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Entire electrical system died while riding

  • Thread starter Thread starter Anonymous
  • Start date Start date
A

Anonymous

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I ride a 1981 GS450 and this problem has been going on since the end of last year's riding season. I was about a mile from my home, when I pulled up to a stop sign and my bike just died. The whole electrical system went out, no lights, horn, or electric starter. I pulled off the side covers to check my connections and in a few mins of jiggling wires around I saw that my headlight was back on. I hit the starter button and heard the relay click but then everything went back off. I did this a few more times until I finally got it running and made it home. I parked the bike after that because I was heading back to college in 2 days and didn't have time to mess with it. Now jump to this spring. I did more exploring on it and came to the conclusion it was a loose connection somewhere because if I set the battery out on the peg it would often work. I rode the bike for 3 weeks without a problem and then while I was out riding it died on me again. This time I could get it to come back on once in a while but it would just click and die again. I checked connections and couldn't find anything. Finally I push started it and drove it home. As long as I kept it running it was fine. I was still assuming it was a bad connection so I got a multimeter and started checking my wires to see where the bad connection is. My question is this, with the battery hooked up should I get a reading from the wire coming out of the starter relay to the starter motor? That wire shows no reading so now I'm thinking I might have a bad relay.

On a side note my battery just went bad too. I bought a new battery last year and it has worked great this whole time. When I bought the multimeter (today) I checked the battery and it showed no voltage at all. So I put it on the charger and it acts like there is nothing there. The charger says nothing is connected to it. The battery was working great a week ago and showed no signs of dieing. What can cause a battery to get ruined over night? And is that connected to my other problem?

Thanks,
Matt
 
I am gonna clear up one problem real quick:

The wire on the {starter side} should only be "Hot" when your pressing the start button.
The other wire on the opposite side of the realy, should be "Hot" continously.

Now as far as your battery being dead..
From your given information:

The whole electrical system went out, no lights, horn, or electric starter. I pulled off the side covers to check my connections and in a few mins of jiggling wires around I saw that my headlight was back on. I hit the starter button and heard the relay click but then everything went back off. I did this a few more times until I finally got it running and made it home. I parked the bike after that because I was heading back to college in 2 days and didn't have time to mess with it. Now jump to this spring. I did more exploring on it and came to the conclusion it was a loose connection
Click to expand...

Sounds like you Terminal block (fuse block) has melted in the back, and or has some bad corrosion, causing loose connections.

Pull the terminal block off, open the back, check the connections for continuity, also clean the prongs the fuses are held in.

Using the multimeter you should be able to find your weak link.

Running the bike w/o the battery properly hooked up, and or loose bad connections, can cause many problems as your describing.

Trace the problem slowly, until you find the "Root" cause.
ie: reg/rectifier not charging, loose or corroded battery wires, bad terminal block, faulty or burned up wiring.

Good Luck,
Ron
 
first, the 450 only has one fuse.
clean the contacts for the fuse and all other connections along the way you can find.
brass connectors are used on these bikes and the tarnesh that forms on the brass does not conduct electricity well and does cause these kinds of problems.
 
focus frenzy said:
first, the 450 only has one fuse.
clean the contacts for the fuse and all other connections along the way you can find.
brass connectors are used on these bikes and the tarnesh that forms on the brass does not conduct electricity well and does cause these kinds of problems.
Click to expand...

Thank you Maztuh!

Never owned one, but my 550 had a terminal block so I assumed (pesky cusser he was) :twisted: :wink:
 
If the battery was bad it could be the cause of your whole problem Replace it & retest it
 
I've restored two GS450 bikes (mine and my friend's) and both had faulty regulator/rectifiers that were allowing too much voltage through leading to a boiled battery (no liquid left). Your battery could easily boil in a week under this condition. Have checked the fluid levels? have you verified that your R/R is putting out no more than 14.9 volts DC at 5000 RPM? See the stator papres in the garage section of this site.
 
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