electrical gremlins in my ZX7R

[99coconuts]

goddamn little farkers they are

i was mundanely riding along behind my GF in her car yesterday when the bike just went kaput on me. and by kaput, i mean i've lost EVERYTHING electrical

first thing i thought was that i'd blown a fuse, no biggy, i've always got spares with me. but no, all the fuses were ok, i even went and switched them all just in case it was a fracture or something that i couldn't see. next thing, the battery, but thats pumping out 13v no stress so thats no it (and i doubt its just going to die in an instant like that too) that was about all i could check on the side of the road without any tools, so i hired a trailer and towed the thing home.

before i start ripping the thing apart to try and find this little f@&$er of a gremlin, does anyone have any ideas on where i should start? i've never had much to do with the electrics on a bike, i mean i'm sure i could work it out eventually, but a little help might save me a lot of time, beer, and a sore throat from yelling at the bastard

cheers guys

[Felix]

Check the battery terminal clamps, and the wire within. I have lost count of the times I ended up with corroded wires in the clamps themselves in various cars...

If that aint it, rewire the bike

[BladeBoy]

Felix, have you tried the main link wire it runs everything but the starter load, I am guessing you have no lights, instruments ect...

[SocialSecurity]

lost EVERYTHING electrical eh....

if not bad battery terminals or leads, then maybe its something simple like a bad connection on the the ignition wire .... if that goes, then nothing will work just like when the bikes locked


if its not too much hassle to pull the ignition lock off, do that and try see if there is any voltage going to it or from it etc

[smek]

similar thing happened to me, although mine wasn't an instant one day it was dead sort of thing, it slowly got worse until one day no power.

what had happened is the main loom was rubbing on a bracket and wore away the insulation which caused a short and ended up melting the insulation on the wires around it.
so it was slowly getting worse and worse unlike yours which just died suddenly. but you might want to pull the tank off and have a look at the wiring underneath to see if anything is fried.

[Smitty]

goddamn little farkers they are

i was mundanely riding along behind my GF in her car yesterday when the bike just went kaput on me. and by kaput, i mean i've lost EVERYTHING electrical

first thing i thought was that i'd blown a fuse, no biggy, i've always got spares with me. but no, all the fuses were ok, i even went and switched them all just in case it was a fracture or something that i couldn't see. next thing, the battery, but thats pumping out 13v no stress so thats no it (and i doubt its just going to die in an instant like that too) that was about all i could check on the side of the road without any tools, so i hired a trailer and towed the thing home.

before i start ripping the thing apart to try and find this little f@&$er of a gremlin, does anyone have any ideas on where i should start? i've never had much to do with the electrics on a bike, i mean i'm sure i could work it out eventually, but a little help might save me a lot of time, beer, and a sore throat from yelling at the bastard

cheers guys

mate
total loss means generally 2 things
total loss of power at the battery or loss at the ignition switch
process of elimination here...
do you have lights (headlight)?
do you have dash warning/ignition lights?
do you have brake lighst?

the answer will mean its either the ignition lock or
the fusible link ..they are the only 2 things on a bike
that will kill all electrics. ('cept a dead battery of course )

hth

cheers

[mrmina]

it could be the regulator on the alternator.

[SocialSecurity]

that wouldnt really explain no lights or nothing with the engine off, the battery couldnt have gone dead flat in an instant

[HemiDuty]

Yeah I would start with the terminals and ign switch too. I hate elec probs, I hope you can sort it soon man.

[jpbikeboy]

I had the exact same problem with a zx7r. It turned out to be the fuel pump wire shorting on the lower lip on the fuel tank. It would only blow the main fuse if the bike was above about 5000RPM. Below that it would just short and cause the bike to die lights, the lot. It was most frustrating because it would only do it when you where on the brakes and your body weight would compress the tank down a little onto the wire.

[99coconuts]

well, NFI how it happened, but it turned out to be the ignition switch i unplugged it under the tank and shorted the white wire to all the others (thanks mr manual, i'm a lot less nervous about doing stuff like that when i know what is what ) and it all worked fine. i'm feeling a bit pov at the moment and i'd prefer to spend my monely elsewhere, so i've just rigged up hidden switch for the ignition and left the key there for the steering lock. now even if someone does managed to screwdriver the lock, they still wont get anywhere


cheers for the help guys (yet again)

[SocialSecurity]

nice you could probably pull the ignition apart and sus it out tho, but hey its functional now


does this mean you'll be out for a ride on sunday for jay's licence 'renewal' ?

[99coconuts]

not a chance

unless you happen to have a set of brake lines, clutch line and throttle cables slightly longer than stock so i can get it running in the next couple of nights? i'd certainly preciate it if you did




bah! what good are you then

[SocialSecurity]

bah! what a dogs crotch of a conversion


mira's gixxer only needed 1 slightly longer piece of brake line - a few bucks at ABS (those brake workshops) and the stock throttle and clutch cable were fine (tho both recently replaced)

getting the bar risers on to the top triple clamp was a bit of a prick, she got a mate of a mate to fill the rear side of the clamp in with a tig welder so it had some meat to drill into to bolt up the risers... how did you get past that? the gixxer had a very hollow clamp to begin with..


took it for a spin the other day, it works pretty well! suspension needs to be sorted tho, too much preload on the front and not enough on the rear methinks... its damn wheelie happy tho and its got a powerband like a 2 stroke

[99coconuts]

the old ZXR750 that the bars came off didn't have any replacement bits bastard of a thing just needed the bars bolted on and hey presto this thing is a mongrel tho, the choke is the only cable that reaches, and even then its only just.

i'm not too concerned with the thickness of the top triple, it was fairly thin, but i've go washers there too, feels solid enuff to me (guess i'll find out the first time i go to do a stoppie ). bigger problem was that the bolts cant stick out too far so i ended up having to use a couple of shorter bolts than the ones that came with the kit. all done tho, looks shithot too


some are easy, some are pricks. take it as it comes i guess, but i've comitted to the SF thing on this one now, aint no turning back...