emergency... bike not starting, date in evening

[niteshade]

um... gonna take a girl out on a ride, but the baby GS has died, so I'm about to lose serious cool points.

I replaced my tach/speedo console... bike worked fine afterwards.  Rode it to a friend's house.  Then, later, after the party was over, I turned the key, the lights came on, I hit the starter button, and everything went immediately dead.  All lights, horn, everything electrical.  Turning the key does nothing.

I checked the fuse, and it's intact.

Any ideas?  To my eyes, all the wires behind the headlight look OK, which is where I had to attach the dash electricals.  Are there any particular connections which are known to cause such a phenomenon?

Thanks... any help would be appreciated.  Quickly.

[yamahonkawazuki]

loose battery contact? loose connection within the headlight bucket?

[ohgood]

hope she picked you up in her benzo

my first thought was your ground, or terminals. while you're pulling everything apart like mad, slob the connections with vaseline. it keeps the water out fer future reference

[beRto]

How old is the battery? Can you bump start or jump start the bike?

Maybe it's as simple as a new battery.

[scottpA_GS]

 Also, be sure you checked the MAIN fuse and not the spare  You should meter it out to be sure its not bad. just looking sometimes doesn't cut it.

This post from Kerry might help:

What Pkaaso said:

It's behind little red door marked FUSE if i remember correctly.  The one in the rubber feels like it is in a socket but it's not.

Maybe this picture will lend a little more clarity:


The "active" fuse is under the red cover marked FUSE 20A.  The dark yellow spare fuse is pushed into the rubber "retainer" on the right end of the same (starter relay) assembly.

But if you did blow the fuse. There is prob. some more underlying problem up front where you worked on the gauges. 

[niteshade]

scott, I don't have a meter!  maybe it will be a good investment in the future.
yamahonkawazuki, good call... I'll check those out.
yeah, I pulled the fuse from behind the little red door.  boy, suzuki sure could have put the fuse box in a more accessible place...

what could be wrong with the ground/terminals? 

I obviously don't have time for a pure scientific eliminative "search and destroy" method here... so I was wondering if this has ever happened to anyone else.

correct me if i'm wrong here, but:
1. if the fuse is intact, it means there's not a short, because a short would have blown the fuse instead of just cutting out.
2. if the fuse is intact, it means the system wasn't overloaded by excess current, but instead must have a loose connection somewhere.
3. it's not the battery, because a battery wouldn't immediately lose all current at once (I would at least see a DIM headlight, for example).
4. likely (but not necessarily), the problem lies behind the headlight, because that's where I was monkeying.

now here's where I'm less sure:
1. the problem is along the main wires, near the starter, because it's not just one thing wrong (like the horn), but rather the whole system
2. the problem likely is a loose connection, because I can't think of what else it could be.

[ben2go]

Did you turn the key all the way back to the park position?The rear light comes on and causes the battery to die.This is a frequent cause of a dead battery.

[surf.seppo]

I want to hear the rest of this story. Did you make the date? Was she impressed by the GS? It's a gorgeous day up here for riding; hope you had fun.

[niteshade]

cool points flew away like doves in the dawn.  GS did not get operational.  I don't know what the problem is.  Get out the tools again today when I get home.

[surf.seppo]

That's a tragedy, mate. I was hoping for an epic ending with you being the knight in shining armor, figuring out a brilliant problem at the last moment, sliding hockey pucks beneath your knees through the twisties to pick up the girl, and whisking her off her feet. I'd buy you a pint of consolation if you were in the area. Better luck next time. 

(Actually had similar thing almost happen to me today. Luckily, had just ran out of gas about a half mile from station. I don't understand my petcock at all)

[bobthebiker]

Another thing to look at, depending on how old your GS is, would be your battery cables.  if one of them is bad, it will do this as well.  I had to learn that about my 83 Ford Ranger the hard way.

jiggle them a little and see if your lights come on.  and while you're at it get a decent multimeter and learn how to test connections.  not raggin on ya, just trying to offer some helpful advice.

[ben2go]

cool points flew away like doves in the dawn.  GS did not get operational.  I don't know what the problem is.  Get out the tools again today when I get home.

Sorry to hear that.Hope it's something simple.Keep us posted.Someone can prolly help you out.

That's a tragedy, mate. I was hoping for an epic ending with you being the knight in shining armor, figuring out a brilliant problem at the last moment, sliding hockey pucks beneath your knees through the twisties to pick up the girl, and whisking her off her feet. I'd buy you a pint of consolation if you were in the area. Better luck next time. 

(Actually had similar thing almost happen to me today. Luckily, had just ran out of gas about a half mile from station. I don't understand my petcock at all)

What's the petcock problem?Have you check hose routing?Has it been modified to not use vacuum?If so ON=ON,PRIme becomes REServe,and REServe becomes OFF.

Hose routing diagram.
http://cgi.stanford.edu/~sanjayd/gs500/Main/HoseRouting

Conveting to nonvacuum operation.
http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=19363.0

Cheap nonvacuum replacement.
http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=36958.0

That's a tragedy, mate. I was hoping for an epic ending with you being the knight in shining armor, figuring out a brilliant problem at the last moment, sliding hockey pucks beneath your knees through the twisties to pick up the girl, and whisking her off her feet. I'd buy you a pint of consolation if you were in the area. Better luck next time. 

(Actually had similar thing almost happen to me today. Luckily, had just ran out of gas about a half mile from station. I don't understand my petcock at all)

This would've been a sweet night.Can't win them all.

Another thing to look at, depending on how old your GS is, would be your battery cables.  if one of them is bad, it will do this as well.  I had to learn that about my 83 Ford Ranger the hard way.

jiggle them a little and see if your lights come on.  and while you're at it get a decent multimeter and learn how to test connections.  not raggin on ya, just trying to offer some helpful advice.

I feel your pain with the Ranger cables.Had an 89 and currently have an 01.Dang cables are crap.MC cables don't usually have this problem, unless they sit in the elements or ridden frequently in the rain.It's still good practice to check them.I use 1 table spoon of baking soda to 1 cup warm water to clean my battery,any corrosion from it,and the cable terminals.Then rinse with cool water.I use dielectric grease to protect my terminals and plugs.

[sledge]

The fact everything is dead makes me think its a supply problem and I suggest following this procedure......
There are several multi-plug connectors loctated in the bowl, roughly the area you have been working in which could have been disturbed. Look for the one with 4 wires, red, orange, grey and brown. The red is a permanent live feed straight from the battery. Firstly check the terminals in the plug are clean and tight and the 2 halves are firmly held together, then check there is 12 volts on the red wire before it goes into the ignition switch, this will prove voltage is reaching the switch. Then turn the switch on and check there is 12 volts on the orange wire, this proves voltage is passing through one set of the switch contacts. Then disconnect the battery and check for a circuit between the grey and brown with the switch on, this will prove the other set of contacts....try those tests firsts.

[niteshade]

thanks bob, ben & sledge!  great advice in here.  I'll keep you posted... hopefully have some time tomorrow.  Gotta get a meter first, of course.  Any recommendations on quality inexpensive meters?

btw, it's a stock '95 bike, everything OEM.

surf, I think you should write for the movies!  I don't think we're super compatible anyways... but she's hot, intelligent, and she travels a lot; not a bad thing to have friends like that, right? 

[cd]

did you try jump starting it chief ?.....then youll know if its your battery or not. thats where id start. 

[spc]

I would start with doing what sledge said.  The man is an engineer or some such tom-foolery
Seriously, sledge is one of the great resources on this forum for technical issues and is rarely wrong.

[ben2go]

I use a friends Fluke multimeter.It's great but very expensive.I tried a cheap $15 one and it was crap.

[niteshade]

ok, ordered a multimeter:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000EVYGZA
not too expensive, but the price is right, and the reviews weren't bad.  Hopefully I'll only have to use it once!

I'll mess with it later this week and hopefully have the thing running this weekend.  crossed fingers.

[beRto]

I use a friends Fluke multimeter.It's great but very expensive.I tried a cheap $15 one and it was crap.

What was it that made the cheaper multimeter less useful?

[cd]

you dont need to be an engineer to tell if its the battery or not by using another powersource. by your logic you have just disqualified yourself to give advice and recommendations on this topic. seriously, the battery could be completely dead, ive done it plenty. jump start it, if the bike cranks or clicks, and does NOTHING with just your battery alone, then you killed your battery, and should just jump the bike and run it around with a set of cables in your back pack, and park on hills until it comes back to life. if its NOT the battery, well then you have more fishing to do. and you dont need a meter or a jump start to test the battery either, you could just hook up a small light bulb to each terminal, low voltage, if it lights, you have power. i just prefer to jump start shaZam!. could also be as simple as your ignition switch. ive had that happen on bikes too