Author |
Message |
Mackdaddy
| Posted on Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - 01:49 pm: |
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I was riding yesterday on a highway at around 75 mph and after passing a truck I reduced the speed, downshifted and I heard the engine back fire twice and then it started to hesitate, almost stalled, I thought it was running out of gas, so I changed to the reserve, but the problem continued, I pulled out and the engine continued running but when I twisted the throttle, it would hesitate and not accelerate. The tach needle went all the way up several times but the engine was at idle, then the engine stalled and there was no way to bring it back to life. With the switch in the ON position, headlamp and idiot lights are off, so It seems to be an electrical problem, but battery is fine and all fuses seem to be OK. I had been riding for 4 hours and the bike felt fine and strong all the time. Has anyone experienced some thing like this? |
Sparky
| Posted on Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - 03:05 pm: |
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Yes indeed! It sounds like the classic sidestand switch failure syndrome. What happens is the 12 VDC ignition current passes through the normally closed sidestand switch contacts when the sidestand is up. Vibration and age conspire to deteriorate the contacts until misfires, backfires and stalling start to occur. The fix is to replace the switch or, if you want to live dangerously, bypass the switch by jumpering the 2 wires in the harness at the plug that connects to the switch. But test the switch first just to make sure that is the culprit. Disconnect the plug from the switch and jumper the 2 pins together temporarily. If it is not the switch, the problem could be a loose wire to the coil or a few other things that we'll mention once you determine that the SS switch is the problem or not. |
Gunslinger
| Posted on Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - 03:20 pm: |
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I had similar problems with my 2000 M2. Mine was a bad cam position sensor, but I still had power to the headlight. Sounds like your keyswitch may have a loose connection. Sparky? |
M2nc
| Posted on Thursday, May 03, 2007 - 12:05 am: |
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Had the same thing, it was the kick stand safety switch. The easiest way to tell if it is the safety switch is... 1. Start the bike with the Clutch in. 2. Put the bike in gear and try to take off. If the bike runs fine, then starts backfiring when you try to take off, its the safety switch. |
M2nc
| Posted on Thursday, May 03, 2007 - 12:08 am: |
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I also had the voltage regulator left unplug after a service. The bike ran fine at first but then the gage started jumping, it died, and then the bike started to backfire if I tried to get on it. Found the problem, plugged the voltage regulator in and the bike ran fine. |
Mackdaddy
| Posted on Friday, May 04, 2007 - 04:46 pm: |
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Guys, Thanks for the hints, I checked them and everything seems to be fine, I have yet to check the voltage regulator. I took the bike to a repair shop and the guy there told me that my battery is dead and is not holding a charge, so I have to replace it, but I still wonder why a perfectly good battery has gone bad overnight, I always hook it to my battery tender and even after several short trips starting the bike again and again, it started just fine. I don't want to buy a battery and then in a couple of weeks find that something else its ruining it. Any ideas? Thanks. Mack |
Sparky
| Posted on Saturday, May 05, 2007 - 02:22 pm: |
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I missed the part about the ignition switch being on and the headlight & idiot lights are off. That does sound like a dead battery. So getting a new battery is a step in the right direction. Probably masking the condition was hooking it up to the Tender every night which would put enough charge into the battery for the next days ride. You need to check out the charging system. It could be something as simple as the voltage regulator coming unplugged or a bad stator or bad VR. If you have a multimeter there are checks you can do and I'm pretty sure they are all explained in the Knowledge Vault in the BadWeb. Or if you trust the repair shop to do this, that's the ticket. |
M2nc
| Posted on Sunday, May 06, 2007 - 11:08 am: |
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Stator or Voltage regulator would be my guess. My CB750 would kill batteries pretty quick. In 24,000 miles I replaced it twice. It never died on me, just would not start off the switch. |
Mackdaddy
| Posted on Thursday, May 10, 2007 - 02:07 pm: |
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Shop guy says that it was only a battery gone bad, so I bought a Yuasa battery and now the bike is up and running, I hope it's just that and not something else that's ruining the battery and I end up pushing the bike on the side of the road again in my next ride. I'll let you know. Mack |
Sparky
| Posted on Thursday, May 10, 2007 - 03:03 pm: |
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Good for you, you're on the road again. Maybe you should have the shop (or you can do it) put a voltmeter on the battery and see if the voltage rises while revving at about 2 grand. It should be up around 14 VDC or greater. There is another test that can determine if something is draining the battery when the bike is shut off. Disconnect the negative battery cable and put a DVOM set up to read milliamps between the battery post and the negative cable. It should probably read zero (others chime in if this is not correct) which means no drain current. With these two tests, you can ride with peace of mind. Don't forget to Tender it like you've been doing when you put it away. Cheers! |
Cyclonemick
| Posted on Tuesday, May 15, 2007 - 01:24 pm: |
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How do you jumper the two pins together at the switch with out damaging them? |
Cyclonemick
| Posted on Tuesday, May 15, 2007 - 01:28 pm: |
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Also< If you were to splice the wires together do you cut the ones on the harness side of the white plug or the switch side of the plug?? I might have a similar problem? I'm going to buy a multimeter this weekend but untill then I'm just looking for suggestions. |
Tim
| Posted on Tuesday, May 15, 2007 - 09:09 pm: |
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I would suggest splicing together on the switch side, as you have the option of going to a new switch if desired. |
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