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Home » Motorcycle Consumer News » Technical Issues and Tips » DEAD ROADSTAR 1700 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM


DEAD ROADSTAR 1700 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Expand / Collapse
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Posted 6/19/2008 10:39:31 AM
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I was out riding my new (8500) miles roadstar 1700, stop at a service station to get gas. Turn bike off, fueled it, then turned it on..
Nothing, no lights not horn, no gauges. Had a friend come get me
and take me and the bike home. tried it again .. nothing.
took seat off, battery post nice and clean, battery cables tight, also have an attached battery tender plug in. A little loose. tighten and tried starting bike. Nothing. remove side panel and check the five fuses , all were fine. ( did not try to start bike at this point)
replaced fuses. Then removed the Main Fuse, it was fine, replaced it
and tried starting the bike.. THE BIKE STARTED. Don't know why
it started. NOW i am uncomfortable to take a ride out in the mountains because they are out in the middle of no where. Does anyone have an idea of what could be up. Any place I could start looking. I didnt really do anything, any ideas. thanks bob

Ride till you can't ride no more.
Post #31171
Posted 6/19/2008 7:59:36 PM
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The main fuse is often connected to one side of the starter relay.  You might look for a loose connection there, and I'd replace the main fuse just in case.

Fuses are made with a bismuth alloy that sometimes corrodes in a humid atmosphere.  Not much you can do about it except replacement.  The corrosion is almost invisible, but is sometimes seen as a slight whitening of the fuse element inside the plastic.

A general tightening of ALL electrical connections from the battery to the starter solenoid may be in order, especially where nuts and bolts are the connector types.  Multiple pin connectors (Molex style) sometimes respond to taking them apart and then reassembling.  The attendant abrasion cleans the contacts.  While you do this examine them for "pushed" pins on both sides of each connector.

Good luck, intermittent electrical problems are a bugaboo.  Maybe try to find an owner's web site where someone else has found the reason and a cure.

Ray Nielsen, in Minneapolis.

Post #31181
Posted 6/19/2008 9:50:54 PM
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I agree with Ray.

With the bike running safely at your home, Wiggle some wires (batt connections, wires on either side of the main fuse, etc) to see if it suddenly quits. Wiggle the main fuse without pulling it out of the fuse box.

I like to clean electrical connections with a bit of scotch-brite pad and a spritz of electrical contact cleaner.

Ride the bike locally till it warms up. Then return to your house and shut it off for 10 minutes. If it re-starts, ride a bit more and hit a few small potholes. Return home for the re-start routine. If the bike re-starts reliably, ride it where you want.

If the bike fails as before, leave the key "on" and wiggle wires til it lights up. You may find that a batt connection has to be slightly loosened to wiggle a wire to make the bike light up again.

A 12V continuity light might be fun to have. Get a budd to show you how it works so that you can test connections for yourself.

Motorcycles! Making mechanics out of riders since the late 1800's.

Keep us informed of how it goes for you.

nobody rides half as well as they know how.

Post #31184
Posted 6/20/2008 9:17:17 AM
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Thank you very much for your feed back, I will look at and try all your suggestions. I am not much of a mech. but I do know where the battery is. I will change all the fuses just to be safe.
thank you again.
bob

Ride till you can't ride no more.
Post #31194
Posted 6/20/2008 2:45:45 PM


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Welcome to the forum Bobm. What the guys said sounds good to me. I like to use a lot of the contact cleaner on those things.

Some guys will say use a pencil eraser. Don't do it. It will clean the contacts good right now but erasers contain acid so it will eventually make it corrode faster.

Torqueman
Battle Creek, MI
V-Strom 06
Goldwing 03
Post #31199
Posted 6/21/2008 6:16:51 AM


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Don't forget to check the ground connections. We had a Lincoln that went dead (in the winter, naturally) and the problem turned out to be the connection between the ground cable and the engine block.

Predictions are very difficult, especially about the future.
Post #31222
Posted 6/26/2008 5:18:02 PM
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thank you for all your replys.. i took all the connections i could get to and tighten them up. i also took apart the various connectors
and added dielectric grease to them. I completely changed all of the
fuses. the bike is currently starting, and on friday the 6/7/08 . I am taking it to the dealer to put it on his test machine. the one thing i forget to mention was 5 days before i had the bike at the dealer for a complete tune up.. bob the service manager mention that the tank had to come off to change the spark plugs. ( what engineer thought of this) and on top of the tank is the speedometer and the ignition switch.. who knows if they jiggled something loose.

Thanks again for all the great feed back.

bob

Ride till you can't ride no more.
Post #31285
Posted 6/27/2008 3:26:06 PM