TOPIC:

Hi All,
82 550 LTD. Just got my new motor into the bike, got about 30 miles on it and so far so good. I was putzin around last night with it and i turned the key on (battery is ok, but is 4 years old) and when I hit the starter, everything went black. Even the nuetral light and the speedo/tach lights. Dead. I wiggled the battery connections, the key, everything. I shut the key off, checked mine fuses, they were fine. I turned the key and it came back to life. I hit the starter and she popped off. I repeated this a few more times and got it to go black 1 or 2 more times, then it stopped doing it. The battery and motor were cool. Makes me think either the starter/solenoid are acting up, the battery is starting to internally short...or I have a lose connection, but everything looked fine and I just took it for a good spin 2 nights ago.

Any ideas? I'd think if I had a ground issue somewhere, I'd have some blown fuses, or hot/melted wires.

Measure the batt voltage when you hit the starter. If it is dropping out, it means either:

1) the battery is bad

2) something is drawing way too much current like a bad starter.

Four year old battery? I'd bet it's that one.

You may want to clean the battery cable connections really well at both ends and re-tighten them then see if the problem persists. Ed

I don't think it's the battery alone, although that should get replaced. Like Ed said check & clean battery connections, but I think you're in the ballpark with the battery internally shorting given it's age (they usually wear out between 3 and 7 years). You might just want to start out by having the battery tested at autozone or wherever's available in your area. Of course like you said it's not doing it everytime so they still may test the battery and tell you it's okay, when in fact it's bad. About 7 years ago I went through I think it was 4 or 5 different tests on a battery until it was found to be defective.


I really thought this thread was about drinking though.

650ed wrote: You may want to clean the battery cable connections really well at both ends and re-tighten them then see if the problem persists. Ed

Do this, and double check all connections from the battery and the starter solenoid. If you have a loose +ve connection or ground connection, when you hit the starter you're trying to drain ~80 amps though that loose connection, and it will spark and cause a bit of corrosion, and break the connection until you wiggle it again.

My bet would be the battery ground. Wait until night time and switch off all the lights. Check that everything else has power (neutral, tach, speedo etc) and while looking at the location of the battery connections, hit the start button. If it's loose or a bad connection, it will spark and be very obvious in the dark.

Check the ignition switch connections - the poor solder they used back then will vibrate loose and make an intermittent connection.

OK - I will take a look at all these.

I'm pretty confident in my connections at the battery - I just cleaned them a few weeks ago. NOW, where the battery grounds to the block may be an issue - I just realized that I never cleaned that connection up, and I had painted the motor when it was out, so maybe thats my issue. I doubt the starter button, because it's never been an issue and I am running the wiredgeorge mod - but I can hear the relay click, and when it was DEAD, the relay wasn't clicking - so either my battery has an intermittent short (I thought they usually boil and bubble when the short), or I have a loose connection.

If the starter is going to hell, can that cause this? I'd think by drawing that many amps something would smoke or at least get hot. Also, is there a solenoid for the starter? I was wondering if that was hanging up, but then again the starter should be spinning and I would still have accessory power....

Crappy part about this issue is its intermittent - so you know how this will go, it won't do it so I can't troubleshoot it, until I'm away from home, on the way somewhere important, running late, no cell phone reception and most likely a terrible rain storm on the way and it'll cut out on me! haha.

Sounds to me very much like a battery or cabling issue, either to the main ground on the rear top crankcase or battery-solenoid relay-starter motor on the +ve side. If you search here there are some easy diagnostics for your battery and starter motor. The starter motors are usually very reliable on these.

Battery. They can go bad in many ways, this is one of them. Try it withe charger connected. Does it go dim and recover?
Steve

Faulty/broken connection at the main ignition switch would be at the top of my list, but the other possibilities would be on the list as well.

I would install a little led setup for 12v that can be switched on and off and piggyback to the white wire going to the ignition switch. If the bike goes dead, switch on the led and you will know if the switch has power on the white wire. The idea is to split the wiring into before and after the ignition switch. If the LED works, the problem is the switch (assuming the entire bike is truly dead, meaning tail, brake, headlight, markers, neutral etc are all dead).

Lou, if the switch is the problem, wouldn't I still have accessory power though?

apbling wrote: Lou, if the switch is the problem, wouldn't I still have accessory power though?

I didn't see any mention of accessories. You are using the accessory pigtails for something?

Yes they are on separate fuses going directly to the battery, at least on the A model diagram I'm using. So the accessories should have stayed on.

If you are calling the gauge lights and neutral lights accessories... they will die with everything else if the main power is faulty at the ignition switch.