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80 GS1100e totally dead?

  • Thread starter Thread starter jwhelan65
  • Start date Start date
J

jwhelan65

Guest
So it was running fine, shut it off after a ride and than nothing. Battery shows 11.74V at a resting state, the top (3) fuses are a good but pulling zero voltage when key is turned. Swapped the ignition switch with no luck. Stumped..
 
if the main fuse blew then you might experience this. The main is 15 amps and labled on the fuse box.
 
did you notice any corrosion? corrosion can cause bad contacts. and i would try swapping the fuse anyway as a troubleshooting measure since fuses are fairly cheap
 
60ratrod said:
did you notice any corrosion? corrosion can cause bad contacts. and i would try swapping the fuse anyway as a troubleshooting measure since fuses are fairly cheap
Click to expand...

Actually that might have been it, pulled them all and dropped the panel and everything came back for now.
 
Something tells me you're looking at the tip of an electrical iceberg. For starters the battery is about a volt shy. Take a look at the tests on Posplayr's sig and start chipping away.
 
Just a hunch but that is a similiar symptom I had during our recent rally. Electrical was suddenly totally dead on an otherwise perfect electrical system. After quickly checking the obvious stuff was all fine a meter directly on the battery showed 12.5vdc approx. and would properly activate my on-board led volt meter (in my case I could get voltage with the key on) but touch anything, starter, horn or lights and voltage would instantly drop to zero. Turned out being a defective 2 year old battery that would go open circuit as soon as any load was applied to it.
 
Could be the battery but nothing wrong with getting some contact cleaner.

DeOxit of the store brand from Radio Shack.
 
Sandy said:
Just a hunch but that is a similiar symptom I had during our recent rally. Electrical was suddenly totally dead on an otherwise perfect electrical system. After quickly checking the obvious stuff was all fine a meter directly on the battery showed 12.5vdc approx. and would properly activate my on-board led volt meter (in my case I could get voltage with the key on) but touch anything, starter, horn or lights and voltage would instantly drop to zero. Turned out being a defective 2 year old battery that would go open circuit as soon as any load was applied to it.
Click to expand...

I had a momentary short across the terminals on an unknown-age battery in a "new" bike recently, experienced the same conditions when I tried to start the bike. Battery at rest indicated something around 12.5v, turned the key and it instantly dropped to zero, no lights, nothing to indicate current flow. Damned near went crazy going through the fuses, thinking I had blown one and looking for an "extra" inline fuse a previous owner had possibly installed somewhere before I discovered the voltage drop. Installed a new battery, everything was perfect again.
 
At the risk of being redundant, if you have a voltmeter do the quick test, even the first part just to check the batteries capability of supplying 10 amps.

It really takes no more effort than the quick test to help deduce a multitude of electrical mysteries.

If you can't afford a volt meter, my I suggest a folder paper Ouija board as an alternative.
 
posplayr said:
At the risk of being redundant, if you have a voltmeter do the quick test, even the first part just to check the batteries capability of supplying 10 amps.

It really takes no more effort than the quick test to help deduce a multitude of electrical mysteries.

If you can't afford a volt meter, my I suggest a folder paper Ouija board as an alternative.
Click to expand...
Absolutely, when you're confident the whole system is healthy by having all switches and connectors up to spec then the quick tests work great because you're not trying to second guess what's going on. Quick tests and a healthy system led directly to the problem and luckily were able.to source a new battery only minutes away and back on the road 30 - 40 minutes from time of failure
 
Sandy said:
Absolutely, when you're confident the whole system is healthy by having all switches and connectors up to spec then the quick tests work great because you're not trying to second guess what's going on. Quick tests and a healthy system led directly to the problem and luckily were able.to source a new battery only minutes away and back on the road 30 - 40 minutes from time of failure
Click to expand...

A normal GS should have 12.5-12.9V on the battery when off.
With key on and headlamp on, there will be a 10 amp load and the battery voltage should drop about 0.3-0.5V and no more.

Anything outside of this means there is something wrong.

A.) No voltage drop means there is no change in load and there is a connection problem.
B.) A drop to way below 12V and you can figure the battery is dead.

So in the case of a dirty fuse blocking all current flow (case A above) or a bad cell in the battery (case B above),either would have been detected with the first step in the "Quick test". No gymnastics, no analysis just the more than a basic test using a VOM. No need to check the coil resistance, no need to check the floats in the carbs, air in the tires, the grounds or anything else......
 
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