Bike wont start at all after short ride

i have a 95 VFR750 tonight after a short run i tried to start the bike to put it in the garage after about an hour sitting' tried the ignition Nothing , No lights nothing totally dead , fuses are ok , could it be the RR ?
same thing happened last night but after a few seconds it came to life .

Cheers
Andy

 

Just a couple small things to confirm before digging deeper...

Make sure your battery terminals are wrench tight, not just crappy phillips screwdriver tight.
Replace you main fuse even if it looks ok.
Jiggle your key in the iginition and see if lights flicker. Conversely, if/when it happens again, switch over to park and see if your taillight comes on.
When it is running the next time, use a voltmeter and see what it is charging at.

These are just some of the dumb quick things I do on other peoples bikes when they complain about similar issues.

 

Sure sounds like the Captain has nailed it. You've got an intermittent electrical supply fault and my money (if I had any) would be on the ignition switch contacts being dirty. The switch lives under the ignition key barrel and has rotating copper contacts with some grease; yours might need some cleaning and re-greasing, once you gain access they are pretty easy to work on. The fact that it was totally dead not just hard to start would rule out the battery, alternator and RR for me.

 

Tried all of these things my friend , still nothing , i have the battery on charge will see what is happening in the morning
it is a Tour Max RR so it looks like an aftermarket part ?

 

hmmm good shout there , could be a thing , is it easy to get to ?

 

. just had a look at the manual , remove the yoke and its held on by bolts , thanks .

 

The bolts may be Torx holding the ignition to the yoke. And they certainly will have threadlock on them. I think you can probably get into the switch without necessarily removing those bolts?

 

Did you switch to "PARK" or "P" and see if the tail comes on? The park function rarely, if ever, gets used, so it doesn't wear like the other contacts. That's why it's my initial switch test.

 

follow the black negative battery lead down to where it's bolted to the engine block to see if the connection is clean and secure. i think you can access the ignition switch contacts without removing the switch from the yoke, just 2 or 3 small screws.

 

I think there's a detente spring and a ball bearing in there somewhere to positively locate the positions...watch where that goes!

 

While a good general tip, 3rd & 4th Gens don't have a "PARK" function in the switch.

 

Hi Andy.
Additional to all of the above good advice. Not uncommon for a battery to self destruct with an internal short, so, what is the state of your battery?

If your battery is ok.......
Question - Is your Clock displaying normally?
If not and you've lost power to it (Measure the voltage at Clock Fuse F. Ignition to Off) then you can forget the Ignition Switch as the Clock power is Not via the Ignition Switch. In this case check the Main Fuse 30amp at the Starter Relay. Check that the wiring and connections within the 4P plug at the Starter Relay are all good.

Ignition Switch easy test. If you DON'T measure 12v at Fuses ABCD or E at switch On and everything checks out good at the Starter Relay, then your Ignition Switch OR its wiring to and from are faulty. Assuming major Grounds are good, battery condition and tight terminals etc.
Good Luck.

 

starter relays can melt down

 

Just in the transmission?

 

All fixed now , thank you everyone was the ignition switch connections oxidized and dry , cleaned and greased and all good now

 

Great news; thanks for letting us know the outcome.