You know how you often see motorcycle ads where "the bike was running fine before I put it away?" I'm that guy. That's my bike.
Very late spring in Ontario, I finally put the freshly charged battery in my bike a couple of days ago, turned the ignition on and....nothing. No neutral light, no oil pressure light, no blinkers, no horn....nothing. The bike was stored outside, but underneath a proper bike cover, it was never tipped over, nothing rammed into it, nothing I can think of that would jar anything loose.
Any thoughts from the riders here? It's cold and grey here again, I'm not looking forward to tracing the circuits now.
Thanks.
check the main fuse and the ground cable. those 2 are the main reasons, my guess is the ground cable, have heard that its pretty common problem on gs
Now I remember how much I hate tracking down electrical gremlins when I want to be riding. Main 20 amp fuse is good, test light indicates power going there. Ground cable runs into the engine, shows no crimping or worn housing anywhere; to check inside I would have to take off the gearshift lever, then remove engine case and hope that's all. No crimping or worn housings that I can see anywhere around the triple trees, and nothing worn or touching inside the headlight shell.
Is there another fuse box somewhere? Does this GS500e only have the one 20 amp fuse for everything? Please tell me there's another fuse....
Quote from: Ted on May 22, 2019, 08:33:27 AM
Is there another fuse box somewhere? Does this GS500e only have the one 20 amp fuse for everything? Please tell me there's another fuse....
There are a couple of fuses but mostly the main 20A one. If everything is dead and that fuse is intact then you've done your work to check what needs to be checked.
Has to be no power or no ground for everything to be dead. Start at the source. Be sure there's power at the ignition switch, and on both poles when it's 'on'. Check ground continuity at the negative battery terminal vs. the frame in a few spots and ensure that the ground side of things like the ignition switch and the handlebar on/off switch is also zero ohms to the battery terminal (or very close to zero.. like not >1 ohm). And check power at the handlebar switch when ignition is on.
You really just have to trace wires and check every one starting from the battery and use the wiring diagram as a guide. That's the only way to do it. There's no really common cause of this kind of failure.
Oh, and by the way, this isn't a "short", most likely. A short would cause the fuse to blow. This is an "open".
Thanks for that. I had already read what's involved in getting to the ignition switch and was not looking forward to that. Not having a garage or any other kind of shelter really gets in the way of motorcycle work.
My wiring diagram is in black and white, I'll try to locate a colour one on-line.
And thanks for the clarification on short versus open.