Loss of electrical issue

[Seaking]

now this was scary this morning.. I had been away visiting family yesterday and had to leave the bike out in the heavy rains overnight.. because I have a dodgy ignition key slot cover, I put electrical tape over the hole where the key goes in to prevent it from flooding..

 

This morning, I go to the bike and go to start it:

Key goes in, turn key, electricals come on as normal and with the bike in neutral, I hit the starter and the engine turns once to what feels like to a full compression then stops.. Another press of the starter button and the bike starts normally, runs normally and all is good. That 'stop at compression' thing happens every once in a while, not sure what causes it or what it means but it doesn't seem to cause any harm..

 

10 minutes later I'm leaving and pull into a gas station for a fill up.. This time when I go to start the bike, I get that odd 'cranking over to full compression stop' but now all the electricals are out.. ooops!!

 

Turn the key full to the right, red switch ON, no headlight, no radio, no instrumentation, nothing.. wow, its like the battery got disconnected.. no smell of arching or burnt wires, check the ignition fuse and it's good. huh? Nothing..

 

I move the bike out of the way of the pumps and try it again.. nothing.. nothing. No juice.. ouch.. I'm 500 km away from home and prolly 5000 kms from a decent Yamaha dealership that could help me out..

 

I cycle the kick stand a few times, remembering something in an article about this.. not sure though.. I wait 10 minutes while chatting with someone about how nice my 'harley' looks etc.. huh..

 

And then the bike starts as if nothing was wrong.. Mind you, the radio has to have it's channels reset and the trip odo went to full odo as if the bike had it's battery disconnected. So odd! The bike ran well and well, I decided I had better head for home.

 

Luckily for me I had a spare key on the bike so when I had to do fuel stops, I left the ignition "on" with the key but killed the engine with the red switch, used the spare key to open the gas cap.. I was leery of wanting to turn off the ignition switch with the key in case I could no longer get juice through the system again like it did earlier this morning.

 

When I got home, I shut the bike off via key and turned it back on.. every thing is back to normal as if nothing wrong ever happened this morning.. I've been back out several times this evening to see if I could duplicate the error but nothing.. it's all good.. (knock on wood)..

 

So the question is "what happened this morning" ?? Will it happen again? I'm worried this is going to develop into an intermittent problem like my fuel pump did to me last summer.. it would fail every so often but never enough to be properly diagnosed until it finally died the big death..

 

I'm thinking I will soon need to replace the whole ignition switch (where the key goes in) since the spring loaded slot cover doesn't slide over anymore..

 

Does anyone have any ideas or comments on what happened or what I should do?

 

$136 for a new switch..

[dingy]

Since your radio presets were lost, it would seem your problem is in the battery connections.

 

The radio has a non-switched 12v positive feed going to it. This does not go through the ignition switch.

 

The purpose of this circuit is to retain the radio memory.

 

Gary

[eusa1]

It is not the ignition switch.

as stated above, if it were the switch, you would have retained radio and odo memory.

 

2 things it could be: dirty battery connection "my vote"

or the fuse located in the starter relay box= the one located inside the black plastic cover behind the left passenger floorboard kickplate" it gets corroded" because the rear wheel throws water all over it when you ride in the rain.....what a great plan by yamaha..

 

mike.

[RedRider]

One other item to check - There are a series of connectors under the gas tank. I had a similar occurance while stopped for gas in Chicago. Everything was dead. Moved the bike, cycled the ignition switch, etc. - nothing. Wait a while and 'poff' - all worked. Had to reset the radio buttons IIRC. Got to my folks house and pulled the tank. There was a smoked connector in the wiring under the tank. Replaced the connector with a couple of spade terminals and have driven 20,000+ miles with it.

 

To be fair, I may have had to reset the radio buttons after the repair since I disconnected the battery to work on the wiring. However, I am pretty sure the button settings were lost after the stop in Chicago.

 

Good luck and let us know what you find.

 

RR

[Seaking]

Ahh very interesting all of this.. I'll pull the seat and have a boo under there at the battery and see what's what.. I suspected water had a lot to do with the initial problem as the bike got a good drenching sitting in the driveway during the rain, but the next morning the roads were dry and it was sunny out..

 

Thanks guys

[flb_78]

your battery is going on 5 years old.

[LilBeaver]

I posted about symptoms basically identical to this a few weeks ago - I couldn't find any info on it, but, I guess I wasn't the only one.

 

I won't repeat what has already been said but what I found was:

1) Since trip was reset, radio reset, etc - loss of power to all of bike = not the common ignition switch problem

 

2) MY issue was loose connection where the main fuse and battery cables connect. While I was at it, I cleaned the main fuse connector - but one of those little screws were loose and I confirmed it by wiggling it with the key in the ON position and I was able to duplicate the symptoms. One of the battery terminal screws were loose as well - but wiggling that did not cause any change in the electrical power to the bike - so it was def. down by the main fuse.

 

Hope that helps.

[Seaking]

Thanks Beav, I remember that posting.. but I couldn't jog my memory as to what it was etc.. I'll have a look at those items tomorrow..

 

Sweeet

[LilBeaver]

Thanks Beav, I remember that posting.. but I couldn't jog my memory as to what it was etc.. I'll have a look at those items tomorrow..

 

Sweeet

 

Hopefully whatever you find it'll be obvious when you see it so it will be CONCLUSIVE. Intermittent electrical problems are the worst... well, intermittent ANY problems are never any fun...

 

To be quite honest with you, I have been so freaking busy with work I simply do not remember how comprehensive I was with that posting and after I posted on this thread I started to wonder if I had actually posted it or just THOUGHT about posting my problem and solution...

 

Anyhoot, :080402gudl_prv:

[BradT]

136 bucks for the switch you should buy anyway, I paid almost 200 and got a good deal.

 

Unless they have come down in price, they must have the wrong switch.

 

Brad

[Seaking]

Hi guys, I got the problem sorted out today and a many thanks to those with many great recommended troubleshooting..

 

As some suspected, it was the battery connection that was loose.. And not by much!

 

I took the bike out yesterday and today and had the problem duplicate itself a couple of times.. Nice hot dry day and yep, the bike would balk out on a start... So last night I took a lot of panels off and checked more carefully for arcing, burnt wires, anything that might suggest something being amiss.. Wasn't till I was putting the seat back on that I gave the battery leads one more tug and voila.. one of the cables was loose enough to swing it side to side.. You wouldn't think it would cause so much trouble and it only took a little minute about of turn on the screw driver to seat the screw back down tight.

 

Today, again a nice day, more humid.. and not one balked start or hiccup. Impressive.. So if this doesn't happen again, I will have to say it was that slightly loose wire.

 

And a BONUS is that because I was hunting down for loose or broken stuff on the bike, I did find a major cause to hand buzz and was able to fix that as well..

 

Goes to show that a once in a while fine tooth combing does go a loooong way lol My Passenger floorboards are very loose in their mounts for some reason and by jamming a small piece of wood at the pivot point secures them enough to smooth out a lot of the left over vibes on the bike.. I'll have to find a way how to secure them up better.. Or take them off and stuff them in the bags.. (I ride solo so much)