TOPIC:

I have reached a dead end and I need some insight. At the fear of being overly verbose, I am going to try to provide as much detail as possible. Last weekend I did about 250 miles without issue. Sad that the weekend came to a close, on Monday night I went for a ride. I tipped the bike. No problems, no issues, however, about 50 miles into the ride (mostly highway), I noticed a loss of power when I gave it gas. It felt as though I was not on all cylinders as it was sounding really rough. I did note that if I could get it up to about 4,000 rpms it would feel as though the other cylinder would kick back in and it would run fine for awhile. About 10 miles from home, she died. At the side of the road, I would try to start her. It would turn over but not run. I was on Lake Shore Drive so I had to call a tow at 1 a.m. Argh. Once home, I tried to start it again. It would not turn over. I would only hear a clicking sound. I thought I may have a battery issue. Therefore, overnight I put the battery on the charger. The next morning, I pulled off the charger and waited an hour to take a volt reading. It read 12.8. I tried to start it again. It would just click but would not turn over. I then checked all wires for a loose connection. I could not find any. I also confirmed that all fuses were good. Since then, I have hit the books. The Essential Guide to Motorcycle Maintenance by Zimmerman has a trouble shooting section and it reads:

Problem: Engine will not turn over with electric starter.

Cause: Dead battery, safety switch engaged, blown main fuse or bad starter solenoid.

Solution: Check battery. Make sure that you are following the correct starting procedure. Check fuses. If the battery tests good but engine still won't turn over, likely suspects include a bad starter safety interlock, bad starter relat or even a bad starter motor.

Ok - at this point - battery is good. Fuses - good. Starter relay is clicking = good (is this a correct assumption?). Could it be a starter motor? If so why would that cause it to ride rough, loose power and die?

Side note: I did have a GPS running off my electrical main circuit.

Anyone have a similar issue and can provide any insight? Help...please...

since the battery is good and fuses are good, I would begin by checking the battery cables for corrosion or loose/ bad ground.

Thanks for responding...as the weekend is approaching. The battery terminals are clean. The negative terminal ground wire was replaced months ago. I have checked the ground and wires. I see nothing out of place. The devil is in the details. I am going to retrace everything again to be sure. I will let you know if a couple of hours. Thanks again.

Check the battery voltage AS YOU PRESS THE STARTER BUTTON and hear clicking.

I will. What volt level should I be looking and hoping for?

AutoZone, Advance, Pep Boys, etc., will test the battery for free. It's definitely worth the time to do it, especially if there is a store close by.

You can VERY CAREFULLY connect your battery charger to the terminals on the starter motor and then plug in the charger for a second. This will tell you if the starter motor is OK or not.

The starter motor has nothing to do with it running rough, losing power, and quitting.

Once you get it running, be sure and have the alternator checked as well. If the battery checks out OK, my guess is that the alternator or regulator/rectifier has failed and you were running just on battery power. When the battery discharged, the bike quit.

It's unlikely the GPS had anything to do with the problem.

Is there any what for me to test the alternator or the rectifier with a multimeter?

In general, it is just a really good idea to test the systems in as modular a fashion as possible.

In order to test your charging system, a good first place is the electrosport trouble shooting guide. I had a devil of a charging issue last year and managed to hobble together a test for every piece of equipment on that bike in isolation.

I've always thought it a good idea to charge the battery, strip the fuses out except for the main one, and see if the charging system is working as it is supposed to. If not, you know it's no subsystem, but the main charging system. If it works fine like that, you can add circuits in one at a time to see what might be the issue.

You can test the main system with a multimeter.

Get the bike running with a fresh battery charge and disconnect the regulator connector. There should be 3 yellow wires coming from your stator. Between any two of them, you should get about 25 VAC at idle and 50-60 VAC at 4000 rpm, and the values should be the same between any pair. If not, you probably have a bad stator (possibly knock the magnetism out of the rotor on the fall, but very very doubtful).

If that comes out fine you can test the regulator/rectifier for normalness from the tests in the manual. If you want, I can send you a pdf of those pages.

When I click that start button and hear clinking, the battery read 10.14 volts. Is this too low or is this ok? When I do not hit the starter, the battery is over 12 volts.

When you say you "tipped the bike", do you mean the bike fell over?

It sounds like you might have a wire/cable that's shorting out somewhere.

You might want to check the ground cable that goes from the starter solenoid and mounts to the engine case, as it just might have been knocked loose and be causing the low voltage readings you're getting when attempting to crank the bike over.

Yeah, she tipped over. Checked the wires and they are all secure. What battery voltage reading should I be getting when I hear the clicking?

Has jumping from a car battery been tried?

Be sure the car engine is NOT running while jumper cables are attached to bike battery.

If things seem otherwise normal with the car battery attached, likely the bike battery is toast regardless of showing 12 volts. (Or maybe just needs water. )

Good Luck!