Dodgy Electrical Fault
 

My 998s has developed a mind of its own. When im riding along the engine suddenly decides to switch itself off, I then have to coast over to the side of the road, switch the bike off and then on again and the bikes fires into life. This has been going on for the last year.

Recently a new fault has raised its head.

If I turn the key there is no noise from the fuel pump. After about 5 attempts the fuel pump decides to work and the bikes fires into life but when I switch the headlights on the rev counter, temp guage and indicators stop working - after about 5 minutes riding it all starts working again. Also with the lights switched off the rev counter only registers if the engine is doing more than about 5000 revs.

Its almost like there isnt enough juice to power all the instruments as well as the lights.

Could the faults lie with the rectifier or could it be a bad earth or a relay ???

Anybody got any advise, its doing my head in

Burn it








in seriousness do you have a volt meter ?
if so you could check the rectifier issue quickly.
otherwise by all means check the earths. I am afraid I don't have a quick fix solution. hopefully someone who has experienced similar will be a long to save the day

Hello ROACHMAN

sounds like its defo an electrical issue,

new fuel filter
check all fuses/connections for burnout
clean all connections to the battery
check regulator with a multimeter

I still have a slight problem on my bike
with rev counter doing its own thing,
so will be checking connections too and from ecu under the seat.

good luck

TopiToo

James it does sound like a volt drop problem, I would check the earths and even try running a seperate earth between the battery -ve and a suitable point on thr front harness, like the -ve terminal on the back of the Temp gauge or tacho.
Other than that checking with a voltmeter to see if you have 12 volts in certain areas again the back of the tacho and temp gauge are easy places to check once the fairing is off.

If you think its the ECU at any point I have a spare for my 998 you are welcome to try

Had a similar problem with a 996 years ago, did it quite a few times, appeared to come back from the dead by waggling the main battery leads.

If everything is dead leccy wise I'd check the battery connections, are they clean and tight?

Ray.

It sounds like all the symptoms experienced by a friend on his 916 a couple of summers back, it was his regulator dying slowly over a period of 2000 miles through spain and france the electrics slowly went to electrickery heaven in the last 500 miles, indicators failing, going onto one cylinder, fuel pump, revs not showing......................replaced the item when returning home following the last 300 miles on the back of an AA truck and all was well.

Good luck

Wonder who that was nige ?


and i wonder who this is ?? i do remember certain hand gestures warning passing french motorists not to buy a certain italian brand, then you go and buy one ! but at least you joined the gang suffering a major failure. welcome to the club.

Roachman

As for your 998 just dying etc, mine does this occasionally since I fitted Termi`s and the new ECU. With mine, I beleive its a mixture problem as it starts up ok imediatly after it shuts of and only does it after a thrash from high speed, sometimes it does it just after a back fire in the air box!

Just a thought - try replacing the fuel pump relay which is under the battery and very vulnerable to moisture and corrosion. They only cost abnout £5 - I had similar probs with cutting out whilst riding and unreliable starting - new relay solved it.

Spin

Ah - memories of a red hot Spanish trip...............And then I bought one.

Ive got a brand new 998s ECU here if you need to try that mate..

Nat

I did once have a similar problem, it turned out t be a bare length of wire o the back of th fuse board...Maybe you haven't checked that ??

Best of luck

Monomoo

Ive cleaned all the connections I can find but to no avail

Nattyboy, Ive replaced the race ECU with the road ECU but that hasnt cured it either.

I am wondering if its the connections to the ignition barrel - I hope so , I will look at it at the weekend.

When the bikes switched off the parking light works. When the ignition is on the idiot lights work fine but when I put the lights on or the indicators the idiot lights go off ??

Its got to be something simple but I am running out of ideas. I cant afford to take it to the dealers. Bikes been off the road for 2 weeks and counting

This sounds like a bad earth. have you checked the earthing points to the frame ? other place to look would be the swivel connector on the righthand side near the airtube connecting the front loom to the main section. mine was also doing some odd stuff until i replaced the whole loom with new sections. all odd faults suddenly vanished. does it have an alarm fitted ?

At first I thought it sounded similar to problem seen on 749/99 - if pump fails to energise its normally the cheap little relay located (on 749/999) at base of battery compartment - but failing lights and spurious rev readings ? Its possible there are more than one faults of course, check your fuel pump relay anyway.

CRM 250

How many earthing points are there?

Ive checked the one that goes from the -ve battery terminal to the engine.

There isnt an alarm fitted

Hence my earlier post in this topic about running seperate earths

OK Skids,

Ive got a voltmeter but im not very electrically minded. If I unplug the temp guage is it just a matter of sticking the voltmeter probes in with the ignition on, is there any risk of short circuits ??

How do I do your other suggestion of an additional earth. Do I just run a piece of wire from the -ve battery and stick it in the temp guage -ve ?

If you get no joy try an auto electrical centre, just watch what they charge you.


Chris:burn:

Yep thats about it,

As for using a voltmeter, there shouldn't be any issues with shorting things out

James how far are you from Lambourne. I am over there on Sunday taking the engine out of my TZR.
I could pop over and try a few of the things I suggested.
I was suggesting adding a seperate earth to somewhere on the back of the clocks to see if there is a earthing problem, I could also bring my Multimeter and check out a few other things.

Skidlids, I live about 10 miles form Lambourne, SN6 6JS is the postcode. I am in most of the day Sunday apart from between 1.30 and 3.30 (sons football match). I would really appreciate it if you could help me.
Let me know if you can come and I will give you directions

Roachman