SV650 Weird Electrical fault

[JonT]

Bike in question: 1999 SV650S (carbs)

Last week on a nice sunny day I noticed my bikes display was going heywire, the speedo and rev counter would keep dropping to 0 and then back to normal and a light would keep flashing (i think it was the fuel light or engine light thinking back).

I stopped and continued and the problem seemed to go away.

Today on a one hour motorway trip in the rain a similar thing happens, the needles drop to 0, the fuel light flashes and the tachometer goes off and on.

I tried turning the headlights off and the problem resolved itself, the display went back to normal.

I turned the lights on again though because it was quite rainy and I wanted to be seen, I could tell the headlights were still on from the reflection in the rain and on cars infront. I had to just guess at my speed.

Then I found another weird thing, someone was going to pull out on me so I geared down to 5th and slowed down, the guy changed his mind so I accelerated back up to 90 in 5th. Once over 7.5-8.0k revs the display went back to normal even though I had the headlights on. I tried gearing up to 6th and the display went crazy again.

So it seems that I can either have headlights off and its fine, or headlights on and stay over 8k revs!

What could be causing this?

[kat250]

Sounds like the same problem i had on mine. Check battery terminals are tight and check the block connector behind the cover for the clocks on the left hand side.
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in the famous word of jimmy pop "would you F*ck me for blow"
In the words of banditshigh "would you blow me to f*ck"

[True Blue]

Might be worth checking if your alternator is working correctly. Sounds like a low voltage problem.
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[Guest]

yeh, stick a voltmeter across the battery and make sure you're getting 14+ volts when you rev it.

Failing that, connection loose or bad earth on the clocks like babykat says

[crazymotorbik...]

Hey,

I kept getting this on my GPZ400R as well as my RD350.

When it got wet the tacho would go crazy, sometimes flicking right round, other times not leaving the stop.
Turned out to be the connection at the back of the clocks. Water was getting in and shorting it out.
I know this because i put my hand behind there one day, while it was playing up, and got a belt right down my bloody arm.

Sealed the connector block with tape and it seemed to cure the problem.

I also give the back of the clocks a good coating in WD40 to drive any water left in there, out.

Hope that helps,
Shaun.

[the grim reaper]

I had this on my Varadero and it was the battery on the way out. A lot of any bikes electrics, especially sensors, require a healthy 12V to even work in the first place. On the Varadero, the speedo sensor has three wires going into it, one is a 12V supply (the ground is supplied by the engine block) and the other two are the differential signals to tell the electronic speedo what speed I'm doing.

If it was the altenator, the battery would just die completely but, if the battery wasn't holding charge, as mine wasn't, running with the lights on puts enough strain on the battery to stop the sensors from receiving a proper 12V. Mine would die and then come back and die again and then come back again, speedo and temperature sensor. Running with the lights off saw everything come back to normal again, replacing the battery worked (so the new owner found out).

Cheers

Grim
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[JonT]

Thanks guys I think i'll try everything thats been suggested.

A bit of WD40 is inexpensive and its always nice to have a spare battery :p

[JonT]

Hi again, I've been continuing to suffer with this problem for nearly 2 months now, i've had it in the garage twice and they are still baffled.

All the connectors have been fully sprayed with WD40 to remove water as the problem, the left side block connector has been replaced by a water proof one.

I find it hard to beleive that the battery is on its way out becuase the bike starts like a champion every time! Sounds like a nice strong kick from the starter motor so its hard for me to think that this battery is dying (there is a chance it isn't a strong start just me thinking it is due to getting used to it, doubt it though).

If the alternator was working incorrectly surely the battery would of died over the last two months (I don't charge it seperately).

The bike had not received any physical damage in over a year before the clocks started going funny so I doubt its damage from impact.

Something i'm not sure if i've mentioned is the fuel light always flashes whenever the clocks die or come back to life.

Please help me! (will give good karma :p)

[Handsome]

Sounds like a bad earth or bare wires touching.....
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Previous Bikes...Honda NSR 125 RR...Kawasaki Zephyr 550...Suzuki SV 1000 S...Yamaha FZ8...Current Bike...Suzuki GSX-R 750...

[Phil_G]

a new battery will cost around the same as an hour of your mechanics time - why not give it a punt - and if it doesn't cure it, then fetch the battery back to the shop for a refund?


Also, I presume your mechanics checkedout all the earth points on teh bike to ensure a good solid connection?
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1997 Kawasaki ER 500 A1:- Once again, Its merely crap

[krebsy]

Sounds like a short somewhere in the system.

then again I had a similar probblem with an old Fiests I used to drive, plus every now and again one of the cylinders decided it wasn't going to fire.

Turned out to be a failed engine management system chip. I had the same "0 on the rev counter" thing after a long drive etc.

K.
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1280 x 1024.

[the grim reaper]

FWIW, my Varadero also started easily but it was still the battery that was the cause of the problem. The biggest drain of current from your battery are the lights, 55 Watts at 12V gives a current draw of 4.5 amps. Your battery has enough juice to turn the engine over, as mine did, but, when you've been riding for a while with the lights on, the battery output drops below 12V because the battery requires a bit more current to charge it than normal but the lights are taking it all. Once the battery output drops below 12V, a lot of the sensors on your bike will stop working because they are 'active' sensors (they require a power supply to work).

Buy a battery, check your charging circuit and then notice how it doesn't happen again

Cheers

Grim
____________________
Adverts don't always work: Remember that advert, where the army are running across the desert and they have a wounded man on a stretcher. They get to a ravine, the bridge is down and a caption pops up that says, 'What are you thinking?'. I don't know about you but I was thinking, 'Christ, I'm glad I'm not in the f***ing army'.