It only happens when I'm riding it.

[BikerGeek99]

I feel for you guys. :wacko:

About 14 years ago I had a Honda Nighthawk that would do the exact same thing - it'd be running fine and then NOTHING! Power still going to the lights, but the engine would die. The time it happened just as I was leaning into a right-hand-turn in heavy traffic was the deciding factor - time to get the f'n thing fixed.

Being of the frugal type, I took it to a friend of a co-worker who wrenched on bikes on the side. (The Nighthawk was way out of any kind of warranty.) I told him what was happening and he, luckily, was able to replicate the issue.

Fixing it, on the other hand....

Let's just say I lost the better part of a riding season. :dribble:

He was flummoxed. Didn't know what to do. On a whim, he was talking to a buddy of his who was a mechanic at a dealer. The mechanic buddy lent him an ECU from a '97 or so Nighthawk. Popped it in and - BINGO! Problem solved. Stupid little black box was wacked. After replacing the black box, I never had that problem again. Other problems, yes, but the engine never spontaneously died.

Good luck! Keep us updated!

 

[Kevin Daly]

Slide,

Just to throw some gas n the fire.... Have you considered that you dont have a problem with components but with electrical contacts. Someone mentioned loose battery connection but you might consider connectors like the ECU. As this connector gets corroded you will start to notice surging and missing. read this. Now maybe you dont have a corrosion problem but you might have a poorly assembled connector. When you seem to notice it you are typically doing 80; this may actually relate to a vibration at a specific rpm??

I think Ion is right about the fuel system, you should see a fade in power if that system failed, but this too could have an electrical issue underlying it. I would suggest to your wrench to check the electircal system.

 

[sliderule]

The mechanic buddy lent him an ECU from a '97 or so Nighthawk. Popped it in and - BINGO! Problem solved. Stupid little Good luck! Keep us updated!

They have changed the ECU on mine twice. No luck. This really sucks... :angry2:

 

[vdoguy]

Haven't been on this board for a long time. Though that this would be the place for answers to my problem. I'm having the exact same symptoms on my 2004 ABS with 44000kms. It just started the other day while on a 1000KM ride to Gaspe Quebec. I had stopped to put on my rain gear, and as I was accelerating up the hill out of a town the Bike suddenly shut down! The dials all bounced up to max and then went down to zero and everything shut off. I immediately restarted the bike and noticed that my "trips" had been reset to zero but the clock and main odometer were fine. I then rode it to my destination with these weird hiccups happening at random.

On the way back the same thing would happen at random intervals, especially after a short rest stop, while riding at speeds of around 120km/hr (70 mph). It was like someone flicked the OFF switch, and as long as my speed was high enough it would restart itself after almost bucking me off.

I did manage to get home OK, but noticed once I was in the city that I have a lot of surging when in the 2500 to 4000 range. It seems worse when the bike is hot.

What the hell is this?

 

[Calimus]

Any chance this could be a rectifier issue? I've had a similair issue with my 05' but it's only been once and it was 4 weeks ago. However, I'm positive my issue was low fuel (reserve light blinking) and a sudden hard slow down in the highway. Figure it just pushed all the gas forward and away from the pickup long enough to stall the bike. Pulled clutch, hit the start button, right back to life and hasn't happened since.

However, I have some issues with hot starts. If the bike is at 3 bars of heat when I go to fire it up, first hit of the button results in not a full turn over and it resets the clock and all trips. Second try usually gets her going. I need to check all the connections and possibly get a new battery I think. But I wanted to suggest the rectifier as if it mailfunctions, it can be very random and hard to trouble shoot.

 

[Kevin Daly]

Haven't been on this board for a long time. Though that this would be the place for answers to my problem. I'm having the exact same symptoms on my 2004 ABS with 44000kms. It just started the other day while on a 1000KM ride to Gaspe Quebec. I had stopped to put on my rain gear, and as I was accelerating up the hill out of a town the Bike suddenly shut down! The dials all bounced up to max and then went down to zero and everything shut off. I immediately restarted the bike and noticed that my "trips" had been reset to zero but the clock and main odometer were fine. I then rode it to my destination with these weird hiccups happening at random.
On the way back the same thing would happen at random intervals, especially after a short rest stop, while riding at speeds of around 120km/hr (70 mph). It was like someone flicked the OFF switch, and as long as my speed was high enough it would restart itself after almost bucking me off.

I did manage to get home OK, but noticed once I was in the city that I have a lot of surging when in the 2500 to 4000 range. It seems worse when the bike is hot.

What the hell is this?

Ok I am sure you checked all the ususal suspects described above. In reading this particular story it jogged my memory to a story about a guy who had a damaged battery that caused the same problems. As the bike heated up the battery post lost contact internally. this effectively shut the bike down but the loss of contact was brief and temperature dependent. I would therefore suggest finding a battery to swap out. with an 04 you might also consider just replacing it anyway.

 

[RsvlFeej]

Ok I am sure you checked all the ususal suspects described above. In reading this particular story it jogged my memory to a story about a guy who had a damaged battery that caused the same problems. As the bike heated up the battery post lost contact internally. this effectively shut the bike down but the loss of contact was brief and temperature dependent. I would therefore suggest finding a battery to swap out. with an 04 you might also consider just replacing it anyway.

+1 on battery or battery connections. Your gauges and trips/clock are zeroing, unlike sliderule's. I got the same symptoms as yours from a loose battery cable.

 

[Thug]

mines looking like an ECU issue through the processes of illumination....stay tuned

 

[vdoguy]

The battery is brand new. If it were a battery issue would it also cause the surging between 2500 and 4000 rpm?

 

[Kevin Daly]

The battery is brand new. If it were a battery issue would it also cause the surging between 2500 and 4000 rpm?

Possibly it could appear that way.

 

[sliderule]

Ok, so they changed out changed out the TPS and put everything else back the way it was. The TPS had tested good so they are just trying to fix it by process of elimanation. Since they can't get it to reproduce, they let me take it to test. I'm on day two and so far so good. :yahoo:

 

[janthemann]

Ok, so they changed out changed out the TPS and put everything else back the way it was. The TPS had tested good so they are just trying to fix it by process of elimanation. Since they can't get it to reproduce, they let me take it to test. I'm on day two and so far so good. :yahoo:

Sliderule,

I was having the same problem, but it only happened when it got up to temp. and was running at a constant speed. I took it in for service and they found that the vent lines off the gas tank were crushed and caused a sort of vapor lock. After changing it out the problem went away. They said one way to check is to run it with the fuel cap open.

 

[rocknfjr]

I was on my way home from San Francisco cruising @ 85 mph. I was changing lanes whan I increased the rpm the engine skipped. Wow! I thought maybe because 50 + miles at the same speed and 200 mi. on this tank of gas possible vapor lock. another 10 mi. another engine skip. Near home and a sharp turn engine died. I rolled into a gas station. When I touched the starter it fire up as though nothing was wrong. I still had about 1 gal. just hit reserve. I added 2 gal. did not want to fill the tank because I was sure this was a fuel problem.

On Monday on my way to work every time the rpm would drop below 2000 the engine would die. After a call to my Dealer They confrimed my thoughts of a fuel problem. Just 15 miles to the dealer but the engine would now need to be @ 3500 - 4500 to stay running,

After about 20 times of stopping and an hour and a half in 104 degree heat I was too late the dealer was now closed. Just before I made it home during one of the engine stops the tach and the speed-o-meter hands did the on off sweep. This means wiring! Safe at home I remove the panel covering the battery my ground cable was loose. A 30 sec. fix. NO dealer No exspence and a cold beer priceless!

Hope you find the answer too yours.

 

[Thug]

The Techie is testing my ECU.....or getting it tested, I know I'm ******* getting tested after 4 weeks with no bike!

 

[janthemann]

Sliderule,

I was having the same problem, but it only happened when it got up to temp. and was running at a constant speed. I took it in for service and they found that the vent lines off the gas tank were crushed and caused a sort of vapor lock. After changing it out the problem went away. They said one way to check is to run it with the fuel cap open.

 

[Gramps]

I had a somewhat similar problem that was caused by a bad wiring connection to my Power Commander. It happened when the bike was warmed up & would start surging violently at around 2500-4000 rpms. It wouldn't completely die but felt like riding a bucking horse. Not sure if you have a PC but if you do check it out.

 

[Thug]

Well, Well, Good news! Turns out my Techie rings a guru in Sydney and he informs my Techie that he had to dig deep into the faults archives and found that My Vin matches some 05 Models that had ECU issue, stumbling at low revs etc....So its a free bee fix! NO a peep have I read anywhere that any 05's had an ECU issue? So there's one for the books!

My Techie is not very happy with his Guru mate here in Victoria spending all that time looking elsewhere when it was under his nose all along! Me thinks they are going to have words and old mate Guru is going to get a wake up call....

Stay tuned

 

[vdoguy]

Ashamed to say that I found my problem, or at least what I think is the problem. Checked out the battery connections and sure enough the positive was very loose. Tightened it up and all seems well for now.

The surging seems to have been caused by voltage demands at low rpm. I hesitated checking the battery connections because I truly despise the battery location! The "brilliant" engineer who thought of that placement should have his nuggets fried on straight pipes.

 

[sliderule]

Ok, I think they got it. But not untill it got me good. Three days after I got it back I had to get on the shoulder of the interstate because it was bucking so much. So I put it in 2nd gear and let off the throttle. as soon as it got to the rpm's that the clutch disengages it stalled. I stopped, hit the starter and it acted like nothing was wrong. I started going and it started acting up again. I got to the bottom of the hill, in site of the dealer, and it wouldn't go any more. I could start it , but when I put it in gear it just died. So now it was doing some thing the tech could duplicate, FINALLY. :glare: LSS, it turns out that the connector to the side stand was viberating loose and had to be rewired. So now I've had it back for a little over a week now and no problems! :yahoo:

Thanks for all the input. I showed it to the tech's and they said that they checked all the different ideas and even put the dielectric grease in the connectors to keep the corrsion at bay.

"The "brilliant" engineer who thought of that placement should have his nuggets fried on straight pipes."

+1

 

[Thug]

OK here is an update. Turns out it was my ECU ( A small batch of 05's had them and my VIN matched, but not even Yamaha's Techs knew about it? how ****** is that?) Secondly my techie gave it a full service and tune said it goes like stick! but wait there was an intermittent problem with the stand switch too! have to wait until next week there are none in the country and are on back order.....When he disengaged the switch all was normal.....So there you go what a ******* drama!

Note to Yamaha.....Tell ALL techies about issues and don't bury them