the same thing can be done with a car if you have a 12 volt system. Of course if this does not work it is time to take off your fuel tank and examine your harness. Look for discoloration bubbling in wires and also anywhere that persons have tie wrapped wires anywhere .

[Motorcyclemodeller]

There is one other area that needs attention, it stumped me for a week one time. There is a small ground wire from the rectifier and the fuse block that must be properly grounded or else the characteristics your are having can happen. These wires are attached between the electrical mounting plate and the frame, they are small wires and have poor connectors. Give these a check, also use a continuity tester on the fuses, this will tell you if current is able to pass through.

Hope this helps,

Dr. Dre

[Anonymous]

Fuses = OK, continuity checks ok

Ground wires are OK.

I will try this afternoon to check the continuity of the ignition again, but it seemed ok last time.

Battery is getting another charge. Nothing is winding it down, just want peak charge for diagnostic work.

IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE I SHOULD CHECK??????

Should I check the left control switch, is it possible that because the lights were left on that the internals of the switch could fail? I doubt it bu maybe I am wrong.

[Motorcyclemodeller]

You can try jumping the two terminals on the starter solenoid with a screwdriver, while the key is turned on. If the starter engages, then your battery is good but the small positive wire that goes to the main wiring harness from the + on the battery is not sending the power to the harness. You will have so trace it and see where the power ends.

If nothing happens;

Bad ground, - battery lead
Battery is dead
Battery cables and connections are fried

Hope this helps

Keep us posted

Andre N. Bouchere

[Anonymous]

OK, I just had a similar problem.. Here's my 2 cents worth from what I have learned. I just hope it helps some.


All of my fuses were checking out ok, and the battery was fine, but when I push the button nothing. No lights, no signs of life whatsoever.

I started with the starting relay. There are 3 terminals on there. One says battery one says motor, and there is a small one that connects to the start button. Take a screwdriver and connect the big two terminals for a second. (you will find the starting relay by removing left side cover and following red line from the battery. The first thing it hits should be the relay).

If the bike cranks over, your problem is the third terminal starting button. Put the voltmetar on this third terminal and the ground, anywhere on the bike, and try starting the bike. If you get 12v there your relay is bad, and needs to be replaced, if there is no 12v there then your wiring is at fault.

Under the headlight is the bundle of all wire connections there are two wires going to the left hand lever- clutch. open those 2 connections. put the voltmeter to it on the continuity and check for the sound when you pull the lever in.

Also check any of those white multiple connections. This was my problem. I just had to rewire one of thos e and it was ll good.

Also take apart the start switch and file the two rund connections gently. be carefull there is a spring there that will pop and you dont want to lose it.

Good luck man

[Anonymous]

Thanks

OK we got it fixed.

After an extensive afternoon of diagnosis on the electrical system we found that my wires are just plain old and abused. There were some bad spots in the right controls, left controls, and in the fuse panel.

All I did was spend a day or so going around the bike cleaning contacts, removing cob-webs, and sprucing up the wires and related harness'.

We found that what cured my problem was separating the wires in the right control, shrink wrapping them individually, and the re-soldering them to the switches. After that no hot fuses, no problems anywhere.

In fact the bike is acting better now then it ever did since I've owned it.

Thanks everyone for your help, and especially motorcyclemodeller for coming down to do the diagnostics (what sweet ride he has, check out his website).

Thanks,

The General