Strange Electrical Behavior

[Vidrazor]

My bike is suddenly having some kind of electrical problem. It appears like there's some kind of resistance in the system. I don't have enough juice to kick it, the horn sounds weak, and the blinkers don't blink.

However if I bump the engine she starts right up and runs fine. The headlight does not appear dim, and doesn't appear to dim over time, but revving doesn't make it momentarily brighter.

So I appear to have voltage generated, I seem to be getting it to the engine and headlight, but there seems to be a drag on the system. The engine does appear to be getting a bit less voltage, so I run the choke a bit to keep the revs up, but the bike runs indefinitely and the headlight appears normal.

Any clues?

[interfuse]

How old is the battery? My bet is it's bad.

If the battery is newish test your voltage regulator.

[PitterB4]

The battery was my thought too.... but it seemed to obvious. 

[Vidrazor]

Well, it just started happening within this week, which is why I'm not thinking it's the battery, unless they drop dead just like that, do they? 

I washed the bike down last week, I wonder if I coulda shorted something. Worked fine after I washed it and the day after, so I don't think that had anything to do with it.

Could the alternator be partially working, or do they just drop dead?

[Red01]

Well, it just started happening within this week, which is why I'm not thinking it's the battery, unless they drop dead just like that, do they? 

Normally, they just fade away, but I've had them just drop dead all of the sudden, too.  Once while I was driving the car, it just died... took me a while to figure it out cuz something like that is almost NEVER a battery issue.

[gsxr400 racer]

use electrical grease on your connections and check the battery voltage then check bikes charging at like 5 thousand rpm should be 14 something i think?

[Vidrazor]

>>...then check bikes charging at like 5 thousand rpm should be 14 something i think?<<

Reading right off the batteries' terminals, or somewhere else?

[Banditmax]

Right off the terminals.

[GooseMan]

You know, I had a similar problem before. If I just put the key on ON (not starting the engine), my horn would be really weak, the flashers wouldnt flash, but the bike would start up fine etc.

I had also just charged the battery all winter long, so it was nice and freshly charged. But in my case, my flasher relay was dead, and maybe that caused some other problems down the line. Are your flashers flashing at all? Sounds dumb...but just check em out!

[andrewsw]

somewhere you are getting a short to ground. It's drawing enough power to dim the lights etc. But not enough to prevent the generator from keeping up. You got water somewhere it doesn't belong...  that's my guess. You may have to go over the whole electrical system looking for the wet spot...

A

[Vidrazor]

>>somewhere you are getting a short to ground. It's drawing enough power to dim the lights etc. But not enough to prevent the generator from keeping up. You got water somewhere it doesn't belong...<<

I thought about that, but why did it happen several days later? Wouldn't the water eventually evaporate, especially after riding it several times from the washing? WHile I'm certainly not ruling this out, the conditions as they occurred don't seem to jive.

[kako]

hmmm well if you have a bad RR it will cause the battery to suddenly take a turn for the worse.

[tomacGTi]

When my RR went bad, it basically cooked the battery. Electrical was weak, motor was down on power.

Nearly the same symptoms that you're having and everything in Stormi's sig about testing it pointed it to failure. I installed a new RR from a GS500 and all was well again. No modding, plug and play.

[Vidrazor]

>>...well if you have a bad RR...<<

RR? What's that? The rectifier?

[tomacGTi]

yup