Bike quit on way home ...

'07 VFR800 non-ABS. Ran 400+ miles today w/o issues until just 2 miles from home. Then she just up and quit?!? Still had fuel, starter cranks fine, headlights good. No F1/MIL indicator anymore, and no fuel pump whine either? I need to check fuses but too tired tonight. What about bank angle sensor? Ideas/suggestions appreciated ...

ACE

 

sounds like a fuel pump fuse...
try starting the bike in the morning....then check the fuse

 

..and I thought I was bad telling the guy with the EFI to choke his bike.. Crusty is choking the chicken again.

 

can you hear the fuel pump running when you first turn your bike on? I know this sounds dumb, but it could also be your kill switch...

 

Well, looked over the bike a bit where I left her with a friend, then brought her home on my trailer. There is no fuel pump sound when key turned on. The FI indicator flickers rapidly when the starter is cranking. Wiggled the sidestand & tugged on the wiring there. Opened the RH switch cluster and took a look at the kill switch wiring, looks solid. Checked the fuses under the RH side cover.

I guess it's kind of a good thing that this has happened b/c it made me take a close look at the fuse/fuse holder near the battery. The 30A fuse is intact, but the fuse plastic body has melted back from the fuse link itself. The fuse holder shows obvious signs of over heating as does the wiring leading to this holder. But, that's not my specific issue so I pull off bodywork in the AM & do some more looking.

Thx,
ACE

 

The saga continues ...

So, both 30A fuses are ok. FWIW the sidestand switch operates as expected when ohmed out, the kill switch relay clicks away as the kill switch is moved from off/on/off, but the fuel cutoff relay does not appear to engage (no clicky sound). I removed the battery to give it a good charging & eliminate that possibility (voltage appearing at one side of the kill switch relay was 11.6V). Re-seated a number of connectors as well, including the ECM connectors. :frusty:

ACE

 

Is this a stock machine or does it have a power commander?

Rollin

 

Basically stock, no pwr cmdr ... the way the battery tender has been working, my battery was darn low for just having ridden quite a distance & having a fairly new battery ...

ACE

 

Excellent info ACE,sounds like you're troubleshooting is right on track. You indicated that voltage appeared on ONLY ONE side of the engine stop relay (kill switch relay as you called it).

Your 2007 is slightly different than my 2003 so I'm not entirely sure if the wire colors in your wire harness are the same as mine but here goes anyway.

The Black wire with the Pink stripe on the engine stop relay is the Supply power wire. When that relay is switched on (that's the click that you hear) you should also be seeing power on the Black wire with the White stripe.
Is there power on that Black wire with a White stripe on the engine stop relay when the keyswitch is turned on?
If not than that engine stop relay is possibly faulty because it's not supplying power on that Black wire with a White stripe to the fuel cut-off relay.

 

Part one of problem resolved ...

Many thx to all who responded, I've fixed the issue of my VFR not starting ... the battery was too low. After a full re-charging & install, my bike starts/runs .

Now to the issue of why the battery got so low. I still had headlights & a good cranking starter, but I guess not enough voltage to the ECM maybe. In my 'old days' of TTL logic, if the 5V supply dropped low enough then chips would not register a 'high' when they should've ... so I guess it's time to check charging voltage, tomorrow .

I did have a GPS unit & a radar detector running during my trip. I also run HID low beams that may pull a lot initially but should settle to about 35W when on. And I have a Gorilla alarm system tied in to the battery. Maybe the quiescent current draw is too much??? Any thoughts about this path?

Thx again to y'all :biggrin:.

ACE

 

Final thoughts about this ...

After more reading thru old posts about late model VFR electrical issues, it appears that the problem most closely related to what I ran into has to do with the fuse holder and wiring near the battery. This is the wiring from the R/R I think, and mine definitely needs attention. So, even though the bike runs after a full charging, I will make this particular repair and hope I don't have this problem again :biggrin:.

Thanx,
ACE