hello ya'll, long time no post. thought i'd come back with a problem. :wink:

i see there is another FI thread going, but instead of hijacking that one i'll start this.. and also my symptoms are different. here's the story:

1) at fry's, came outside with my new motherboard in the tankbag, turned the key to on, lights came on as expected.
2) pressed the ignition, heard a very noticable "CLICK" and nothing happened. in fact, the clock and everything went out. when i turned the key off and on again no lights came on. dead.
3) pulled seat, checked fuses. all good. crap.
4) started to call the gf to tell her i'd be late, but then noticed the clock had lit up again. (reset to 1:00) . thought i'd give it another go. turned key, headlight and dash lit up normally. pressed ignition: "CLICK" then nothing. this time i'd listened more carefully and the click sound seemed to come from under the tank.
5) figured i'd give the ol' push start a try. wheeled her around the back of fry's and pushed her (on flat ground... damn this bike is heavy.) of course had her in 2nd gear.
6) no go. i noticed when the key was in the on position the clock and light were fading off and on.
7) a little cursing later, i noticed the key was now lighting up the headlight and dash properly again, so i tried the ignition again and she started! hooray...
8) rode carefully home (avoiding the freeway) and had 2 incidents on the way: the FI light would come on for a second or two and the bike would choke a bit, as if when the light came on the fuel stopped flowing. but i still managed to make it home.
9) btw, had 2/3 a tank of gas, so it wasn't that. :wink: although unfortunately i've had the displeasure of running out of gas before, and it basically had the same symptoms...

so after reading mr. singapore's thread and the advice contained within, it seems i should do a more thorough check around the battery for a bad ground or short, and perhaps pick up a voltmeter to check the battery voltage on and off. it is a canadian model, which may be closer to the UK with the bad connection closer to the left of the battery problem. (i'm not sure- perhaps just the speedo and colours are different on canadian models) she's a 99, but hopefully the ECM is ok.. sounds expensive. the FI light didn't seem to be flashing any particular pattern, it just came on randomly and the engine sputtered when it did. has anyone had a similar experience?

thanks so much for any tips!
dave

PS: one other note that may be interesting is for the past few months i've had aftermarket pipes on, but hadn't changed any fuel mappings or anything. i wonder if that might relate in any way...

PPS: a question- in the situation where the electrical juice was low and i was trying to start the bike, would it have been reasonable to pull the headlight fuse in order to avoid sending precious power to the light?

You have a loose/corroded/dirty connection, that's pretty simple to diagnose. I would start with the battery connections (remove/clean/replace), then the things the battery cables connect to.

Note that this type of connection problem is HELL on your electronics, so you could very well fry something if this goes on.

sounds to me Swampnut hit the problem on the head. This has happened to me many times in my old car. The battery cable is just a little loose. What is happening is the cable is arcing in the connector of the battery when you try to start it. All the indications you told us point to this. I would tighten the connectors first. Then perhaps clean the connectors and spray them with an anti-corrision spray paint.

k, thanks guys. i'll check that stuff out when i get home.

cheers.
dave

Ok Ok I have had this problem and it stumped me for a long time until I talked to a motorcycle tweaker friend of mine.

This was the situation:

I put higher wattage headlamps in my bike loved em and then set off to Bizbee, AZ from Long Beach, CA. All went well until my high beam burned out. I thought nothing of it. Figured I touched it with my grimy hands, so I decided to leave it off and just run the bike without high beam. On the way back the next day I was riding and then signaled to change lanes. I was in the desert and all my instruments went haywired. My first thought was "desert, instruments haywired = UFO" I thought Mr Grey was comin after me!!! I pulled over and checked fuses. Nothing wrong there. Then I checked Battery cables, again nothing wrong. Then I tried to start the bike, It had no juice. My wingman ( or woman I should say) found a bike shop that was actually open on Sunday, and came back to get me. I pushstarted the bike and rode to the shop. I got a new battery and it worked fine.....at least for 300 miles or so. then everything went crazy again. Bike was going no further no matter what I did. anyways I towed the bike home and proceeded to continue diagnosing the problem. Put stock light back in, new battery, replaced all fuses. Found out it was the regulator rectifier. Changed that too. Thought all problems were solved. one day took a 100 mile trip, stopped, ate, went to leave and same thing....dead battery. (Or so it seemed) Cranked again and it started!!! But there were no lights!!!! So I rode home. Called a buddy of mine and he asked me if the light turn off when cranking the bike. I said "yes they usually cut out only when I start the bike then turn on again after I release the start button. He said that there are four wires in the start button and that the Solder on one of the connections to short out the light while starting the bike (so as to not put too much load on the battery) was coming loose. Sure enough, I took the start switch apart and there is was, a disconnected wire. I soldered it back together and it was fine for a couple weeks. Then the headlights went out again!!! I decided to cut the Blue/white wire (headlamp) and the black (ground) and hard wire them. So far there hasen't been any issues. Hope it helps

Michael Ward