GStwin.com GS500 Message Forum

Ok GS Gods, here's a good one for you.  

I have had a very strange day.  Rode my bike 50 miles this morning from home in Germantown to Annapolis.  Left Annapolis at about 1:30 to head back to the office in Bethesda.  Filled up the tank and hit the road.  I got onto 50 West (those of you around here know what I'm talking about) and was merrily cruising along in the right hand lane at about ~70 mph.  

Then I hear a noise, sorta a clink or twink or boink or something, not too loud, just a single noise.  I lose power completely.  I coast off to the shoulder, shift down to neutral, and shut her off when I get stopped.  

I get off the bike, and what do I see?  The end of my ignition rotor (the hex head part) poking through the metal sticker Suzuki logo thing.  It's sticking out about 1/4".  

From my initial inspection, it appears that it was spinning when it went through the cover, as the edge of the rotor is somewhat rounded, and made a fairly clean cut through the logo thing.  The bike has no other apparent problems.  

Anybody have anything like this happen before?  I'm hoping it's just some wacky problem where the rotor got loose and worked it's way off, rather than some catastrophic crankshaft movement or something.  

I haven't gotten the ignition cover off yet to see what it looks like inside.  I suppose that should be my first step  :thumb:

The "cool" part about this issue was that a dude in a small pickup (with a Vanson Leather sticker on the back window) pulled over, about 40 minutes after I'd called for a tow, and asked if I needed some help.  I showed him what had happened, he looked at it, asked where I was headed.  I said to Germantown.  He said "well that's going to be an expensive tow".  So I said I had relatives in Crofton, just minutes from where I broke down.  He says "I live in Crofton too, let's load this thing up and I'll take you there".   So we lift the bike into the back, tie it down, and take it to my dad's place.  Where I'm sitting now, wondering where in the hell he keeps his socket set!

The guy was named Steve, just helping out a fellow motorcyclist.  Thanks Steve!

jeff

well it sounds like either the bolt broke or came loose, pull the cover and see how bad it is, but that whould defenatly cause the bike to "loose power"

in the past two weeks, the bolt to my petcock fell out... my tach cable mysteriously unscrewed itself and a header bolt broke.  Hopefully yours didn't break, and thank god for steve.  Sorry i don't have any advice for you... but i'm getting wiser each day.  Hope everything works out for you real soon.

That bastard got your tach cable too huh....

Mine was loose enough to come out when i was washing the bike... kinda scared me for a second.

Yea you have bolts comming loose ... Mine are so tight ... they break when I attempt to unbolt it ... :x ... I guess its better than losing your ignition rotor while running 70 clicks 50 miles from home ...
Look at it, and if it looks like it came off ... swap your rotor for one that's not chewed up ...
Cool.
Srinath.

Your tach has a cable? I only got a cable for my speedo. Is that right? or am i wrong

Quote from: stefman722Your tach has a cable? I only got a cable for my speedo. Is that right? or am i wrong

I see on the 04 wiring diagram that there are three wires (in additiion to the light bulb wires) at the tacho., battery, ground and a wire from the igniter.  Must be an electronic tacho.

:cheers:

Quote from: gazingwaThat bastard got your tach cable too huh....

Mine was loose enough to come out when i was washing the bike... kinda scared me for a second.

the tacho monster gets me all the time.  its become a regular thing for me to check it.

Quote from: John BatesI see on the 04 wiring diagram... Must be an electronic tacho.

I noticed the same thing. The ignitor is **very** different starting on the US 04 bike. Also note that the signal gen is different running to the ignitor. The ignitor obtains input from the carb area for throttle position sensing and the new style gear position indicator. That's the gear indicator that must be similar to the GSX part.

Well after farting around at my dad's house looking for tools, I finally got a couple sockets from a neighbor.  Opened up the cover and found that the bolt that holds the rotor in had worked itself completely loose, and the rotor had come off as well.  Fortunately, nothing was damaged and I was able to reassemble it and get the bike running again.  I rode it home without any problems.  I'm going to get some locktite to put on that bolt to keep it from happening again!  

Now I just need a new cover.  wonder if there are any of those carbon fiber ones left...

jeff

I mostly ride cruisers, but I use loc-tite on just about everything..

V-twins vibrate themselves apart ...

You guys might need to start doing that too..

Quote from: John Bates

Quote from: stefman722Your tach has a cable? I only got a cable for my speedo. Is that right? or am i wrong

I see on the 04 wiring diagram that there are three wires (in additiion to the light bulb wires) at the tacho., battery, ground and a wire from the igniter.  Must be an electronic tacho.

:cheers:

Can you tell me which wire is from the igniter? I am hooking up my electric tach right now, and would like to know which one. I need tthe colour. Thanks

Quote from: stefman722..........
Can you tell me which wire is from the igniter? I am hooking up my electric tach right now, and would like to know which one. I need tthe colour. Thanks

Looks like black with red tracer (B/R).  According to the wiring diagram it has a single bullet connector probably inside the headlight housing? I don't know what the 04s headlights look like.

:cheers:

So the R/B wire is what come from the ignition coils? I need to hook up a wire to them. Thanks

Quote from: stefman722So the R/B wire is what come from the ignition coils? I need to hook up a wire to them. Thanks

No, the black with red tracer (B/R) wire runs from the igniter to the tacho.

The wires running from the ignition coils to the ignitor are white and black with yellow tracer (W, B/Y).

:cheers:

Hey Jeff P, did you have any other issues after you loctited the rotor bolt?  We had the same thing happen yesterday and I have since loctited it's ass and let it cure 24 hours as recommended by loctite.  I watched it as it ran in the garage and it looked ok.  But I noticed that there was some end float of the whole assembly.  Is this normal?  Seems to run fine though  :cheers:

We are going out for a putt now and see how it goes.

Ride on...

Something doesnt sound right there. Whats floating? the rotor when bolted onto the crank, or the whole crank. I would expect crank float to be in the region of a few tenths of a mill at max`, not something you can see by eye with the engine running. Are you sure the rotor is tight up against the end of the crank when the bolt is fully home and torqued-up?

It just looked like the whole crank assembly had some horizontal movement.  It was very minute, your eyes can play tricks on the mind sometimes especially after having the damn thing back out like it did.  The rotor is fully seated and the contact is centered on the pickups.