Side of the road, no start...

[cincykz]

So I have put about 400 miles in about a week on my new to me 2004 vs1400. Bone stock, I turned 9,000 miles a couple of days ago.

Yesterday, after about 50 or 70 miles, i stopped at a park for a few minutes. Go to leave, bike won't start. Can't remember if the lights worked at that time, but wouldnt pushstart either. Disconnected the battery, reconnected and got it to start. Rode home without issue.

Rode it another 50 miles with no issue. Checked battery connections and applied a little dielectric grease.

Next day, ride 53 miles to work (mostly interstate) and stop for fuel two or three miles out. Go to start, turn key lights go on. Pull clutch and push starter, brief electrical noise, all lights out no power. Battery connections appear good, fuses under left cover good. Tow could start it with a jump box, but wouldn't stay running unless hooked up. All lights dim when running on the booster box.

New fully charged battery installed while at work. Bike starts and runs fine now. Old battery was "adventure power" brand. Tested at 7-8 volts by battery world.

Just a shot battery, or do you guys I probably have bigger issues? Hopefully it gets me all 53 miles home tonight....

I certainly won't shut her off til I get there.

[Blaine]

Hopefully just battery....But wouldn't hurt to test charging output for peace of mind.....13 volts ideling ......14.4 or so when revved.

[navigator]

Star washers on the connections makes for a tight connection.

[dwd58]

Star washers make for a consistent connection. I tried lock-tight and had the same problem as you, changed to start washers and new connections and nuts that was in a kit from JP cycle and no more problems.

[cincykz]

Update - the bike got me home with no issues. Did notice that the blue indicator light for the high beam only works about 70% of the time (high beam itself works), Unsure if related. The blue indicator doesn't flicker, but is sometimes delayed by up to a minute.

Star washers seem like a good idea, thanks.

Blaine, sorry if this is a stupid question, but where should I hook up to to test charging output?

[Blaine]

Right at the + & - on the battery with a voltmeter.

[cincykz]

Gotcha, thanks. Will be in work for the next few days, but will update. Will take the car until I know I have the bike sorted out...

[cincykz]

Update -
Tested the battery, 13.7 - 13.8v at a hot idle
12.5ish when revved above idle....
Maybe the trend continues and I'm discharging at road speed?

Any ideas?

[Blaine]

Update -
Tested the battery, 13.7 - 13.8v at a hot idle
12.5ish when revved above idle....
Maybe the trend continues and I'm discharging at road speed?

Any ideas?

looking like your regulator/rectifer is going south.....12.5 above idle is discharging.

[cincykz]

Are green connectors under here factory? I'm actually having trouble even locating the reg/rec. Manual says remove seat and left cover but the picture is so grainy that I cant see what they have.

Appreciate the continued help, electrical has always been a little over my head...

[Spacecoast]

It looks stock to me. This site might help you find the parts you're looking for.
http://www.cheapcycleparts.com/oemparts ... 0glp-parts

http://www.cheapcycleparts.com/oemparts ... electrical
See item #7. By the way, this part is under the bottom of the bike, just behind the engine and in front of the battery box.

[cincykz]

Thank you! I finally located the b/w/o/r/r from reg to harness, I will run the tests on the reg

[cincykz]

Contact cleaned and greased all of the underseat plugs and the right side plug to the regulator. About 13.5v at idle and 13.2 at revs. My multimeter doesnt have the 1kOhm setting that the book calls to use to test the regulator plug. Still trying to figure out how to run the regulator tests. Will update

[Blaine]

Contact cleaned and greased all of the underseat plugs and the right side plug to the regulator. About 13.5v at idle and 13.2 at revs. My multimeter doesnt have the 1kOhm setting that the book calls to use to test the regulator plug. Still trying to figure out how to run the regulator tests. Will update

13,5 at idle is real good...13.2 at rev not so much......Looking more & more like regulator going bad.

[cincykz]

Still trying to teach myself electrical testing... I see the Suzuki book says that if you don't use the Suzuki(c) pocket tester multi-meter, your numbers will be way off because of the secret sauce that Suzuki manufactures into their tester. I assume that there's not much to that and a generic tester should render acceptably accurate results?

In the mean time, I realized that a Caltric (cheap Chinese I assume?) replacement regulator/rectifier for the VS1400 (and referencing the Suzuki PN 32800-12E01) was $20.49 on Amazon shipped free, so I went ahead and ordered it as I've already spent a couple dozen times that in aggravation and wasted riding time...

I'm glad I cleaned the connections though, they were all tight and dirty with corrosion, so at least the rest of the electrical system should be happy now that it is clean and riding in dielectric grease. Most of my connectors were seized shut. Didn't look too horribly corroded, but almost impossible to separate before, now pinch the tab and pull right apart.

Thanks again for all the insight so far, I am sure we will be back and charging appropriately soon!

[Herb]

I had this kind of issue and it turned out that the ground on the regulator was bad. Tapped in and ran an additional ground to the battery ground point. system works good.

[cincykz]

Herb, that's an interesting point, especially because my reg came and was the wrong one... waiting on the right part in the mail again. Where does the reg ground to, just the battery box, or is there a connection somewhere that i missed?

Thanks in advance

[Herb]

It has a ground to the common ground. It is the black with white teacher. I think mine had bad connections. Tapped in just outside the regulator and ran it to the battery ground connection. This fixed my low charge issue. Never bothered to trace out where my problem was.

[cincykz]

Good info Herb, thank you

[cincykz]

Update

Ground wire tested good

Caltric regulator/rectifier arrived, 10 minutes later, I'm in business. 13.2v at idle, increases steadily to just over 14 at revs.

Part was $27 on ebay, appears same quality as oem, plugged right in. Cable is about two inches longer than factory.

Thanks all for the help!