Just when I think my bike's all fixed, it's not. I took it for a ride tonight. Everything started out fine. Rode for about 25 mins before I stopped for fuel. When I got back to my bike and turned the ignition on, there was nothing. No speedo dial light or neutral light or headlight. Tried to kick it and got nothing. Tried clutch starting and it seemed to catch but died as soon as I flicked the headlight on. Tried clutch starting again and it caught so I gave it 10-15 metres before I tried the headlight. Light came on, all good. Rode the bike 5 kms home and left it running in the driveway while I offloaded my gear. Figured I'd pull out the multimeter but just as I got back to it, it stalled. Then again, no lights, no nothing. Multimeter read 12.4 but couldn't get any response from the bike. Can anyone give this noob an idea of where I should start looking for this problem. Thanks!
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Weird electrical issues with start
- Thread starter norrie
- Start date
Check your ignition switch. I had corrosion in mine that caused the bike to die while riding. Wiggling the key would bring it back to life. A through cleaning and greasing of the switch's internals cured it.
MrStubb
XS400 Addict
I remember something about Dave's ignition switch. I also like his idea of cleaning it up but I'd go much further since you had Nothing after fueling up. I had to take each electrical connector apart to at least spray with contact cleaner & then pack with some contact grease. I think most bikes have issues with electrical connections & Our chosen addiction seems to develop a number of connector issues.
Thanks guys. Yeah, this was my first thought but I'm clueless so I figured I'd be wrong. When I had low charge before, my bike would want to stall under low revs which wasn't what was happening. I'm replacing all my switches and putting a LED tail light in next weekend so I'll report back then. Thanks!
Awesome!! Just bought some contact cleaner, sprayed it like a male porn star and everything works like new. Ignition clicks into place when it never has before. Gold! Thanks fellas. Wish everything was that easy to fix!
RichB
XS400 New Member
I had a similar issue to what you describe on my 1981 XS400 Special. With some electrical checks it turned out that the main fuse holder had cracked due to age. The main fuse was making intermittent contact causing it to stall out with no lights on display panel and then it would come back on shortly later. I spliced in an in-line fuse holder for the main fuse and it solved my intermittent loss of all electrical.
