Author |
Message |
Magus10112
| Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2014 - 09:46 am: |
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Hey all, hope you're having a lovely summer out riding your thumpers. I was but starting yesterday I'm having some strange electrical problems that are hindering both my ability to get to work on time as well as feel confident and confident and comfortable on the beast. Yesterday I got home from work around 5:30pm. Bike was riding fine. Around 8:15 a friend invites me out for dinner so I go outside and grab the bike. Key in, switch to on, dash lights on, press starter, one click and everything on the bike shuts off. No more clicks, no lights, no dash, no nothing. Open up seat, check fuses and battery terminals for corrosion or anything else. Everything looks normal. Push on all the fuses with no problems and think about how I'm going to explain to this lovely lady why I'm going to be late for dinner, and I decide to try the bike again one last time. Lights come on, I press starter, bike fires up immediately. I let the bike idle for about 5 mins, then took off on the 15 min drive to dinner. No problems. After dinner I had the same problems as above. Lights on, click, everything dies. Turn the switch from on to off, power doesn't come back on. Follow the same steps I did earlier with the battery/fuses. It starts a few minutes later with no problems. Wonderful. Ride home, park. Wake up this morning to go to work, and the bike starts immediately. Awesome! Except about a minute and a half down the rode the power cuts out and the bike starts chopping, limiting my power and basically being useless. I pull to the side, shut the bike off, and try to restart it. Power instantly dies again. Yaddah yaddah, get the bike started again. Driving down the road and shift into fourth gear. Mind you, I'd been driving for about 5 mins at this point, and the bike had been idling for ~10 before that. Shift into fourth gear, and I lose all power for a few seconds, then power comes back. At this point I know I need to do something, but I'm going to bring the battery in and have it checked for a dead cell or something. I've got a multimeter available at work, too, and reading a few of these posts has made me think about checking the engine to ground and battery to ground just in case. Does anyone else have any thoughts? |
Gearheaderiko
| Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2014 - 09:54 am: |
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That's where I'd start too. Load test the battery because a bad battery can show good on a meter, but break under load. Check all the battery cables, not just ground. And give them a good tug. But you're starting exactly where I would be. |
Magus10112
| Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2014 - 10:05 am: |
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Thanks for the quick response gearhead. That makes me feel a little more confident. |
Magus10112
| Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2014 - 12:15 pm: |
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I've uploaded a video to dropbox. This video includes me testing the battery, at load, and actually shows the problem (I tried to start the bike and lost power). Let me know what you all think. This was done after I pulled on the battery cables and ensured everything was plugged in tightly. https://www.dropbox.com/s/mnr2bdqka6uccrt/20140716 _120426.mp4 Thanks again for any help you can provide. |
Gearheaderiko
| Posted on Thursday, July 17, 2014 - 06:39 am: |
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I apologize, but I probably won't be able to listen until next week. An iPhone just doesn't cut it for me when it comes to videos. I have had batteries come and go intermittently, so I can't rule it out completely. |
Ezblast
| Posted on Thursday, July 17, 2014 - 10:34 pm: |
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Clutch in and kickstand up - then try. EZ |
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