Engine cutting out-need help trouble shooting

The dash lights started to flash on and off, the engine stumbled, I had a bucking bronco sensation. This went on for several miles, keeping the reves up I was able to keep it running, barley. The first thing to mind was loose battery connection. Second thing was, here goes another ignition switch. Went through this before. Well, the bike died at the next stop sign. I pulled the panel and checked for loose battery connections...all was tight. Back to the thought of the switch dilemma. Put the panels back, playing with the key...all of a sudden the dash lit up again. Bike fired right up and off we went, only to have it start flashing and bucking again for about 30 minuts. Then again out of the blue it stoped and ran normal for the next 100 miles.

Now here is something I found very odd. When ever the dash lights flashed and the engine stumbled my GPS also went off. The strange thing about that is, it's connected directly to the battery. Not going through the ingnition switch, and the battery acting normal, as far as starting the bike without hesitation, when ever the dash lit up. Well, after we got back to the hotel we decided to hot wire the switch. After doing that, I road the bike several miles without any any recurrence of the cutting out problem.

Well, I thought we had a winner, even though the thing about losing power to the GPS, was in the back of my mind.

Started out Sunday, went for breakfast...bike fired right up, ate and started heading for home. After about 10 miles, yes, here we go again, dash lights flashing...back to riding bronc again. This again lasted about 45 minutes, then back to normal and now I made it all the way back to Oklahoma, about 285 miles, like nothing had ever happend. Got home and tore the bike appart to check for shorts on the powerlet installation (it's fused)...everything looked good there.

My question would be, is there anything on the bike ( other than the battery ) that could cut power to the GPS ?? Now remember it's hooked directly to the battery, via a powelet receptacale.

Is it possible, the battery's plates are shorting out? and go from good to bad in just minutes.

Ok, I know there are guys out there a lot smarter than me, and hope you can point me to a solution to this problem. I sure hate to take it to my stealer.

Thanks in advance for any help.

petey

Could very well be a battery problem-a breaking post connection within. Unless the battery is fairly new, replacing it would be an easy way to check and improve electrics overall. Can't think of any other way a directly connected device could go off and on than if the battery itself was junk.

Could it just be a bad ground for the battery?

R

It could be either of the above suggestions; you might want to start her up and start wiggling wires, connectors, terminals (even give the battery a jolt or two) etc. to try to replicate the cutout.

Try wiggling the wires where they enter the ign switch since all power goes thru it . . . . Sounds like a bad switch

Petey- what were other loads doing during the bucking bronc process? Tail/brake lights still on and working or were they out too? A bad battery ground would affect most all if not all circuits. The ground on my 06 is a real pita to get to...

dcarver said:

Petey- what were other loads doing during the bucking bronc process? Tail/brake lights still on and working or were they out too? A bad battery ground would affect most all if not all circuits. The ground on my 06 is a real pita to get to...

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Don, yes, now that you mention it, the guy behind me did tell me that my running light went off and on as well. Now where is the ground connection. But, that still doesn't explain why I lost power to the GPS, right?

petey said:

Don, yes, now that you mention it, the guy behind me did tell me that my running light went off and on as well. Now where is the ground connection. But, that still doesn't explain why I lost power to the GPS, right?

Click to expand...

Not if the power to the GPS runs directly to the battery on both pos and grd-which is what I thought you posted. If indeed this is the case-there is no other possibility other than that the battery is broken internally, something I have seen before. Most often caused by severe torquing of connections at the posts.

I concur with the battery ground being loose or poor contact; or, a bad internal battery condition. Your directly hooked-up GPS is the tell-tale control for all this.

I've had (pre-FJR) a relatively new battery fail internally -- out-of-the-blue -- it may be rare, but does happen.

Petey - please clarify where the gps ground connects

1. to the battery ground terminal directly.

2. to the bike or chassis ground.

Just yesterday I had a battery post finally break on my JD tractor - of course it's been real wiggly for over year now.. please note that broken posts are normally internal to the battery, there won't be any external sign.

hmmm, hey Rad, if when the symptoms were occurring, could he take a small load, like a 12 vdc running/brake light, go straight across both battery posts? No light = bad batt.

Oh, and Petey? You need to leave work right now, head to the shop, and get testing!

petey said:

...now that you mention it, the guy behind me did tell me that my running light went off and on as well. Now where is the ground connection. But, that still doesn't explain why I lost power to the GPS, right?

Click to expand...

This is a picture that I posted when Jestal found that the orientation of the ground lug sometimes cuts the radiator hose; it shows where the battery ground wire attaches to the engine:



The lug is behind the header pipes. With a mirror, a couple of ratchet extensions, perhaps a swivel and a lot of patience you can get a socket on the bolt from underneath without taking off any plastic. At least on a Gen I.

My vote goes to the battery.

Don, yes the GPS plus and neg are hooked up straight to the battery, so, I agree that losing power to the GPS has to be a failure from the battery. I'm on my way to get a new battery. I'll let you know if replacing the battery will do the trick.

Thanks guys for all the replies.

Don, what do you mean...leave work, I haven't worked in years.

petey

dcarver said:

Just yesterday I had a battery post finally break on my JD tractor - of course it's been real wiggly for over year now.. please note that broken posts are normally internal to the battery, there won't be any external sign. hmmm, hey Rad, if when the symptoms were occurring, could he take a small load, like a 12 vdc running/brake light, go straight across both battery posts? No light = bad batt.

Click to expand...

Often, before complete failure, the internal connection is intermittent, so testing can be iffy-one must jiggle the post etc to recreate the conditions found while the bike's in motion.

I would concur that the battery is the likely suspect, however there is another possible culprit. If you have a dead short somewhere on an un-fused line that is intermittently making contact, that could produce the symptoms you are describing. The wire would occasionally make contact and draw a huge amount of current. This, in turn, would cause the battery's output voltage to drop drastically, causing all your goodies to power off. Then, road vibration or something causes the sort to break contact and everything's fine again. The main sign of this would probably be wires starting to melt somewhere.

Just something to consider.

ionbeam said:

petey said:

...now that you mention it, the guy behind me did tell me that my running light went off and on as well. Now where is the ground connection. But, that still doesn't explain why I lost power to the GPS, right?

Click to expand...

This is a picture that I posted when Jestal found that the orientation of the ground lug sometimes cuts the radiator hose; it shows where the battery ground wire attaches to the engine:

The lug is behind the header pipes. With a mirror, a couple of ratchet extensions, perhaps a swivel and a lot of patience you can get a socket on the bolt from underneath without taking off any plastic. At least on a Gen I.

Click to expand...

ionbeam, thanks for pointing out the location of the ground cable. I checked it as well, ( it's tight ) swivel on the end of an extension worked great...good thing to know.

BTW, new battery is installed...time will tell.

Well guys, I'm pretty sure replacing the battery cured my feejer. Went for a ride for the last three day's and she purrs like a kitten with no interuptions. :yahoo: Damn battery!

Hey Petey, Glad you got it fixed. If you get a chance to find out what was wrong inside the battery, I would like to know. Never seen one do like that before, thats really strange.

Scott

fjrrider said:

Hey Petey, Glad you got it fixed. If you get a chance to find out what was wrong inside the battery, I would like to know. Never seen one do like that before, thats really strange.
Scott

Click to expand...

Scott, there is no sign of any problem on the outside of the battery...posts are solid. I'm not about to bust the battery open to see what's wrong with it on the inside. :glare: