F650 electrical problems
 

I´m traveling through Mexico on my 1997 F650 and have lost electrical power to my ignition, headlight and taillight, starting system, and horn, although my clock continues to keep it´s usual excellent time. I´m from the U.S. and speak very little Spanish, but was lucky enough to break down in a neighborhood with very friendly, helpful residents and a resident who speaks fluent English. Troubleshooting so far has involved replacing all three fuses located under the seat, and checking various connections. I originally thought my problem was in the ignition switch, but while investigating various things, we got a flash of light from the warning panel while replacing the seat. The first time I noticed the problem was in Saltillo two days ago. I tried to find the ¨centro¨or plaza in town and got caught in heavy traffic with many stoplights, etc. The bike ran very rough and I put the problem down to bad gas, since I had to use regular instead of premium. Yesterday, I was in Aguascalientes (still am) again in heavy traffic with long stoplights when it died. Because of this, I suspect something is getting hot and shutting down, although a night of cooling off has not fixed the problem. I have now exhausted my electrical troubleshooting skills and need further help. I´ve only seen one BMW since I got to Mexico and I suspect that if there is a BMW dealership it would be in Mexico City. With the problems I´m having, the idea of wandering around a city of twenty million people is not appealing. Any ideas or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Check the battery connection, these have a habit of working loose (on my bike at least) and although they may look good they often a'int.

Its also worth checking the battery itself, easily done by connecting to another battery with jumper cables, if the problem dissapears change the battery.

If your bike is the injected model, try disconnecting the engine computer (moditec) for 10 minutes, then plugging it back in and trying again. Sometimes the poor brainless things get confused and this resets all the 'learnt' values to something sensible.

Just in case you dont know, a good place for F650 spannering techniques/info is www.f650.com, they've helped me out in the past.

Hope that helps.

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Last seen in S.America, missing presumed fed.
http://www.smellybiker.com

What you want is an automotive electrician.

What you have is an open circuit somewhere. Possibly a broken wire or a 'bad' connection.

Does the clock still function when you try to turn things on? If not then a bad connection, probably battery or the other end of the battery negative lead not bolted down correctly?

If the battery is blotted up correctly you could try 'hot wiring' the bike - take a lead from the ignition switch - you'll need to find the wire that runs to the engine kill switch on the handle bars - straight to the battery. That should power up the bike. You'll need to check the brake light and blinkers and horn work though.

I was able to get a truck to take my bike to a motorcycle shop for 200 pesos and the shop fixed a couple of broken wires for another 200 pesos. $40 or so for a process that would have taken $400 in the U.S. Thank you for all the suggestions. I'm now back on the road. San Miguel de Allende is beautiful and the road from Guanajuato east is a spectacular motorcycle road. I reccommend it highly.

Pippin