Key on, battery charged, fuses good... dead bike
 

Hi all.

Bike's a 95 yama virago xv750. Worked fine one night. The next day, it's got no instrument lights or headlights, and makes no effort to start.

I figured I came in tired and accidentally put it in park without noticing, put it on the charger, let it charge, still nothing. Main fuse was good, ignition and other dash fuses were good. Reseated all the wiring connectors to cover bases. Still nothing. Looked around for a worn out wire somewhere or some other ground fault.

I can't think of much else that can completely kill the bike to the point that no lights will come on. So, I'm turning to the power of the internet for some help. Thanks in advance.

I've had that when the main earth cable came undone (in a motorway service area!). Vibration kept enough of a contact there while the engine was running but it was completely dead when I came back to it. I suppose you've checked that though.

It's pretty solidly bolted down... pulled it off and reattached for good measure. Still puzzled. :funmeterno:

Do you have 12v at the starting relay?

Check the wires for the ignition lock aswell.

build yourself (or buy) a simple test light and start checking where do you stop seeing +12V following the wiring diagram.



plenty of youtube video on how to use it for fault finding


Surely its something silly, but unlike mechanic stuff, you cant see it and have to be methodic about it


pulling and pushing on connectors is going to get you only so far

That was helpful, found the problem in about 10 minutes, thanks. :D

what was it then? or too embarrassing to tell ? :)

Kill switch was off and wired as the only feed to the key switch :innocent::rofl:

Andy

Faulty wiring coming off the main fuse housing. Not sure where that is on the embarassing scale, but I'm putting it somewhere between "Not worth bragging about after fixing" and "Huh, that was easy... why didn't I just figure that out on my own?"

That's some interesting wiring.

The kill switch should only kill the ignition circuit.

I'd rewire that as a kill switch isnt amp rated for the main switch.

Petrol and matches was the best solution to that one. I could get my hand down under the tank far enough to feel the huge gob of tape where the former Kawasaki loom turned to bell wire. You could see why the bloke bought it, 7 years old and looked like new. The first owner must have given up riding to concentrate on inventing electrical time bombs.


Andy