Electrical Issues - Opinions Wanted Prior to Troubleshoot

I have the Service Manual and am going to proceed through the checklist, but thought I would take 5min to post on here and draw on your guys considerable knowledge to perhaps expedite my troubleshoot.

2003 ST, 55k (kms) I've owned the bike 2yrs since 45k - no issues whatsoever to this point. The battery sits on a battery tender Jr between rides, it has a quick connect for that, only other electrical farkle are Oxford Heated Grips installed by the PO. I'm the 2nd owner and the original was an engineer who kept very detailed freq maintenance and was a pretty anal guy, so the bike is in good shape for the year.

I went for a 4hr ride the other day - bike started perfectly and ran perfectly. I made a stop 1.5hrs in to use the washroom - bike fired up again no problem. Ran fine - no hesitations, on/off lights or on/off guages. Stopped again 3hrs in to stretch my legs and check my phone at a tiny backwater service station. When I went to restart the bike I switched the key on and the bike went completely dead after initially powering up for 2s. Complete loss after that - no electrical anything. I was able to use a portable jump pack a good samairitin had (and fellow rider - bless you all) and once started the bike ran fine. I was able to ride the hour home with no gremlins whatsoever, until I was about 5min from home in traffic and I started to ease the clutch out and roll on throttle from a red light and the bike died on me again. No electrical. Pushed it to the side of the road and got the GF to swing by and I was able to jump it into life with cables and ride it the last 5min home - again with no running problems whatsoever.

As I'm a relatively new owner of the bike I do not know the status of the battery, so it will be replaced regardless. Electrical is not my forte - but I have had dead batteries before and this one seemed odd to me how it came about. Thought maybe you who are wise in the ways of ST's might be able to share some thoughts. I'm worried about possible RR/Alternator/Electrical problems beyond a dead battery.

Troubleshooting starts later today, but as a Physical Therapist I know the value of starting your differential diagnosis in a strong initial direction, and figured one of you fine people may be able to enlighten me. Cheers

Sorry for the long initial post - I know details/specifics are important in order to help with these kind of diagnostics

Seems bad, but "total electrical" should be an easy one to diagnose!
I would bet either a bad battery cell, or an obviously loose connection to the bat or fuse block...
If doing it right now, then check the battery voltage after pulling the right side and see if you have anything, or if power comes back after wiggling main wires around.

I had the same problem with my BMW r1100rt last year. No warning started fine until one day I stopped for gas. No nothing when I turned the key on. Jump started it and drove a ways shut it off. Dead again. It was the battery.

Start with the battery, but make sure you're seeing charging system voltage while the engine is running. This could also be an intermittent problem that crops up when everything gets warmed up where the charging system stops charging and the battery goes flat. Installing a voltmeter, even temporarily, would be useful.

--Mark

The 03's had a marginal ground and a recall to fix that, Based on your description of the prior owner, it has probably been done but worth checking into.

2 other noted failure points are A. the ground lug system under the front fairing and B. the big connector under the fairing on the left side. that connector, has a green wire going into it and coming out of it that is marginal , and in many cases shows overheating evidence .

My guess would be a lose connection - first place to check would be for corrosion and tight bolts at the battery - as already said. Second is the ground points - again already noted. Check the PO's notes - how old is the battery? You could put a voltmeter on it and hit the ignition switch (starter) to check it under load.

MackerST said:

Sorry for the long initial post - I know details/specifics are important in order to help with these kind of diagnostics

Click to expand...

'More than enough' (when that does happen) is always better than 'not enough'.



The first thing I'd do is check the battery terminals to ensure the connections are clean and tight and that the cables are in good shape. Next would be a DMM on the battery to verify charging voltage then a load test of the battery. All pretty quick and easy and only one piece of 'tupperware' would need to be removed.

Does your clock reset when starting the bike on its own battery? If so that's usually a solid sign that the battery needs to be replaced. The battery could still be the problem even without this particular symptom.

If that checks out then it's time to delve deeper into other areas— pulling more tup and check ground wires.

Thanks everyone for the replies - the knowledge on this Forum is truly impressive. Maybe it's not so far fetched that it's just a battery issue then. I picked one up yesterday - wedding today - should get a chance to drop it in tomorrow and check all the connections. Fingers crossed.

Post back what you find.
It may well be the battery or loose battery connection. A battery can get weak over time or it can go tango uniform with no warning at all from an internal physical issue. An internal crack can partially heal itself and fail again under load, heat or vibration.

A little delayed getting back to everyone - I decided to install new F+R tires as well - which was a first for me on my ST, plus took the opportunity to get out the toothbrush and get into some hard-to-reach places - took more time to pick away at than I thought.

It was much a do about nothing - dropped in a new battery and never looked back. The beast also feels a lot better on brand new rubber - gonna try some T30 Evo GT's and see how they get on.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to respond!