Electrical issues

[nico]

Hi all!
I'm back with my electrical issues. The problem I had was that I'd be riding and then the bike would just die on me.

The last time I rode the bike, I was riding at about 50mph, came to a light slowing down and the bike just died. I noticed 2 burnt wires on the stator wire plug to the rectifier. I did a road side repair with some electrical connectors, got a jump and rode the bike toward home (about 10 minutes) only to have the bike die again 1/2 mile from home. Waved someone down, got another jump but the battery would not charge...with the ignition on the bike was electrically stone-dead...not even a dim oil level light.

So, I tried following instructions on youtube and looking up electrical testing (and I am NOT good electrically whatsoever) and I ended up just replacing the battery and the rectifier...took the bike for a spin and the same thing happened where the bike died and would not charge....more walking home.

I purchased a stator coil, and installed it this past weekend. Jumped the bike with my car, it idled fine but upon killing the ignition all i'd get was the starter relay buzzing.

Jumped it again, went for a ride (with a friend following in the car). Rode about 5 minutes and the bike died again...

Went to jump it and the lights were really dim (the oil warning light on the speedo/tach plate), hit the start button and it just buzzed again. Was baffeled...pulled the jumper cables off...tugged on a few wires to see if there were any loose connections...all seemed fine.  Clipped the jumper cables on again and full lighting on the oil level warning light, hit the starter button and it turned right over and was able to get home.

I am at a bit of a dead end here...can someone walk me through what I need to do to get this thing running? I am not very good when it comes to electrical systems, though....and I need to store it for the winter before the snow comes!

Thanks a lot for your help in advance guys!

[lucas]

Your battery might be toast at this point, it's probably not the cause of your problems but you should test your battery, replace it if it is bad, and then use a battery tender to keep it charged.  You don't want to have a flakey battery around while you are trying to diagnose electrical gremlins, you need to know you have a reliable voltage source.

It is possible that your rectifier needs to be replaced.  Here are instructions to inspect your charging system:
http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=38480.0

[nico]

How did I not find this earlier...

That is exactly what I was looking for and I will follow that exactly and report back with my findings!

Thank you!

[tzzzel]

As someone who had a bunch of electric problems when I got my GS about 1 year and 2 months ago, let me chime in.

It's possible you may have a dying regulator/rectifier . The regulator, should be on the right rear side of your bike, behind the fairing, allows the battery to charge while riding. If it's dead, you'll basically start off at full voltage and your bike will die when your voltage gets low (and there's no charging, cause the regulator is dead). Easy way to test your regulator: get a multimeter. Put the ends on your battery. Start the bike and rev it to around 4.5k. You should see your multimeter read 13-14 volts, which is the voltage range for charging. If it's not, then get a rectifier (link below)

If your other lights are dim or dying, that might mean a short somewhere. When your battery voltage gets low enough, the bike will die and not turn over, but should have enough juice to crank and show lights. If your battery is absolutely dead, that means the battery was drained hard by a short somewhere. I had the same issue earlier this year. It was caused by a faulty HID kit. Removed the HID kit and that solved the shorting issue.

In the meantime, until you have done proper testing, DONT TAKE THE BIKE OUT! Getting stranded on a bike sucks. Also, you should buy a trickle charger http://ASIN.cc/jMt1f. $25 and you just keep trying, charging, trying, charging till you fix it up.

http://ASIN.cc/QkCRY0 (gs500 rectifier)