intermittent electrical fault - no dash lights OR starter motor clicks

by trevor machine Thu 23 Jun 2016, 2:59 pm

Eh up folks - bike behaved a bit badly today. Got it out the garage, sut astride it, turned keys in ignition. Dash lit up as usual. Thumbed the starter button and it died. I'm so used to all my bikes always starting - or cranking at the very least - that I thought I was hallucinating. I began to think I'd turned the key the wrong way in the ignition or something. But no - after repeating the steps it did it again. However just as I was about to get extremely confuzzled everything happened as it should do and off I went, wending my way across to Squires.

Sat around nattering to a mate for about half an hour or so, went back to the bike and...click. Same problem as before. Turn keys off and on a few times - now even the dash won't light up when I turn the keys!! Which makes me think it's nothing to do with the starter at all!

By now I was getting pretty uncomfy in me clobber cos it was pretty warm today. So I whipped lid and jacket off while mate mike futzed around with the keys, ignition, clutch, side stand, etc. - just trying them in different combinations, etc. Soon enough the bike started and off we went.

Back at Mike's place we tried to locate the fault but - probably because the bike was v. warm - it just wouldn't repeat the problem and the dash lit up every time, and the start button cranked the starter, and the bike started just as it always has.

This is a bike that has been pampered all its life - it's never seen rain or the worst of winter (even though it's used all year round - and in the three years I've had it, it's been doing 10-15k annually). Seems strange that it should suddenly misbehave like this.

by Stooby2 Thu 23 Jun 2016, 3:40 pm

You've got a dodgy connection somewhere, start at the battery, check the terminals are nice and shiny. Then work your way through checking connectors for corrosion etc.

by **eternally_troubled** Thu 23 Jun 2016, 4:10 pm

Just ignore it - it will soon enough end up leaving you stranded somewhere :)

Could it be electrical connection problem No.1 - battery wire coming loose?

Could it possibly be a dodgy neutral switch? Did you try pulling in the clutch and starting it?

Anyway I'm tempted to agree with Stooby that it's the dreaded 'bad connection'/'corrosion'. Will give you something to do cleaning all those connectors ;)

by Jameshambleton Thu 23 Jun 2016, 9:05 pm

I once had this problem and it was the connections on the battery were loose, when I rocked the bike it moved the connection enough and it worked perfectly well.