Im gonna shoot this damned thing. *Rant*

**JeffL** · 10-17-05, 04:50 PM

So the bike sits for almost 2 weeks due to the rain, silly me never thought to run up to the storage area and at least start it up and let it run during that entire period. So today I get out of work and figure its a nice day, I'll go for a short little ride around town and run some errands maybe. Get there to start it..........put key in, turn it.......no lights, nothing. Great, so the battery is dead.

I didnt have jumper cables in my car, but luckily the building next door was a Leader Home Center, so I walk over, purchase some cables, go jump the bike, no problem. Again, silly me never gave it a thought and proceeded to ride about 3 miles down the road to get gas. Well, in the entire 57 seconds it takes to fill up the gas tank, the battery is dead already. So being a few miles from home, I call and get someone to come down and jump me. No problem again, except I notice something funny when I hook up the jumper cables.........the marker lights and tail light all stay on regardless of whether the key is in or not. So after a few failed attempts at getting it to stay running at low idle, I jump it again and pull the choke wide open and let the thing sit at 4k rpms while I put my gear back on.

So I figure I wont chance it and head straight home to put the battery on a charger. Again, I get home and pull the key out and notice an odd thing.......all the lights are still on. So I figure I'll worry about that later and proceed to start disconnecting the battery terminals so I can bring it inside. + comes off nicely, I go to loosen the bolt on the - terminal and the fucking battery post snaps off the battery. Yay.

So now I have a bike that the lights wont turn off on, with a dead battery that has one of its posts snapped off. Joy. Such is the pleasure of owning a thrice previously owned bike with some hackjob wiring by one of the previous owners and a notchy 2nd gear. :|

Theres a guy at work who has an 01' R6 with 7500 miles on it, about 300 of which hes put on himself in the past 2 years. Hes got about $2500 left on his loan, I'm gonna try and talk him into letting me take over the loan and buying the bike off him.

I'll sell the other ride and I'm sure someone can pull all the lights off it and wire it to be a nice track bike.

**RandyO** · 10-17-05, 05:16 PM

the charging system of a bike will not recharge a dead battery in 3 miles of riding, heck it won't even replace the juice it took to start it in that short amount of riding, bike charging systems don't put out much more juice than a trickle charger..... but I guess you found that out

**JeffL** · 10-17-05, 05:19 PM

Yeah I did.

Its downstairs on the ultra-super-mega-industrial battery charger right now. I'm crossing my fingers it doesnt 'splode.

**01YZF6** · 10-17-05, 05:50 PM

Jeff, your bike will start everytime under compression! no need to jump it !

sorry to hear the woes, but if you can snag the SIX for under 3 k, go for it !

**JeffL** · 10-17-05, 06:08 PM

Originally posted by 01YZF6
Jeff, your bike will start everytime under compression! no need to jump it !

sorry to hear the woes, but if you can snag the SIX for under 3 k, go for it !

Oh yeah, thats the other kicker......

Since the original ignition/wiring harness fried, I got an OEM replacement from a Yamaha dealer, but for some reason with the new ignition, the bike wont start unless its in neutral. The old ignition I could start in any gear I wanted so long as the clutch was pulled in and the kickstand was up. The new one only starts in neutral, so I cant pop-start the bike. I thought of that, and made a few running attempts at popping it, until I remembered it will only start in neutral.

**ZX-12R** · 10-17-05, 06:34 PM

Originally posted by JeffL
Yeah I did.

Its downstairs on the ultra-super-mega-industrial battery charger right now. I'm crossing my fingers it doesnt 'splode.

Very bad idea unless your charger has a 2A or less setting. Depending on the current ratings of your charge settings, a normal charge for a car battery can be too much for the bike battery. I would go make sure your electrolyte isn't boiling!

**JeffL** · 10-17-05, 07:09 PM

Yeah, it has a 2a setting, and thats what its on. I could have put it on the ultra-super-duper 50a boost charge thinger, but I'm not that silly.

I still have no explanation as to why the lights stay on all the time though. :|

Its just the marker lights and taillight, which is what happens when you put it in the "park mode", which shouldnt be an issue, seeing as its a brand new ignition, failure is not an option!

Oh well, if need be I'll take the old body/tumbler from my old ign. and swap the contact board from the new one into that, and maybe then it will work properly. And if not..........fuck it, toggle switch time (again).

**Mad Max** · 10-17-05, 08:20 PM

Originally posted by JeffL
Oh yeah, thats the other kicker......

Since the original ignition/wiring harness fried, I got an OEM replacement from a Yamaha dealer, but for some reason with the new ignition, the bike wont start unless its in neutral. The old ignition I could start in any gear I wanted so long as the clutch was pulled in and the kickstand was up. The new one only starts in neutral, so I cant pop-start the bike. I thought of that, and made a few running attempts at popping it, until I remembered it will only start in neutral.

You should still be able to bump start it in gear. Just because the starter motor won't get power in gear doesn't mean the plugs won't either.

If they didn't, the bike would never move

**JeffL** · 10-17-05, 08:23 PM

I guess I'm just a pop-start noob then.

I was on flat ground, the fastest I could get it going was maybe 7-8mph pushing it running along side, I'd have the clutch in, with it in 1st, key on, thumb kill on, run it up to speed and pop the clutch out, I had no luck.

Not even a sputter.

**Paul_E_D** · 10-17-05, 08:41 PM

Sounds like the new harnes was wired wrong. Always start with the last thing you changed when you have a new problem.

**reiobard** · 10-17-05, 08:46 PM

i haven't seen it on any yamaha's yet but on keira's SV the "park" setting on her bike puts her marker lights and tail light on almost like "parking lights" on a car (to make it more visible while parked). not sure if your new ignition has that and you just never noticed. try turning it to just "off" or "lock" and see if they stay on

**Paul_E_D** · 10-17-05, 09:04 PM

I thought that, then I thought, nah, he'd realize that. But maybe not!

As for second gear, Yamaha's are notoriously weak. If you put miles on one, second is likely to start to let go.

**ssg** · 10-17-05, 09:13 PM

Also don't try popping it in first...if you think about it it's the hardest gear to get RPM out of. 2-3 are usually easier when going 'backwards' like that in terms of ratio's per foot of pushing. The bike is heavy enough to develop compression no problem.

**breakdirt916** · 10-17-05, 11:02 PM

Old bikes, albeit cheap, always run the risk of being mechanically defective

I was lucky enough that the only problems I had on my '89 were cracked plastics. I also sold the bike before 20k miles (when it would definitely need major servicing like new brakes/valve adjustment, etc.).

So no point in beating a dead horse...get a newer bike!

**JeffL** · 10-18-05, 03:05 PM

Yup, its official. Unless a complete new main wiring harness can be found on the cheap, the bike is getting sold, and would probably make a nice track bike

I know about the "park" setting, so to eliminate that altogether, I pulled the plastics off today and disconnected the ignition switch completely. Still the lights stay on. I checked over the harness best I could, but I'm almost positive theres a short in it, and somehow getting power through to the "park" circuit/wire. And its in the main bundle somewhere, because I wiggled/pulled/checked all exposed pieces of wiring and didnt have any luck. So my solution was to take the main fuse which is usually behind the rear-side fairing, and pulled it up under the passenger seat, so when I park the bike, now I have to pull the seat off and pull the main fuse.

I dont mind making all these problems public, because anyone coming to look at the bike is gonna get a run-down on anything I can think of wrong with it, I dont want someone else going into buying it w/o prior knowledge. So.........look for a FS post soon.

But hey, thats what you get when buying older/used mechanics, its a total roll of the dice. I got 3,000 miles and 2 months out of it, it did its job as a learner bike, but now its just too much of a "fixer-upper" than I want to deal with.

I got smart and fixed the battery post and now the wiring terminals are held on with a lock-washer and wingnut for easy removal.

**JeffL** · 10-18-05, 03:57 PM

Found a 92 main harness on ebay.....emailed the seller to see what it would take to end the auction early. If its not too bad, I might just have a project ahead of me.

**OreoGaborio** · 10-18-05, 04:08 PM

**JeffL** · 10-18-05, 04:19 PM

Originally posted by OreoGaborio

I've already pulled the gas tank a few times, and thats about all I need to pull out of the way, along with the plastics and a few other things, but for the most part its pull the main harness out from inside the frame, and plug everything back together with the new harness.

Might not be a bad way to spend a weekend afternoon. I could re-synch my carbs again while I have everything out.

**OreoGaborio** · 10-18-05, 04:35 PM

Not likely they're outta synch again after less than 2 months, but hey, it's practice, right?

Hope it works out for ya & it's good tos ee someone who isn't afraid of workin on a bike & gettin their hands dirty... i'm the same way... Like i always say "Why pay good money to have someone do it right when I can get it done good enough myself for much less", right?

**JeffL** · 10-18-05, 04:49 PM

"Why pay someone to do it right when I can just half-ass it myself for free."

**JeffL** · 10-24-05, 02:40 PM

Hell yeah, the bike has sat for the past 5 days without use, I take it out today, get back and notice that now neither highbeam works, and only one of the low beams works. Sweet!

Im gonna shoot this damned thing. Rant

Thread Tools