F650 GS Twin electrical problem

Hi,

I have a 7 years old F650 GS Twin, it's done 36k miles. Recently, it has developed an electrical problem. The bike starts fine every time, but after about 2 or 3 miles of road riding, the engine would cut out. What I've noticed is that the display goes blank for a second or so, then it would come back with all lights lit and dials moved as if when the ignition is switched off and then back on. Whilst the bike is rolling, I can restart the engine straight away with the clutch in and press the start button. After that, when the engine is idling, it feels like it is going to conk out so I have to rev it up a bit to keep it running. I don't have any equipment attached to the electrical system.

I have checked the battery connection, clean up any dirt and retightened, however the problem is still there. I also plugged in my GS911, it says the voltage had dropped to 8v but the problem is no there anymore, I borrowed a battery condition tester to test the battery itself(with it disconnected from the bike) and it says the battery is ok (the tester has a built-in load and it gets quite hot). I am not sure if it is anything to do with the voltage regulator or something deeper.

Has anyone had the same issue?


Thanks


Ken

Have you checked out this thread?

http://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php/438266-Stuttering-cutting-out-again

Turned out his issue was the side stand switch, although he explored various other avenues on the way to a solution.

Good luck tracking down the gremlin ......................... KEN

Had this side stand issue myself and got to say its an easy one to check first

IOM, not sure if the problem is related to side stand as the display goes completely blank, but will check that also. Thanks.

I think the problem could be the ignition switch. Stripped it down and noticed there is a microswitch, when the ignition key is turned, it turns a plastic round disc thing which then operates the microswitch underneath. The ignition switch module also contains a RF pickup from the chip inside the key, I don't think the problem is with the RF pick up.

I'm hoping it is nothing more than either getting some cleaning fluid inside that microswitch or replacing the switch itself. Another thing I tried is that whilst the engine is running, if I disconnected the battery, the engine stops, so I think I check out the charging curcuit as well.

Whilst the engine was running, I put the side stand down, the engine stopped as it should, the display carried on working. The problem is that then engine stops, the display goes blank for a second or so, then it goes through initialisation as it the ignition was turned off and then back on, very strange.

Bit of an update.... started the engine last night, the engine ran over 15 minute outside my garage without cutting out. I'd check the charging at the same time, according to the voltage readings I took off the battery when the engine was idling and 4k rpm, the charging circuit seems to be working. I'll reset the error log using my GS911, and will take the bike out before the weekend and see if the problem is gone or not.

Electric problem

Any news Ken

Going to take the baby out for a run locally this evening and see how it goes.

Right, I've just been out for a ride in the area totally 13 miles, the bike behaved well and didn't cut out once. Perhaps I have fixed it. So the problem could have been caused by dirty contacts or a dirty microswitch. It was very hard to clean the microswitch since I can't get the thing out to clean it. So how did I clean it? I sprayed contact cleaner whilst pressing the button, maybe some of the cleaning solution had gone inside the switch and done the job, I don't honestly know. But either way, the bike seems to be working now.