Electrical problem (need guidance)

[conor]

Hi All, I recently bought a 2003 BMW R1150 GSA which I immediately took out for a day ride. Everything was working great then I parked it for about on hour, hopped on and left my buddies place and it started making a high pitched squealing sound, originally I thought it was the clutch plate because it seemed to make the loudest noise at idle but when the revs increased the noise went away.

I got to about 4 blocks away from home when my dash blinked and the power cut out completely. I could not get power on the dash and with the ignition turned to on nothing happened, the bike would not start, dash did not look like any power was going to it. When home I did some research and see that the alternator or belt are common failures so I started to think it was most likely this that caused the problem.

I took off the alternator cover and the belt is in good condition, the alternator did not look darkened or burned like it had a short circuit, I smelt no burnt electrical wiring.

I removed the fuse box cover to see if I had blown any fuses and sure enough the 15AMP fuse for the control dash was blown, I replaced it with a new one and turned on ignition but nothing happened, did not blow the new fuse, no power to the dash, unable to turn over.

My next step is going to be to remove the fuse box and look at the wiring on the bottom side of the fuse box as the wire where the 15AMP fuse sits looks to be split.

Can any of you suggest a methodical trace route to start looking at electrical wiring for common failures, bad grounds and general trouble shooting of battery, alternator, starter, grounds and wiring looms.

Any and all help is much appreciated.

 

[dieselyoda]

Sounds like a lot of work skipping the basics and a ton of guessing.

Start with the fuses, actually pull them out, look at them for blown/corrosion. Look for anything green in the fuse box.

Grab the connections to the battery and give 'em a twist. Look for "bloom" at the connections.

Look at grounds, lately my favorite source of being overlooked by mechanics that have significant credentials.

You can always pull every relay, put it back in and see what happens.

Should cost you 30-60 min time and $0.00 parts.

Then, you can start on the next set of basics that will cost you time and $0.00 parts.

No wonder my boss is always on my back for service profit margin. Can't run a successful service department unless parts are cost +50% and labour getting charged out at $140.00/hr and billable time is 110%.

 

[gsaddict]

1) What is the battery voltage presently?
2) Many bikes of this vintage had the ignition switch harness zip tied to tight. This eventually led to the wires breaking and the entire bike to shut off.

I'd start there.

Note that the Ignition switch feed circuit is unfused.

 

[conor]

Sounds like a lot of work skipping the basics and a ton of guessing.

Start with the fuses, actually pull them out, look at them for blown/corrosion. Look for anything green in the fuse box.

Grab the connections to the battery and give 'em a twist. Look for "bloom" at the connections.

Look at grounds, lately my favorite source of being overlooked by mechanics that have significant credentials.

You can always pull every relay, put it back in and see what happens.

Should cost you 30-60 min time and $0.00 parts.

Then, you can start on the next set of basics that will cost you time and $0.00 parts.

No wonder my boss is always on my back for service profit margin. Can't run a successful service department unless parts are cost +50% and labour getting charged out at $140.00/hr and billable time is 110%.

Thank you Dieselyoda. I should of mentioned that I already pulled all relays and fuses to look for any damage, found nothing. Also looked at the battery connection and wires and found nothing. I will start taking the bike apart and looking at the wiring and ground connections. Currently waiting on my Clymer manual with electric schematics to arrive.

 

[pauls1150]

Instead of waiting for a schematic, try https://www.mac-pac.org/tech/electrical-diagrams/
They're for the RTs, but a GS won't be all that different.

Expanding on GSAddict's comment, scrutinize the fat harnesses that go up to the handlebars (especially the right side) and up to and under the ignition switch.

 

[sweatmark]

If it was me, I would consider new battery for new-to-you bike. Eliminate one potential cause of electrical issues, with peace of mind from full knowledge of usage and maintenance history.

 

[riderr1150gsadv]

Both dieselyoda and GSaddict make very valid points. In addition, I would check the alternator belt for proper tension by twisting the belt 90 degrees. If it takes a lot of effort to get past this point the tension is good. If you easily get past 90 than you need to tension the belt a bit. 90 degrees provides the proper torque setting for the belt.
Good luck!

 

[roger 04 rt]

Conor,
To debug this problem you need a DVM. Do you have one? What’s the battery voltage?
RBI

 

[RPGR90s]

Ignition Switch

I would also be looking at the ignition switch harness AFTER reporting back what the battery voltage is.

"2) Many bikes of this vintage had the ignition switch harness zip tied to tight. This eventually led to the wires breaking and the entire bike to shut off."

I had this happen on my '04RT around the 60k mark. Symptoms were ignition cut out intermittently as the handlebar was turned. Upon inspection of the wiring, only about 3 strands of the RED wire (Battery +) was remaining.

 

[conor]

Problem kind of solved. Tested battery and it only read 10.8V on multimeter, tried to plug into my battery charger and it would not read the battery. Brought a buddy over, we tried jumping the battery in the bike and it wouldn't work. Took the battery out of my VFR and set up a ground circuit from battery pack, to battery, to motorcycle and it ran just fine. Checked voltage when bike was on and it was at 13.9V idle, so everything appears good with the bike next to the battery.

The 15AMP fuse to drive display that blew had a wire in it's socket to bypass the fuse, we pulled the wire out, put a new fuse in and everything appears ok.

Bad and good news is moving the fuel tank to access the battery caused a small fuel leak, checked fuel hoses and and they look to be in bad shape (dried out and cracked), looks like the prior owner didn't use the right fuel line or clamps.

Next step is to replace all fuel lines and clamps with proper pieces. Take a part the top end and check valve clearance, replace both head gaskets, spark plugs, oil, fuel filter, air filter.

Checked all the wires at the handlebar, did trace routes on grounds and circuits. Everything looks good, to my surprise all the wires and harnesses appear to be in good shape without any cracking in the outer shells which made me very happy. Chasing electrical gremlins is a time consuming and meticulous job.

Thanks to everyone here for all the help and suggestions. Only weird thing still was the squeal which I think was due to the alternator belt slipping a bit and the battery not having enough charge to run the bike. We shall see though.