dead bike oddity
 

So i went to start my bike the other day, hadnt been out on it in just over a week. Anyway started easy enough with the choke. Had a smoke while it warmed up got my glives ect. Knocked the choke off to set off n it started missing, give it a bit of throttle n wouldnt rev! Then i put my lights on n it ran sweet! Turned lights off missing again! So put lights on went for a long fast ish ride to get warm n waste fuel lol n filled with fresh fuel. Got houme went in had tea went to put bike away everything ok ;-)
Today went out fired it up no problem, ran fine without choke ect, set off got about 500yds down yhe road, stopped at the junction n it died on me! Went to start it n nothing, no ignition lights, no power to switches, lights, horn, indicators ect... So pushed it home. Not looked into it yet, got a few ideas where to look n what for but any other suggestions welcome.

Obvious checks would be power related. Start with the battery, then main fuse then ignition switch. Model and age of bike might make it easier to diagnose.

Sorry forgot to mention its a 1991 3tb, the slowest n oldest bike i have lol n the only one i wont be selling ;-)

Check your starter relay, there is a copper strip from the battery terminal on it to the fuse holder, this supplies the power to everything, but the strip has a couple of bends in it as is prone to cracking and you loose all power to the bike, you may need to take the relay apart to see this which is easy to do, if not check your ignition switch for continuity with a meter.
Good luck

I had very similar symptoms. Fitted a new voltage regulator, problem gone. Mine didn't get as far as the 'dead bike' stage, but I had all the bad running, cured by turning the lights on.

So just a quick update, went to investigate this aft n bike starts n runs fine. Dont ya just love intermittent electrical faults lol.

Glad it's sorted itself out and is now behaving itself, Rick. I'd agree with BDZ (although not from a similar experience) that this does sound like a voltage-regulator problem - or possibly the connection(s) to the regulator.

Gonna go through all the connections, although i suspect water ingress in switch gear and also ignition barrel. As its spent a couple of days getting rained on and a couple of days frozen (quite literally) couldnt get key in to start it or cap off to put fuel in haha. If all that checks out then onto the next least expensive part lol dont like spending money

Eventually; Get a cover for your bike - keeps the rain off. Nothing flash - old tarp will do.

Now; as you say go through the electrical connections - don't forget the earths, in particular the earth strap from the battery. Separate the plastic multi pole ones and clean them out (dirt + water) then put some grease in there - keeps the water out. Best grease would be dielectric, but almost anything will be better than nothing. Petroleum Jelly is about the cheapest substitute if your cheap.

Hopefully this is not a bad connection inside the battery (between the cells) . If the fault occurs, and you can get things going by tapping the top of the battery then it probably is the battery cell connections. :funmeterno:

Good luck. While you are cleaning things .. look for hiding places that you can use to store keys etc.

It usualy is kept inside, the only reason it wasnt is because i had a broken down landrover blocking access to my shed, i have some silicone grease thats supposed to be good for water proofing switches, and thanks for reminding me i need a spare key haha.

They came as standard on my 2004 TT600RE :( one of my faults similar to yours and after buying two starter relays turned out to be that green stuff on a connector block behind the headlight. Not saying thats your problem at all but after taking all the connectors apart cleaning the dirty ones and packing them with petroleum jelly at least I have some reliability and confidence in the electrics now... fingers crossed.

Well in the last couple of days i've had all the connections apart, cleaned n waterproofed. Done continuity tests on pretty much all the wiring, given everything a wiggle lol then tested again n found no obvious fault! Will see how it goes haha

Thanks everyone for your suggestions

Thanks for that mezo, will add it to my shopping list. Got a long weekend end on the bike so that'll be the true test.

Whey hey finaly found the fault, turned out to be badly corroded inline fuse connection on reg/rec feed. Obvioulsy i missed it on my previous check. Thanks again everyone.