1 Electrical gremlin Wed Sep 09, 2020 5:43 pm
davemadsen
Silver member
My 1987 K100RT has been a reliable and trouble free bike for years and many, many miles and I try to do my part in keeping the maintenance current to include keeping most of the switches clean, corrosion free, and slathered in dielectric grease.
Recently the bike has taken to going dead as it idles or, more commonly, as I come to a stop. The engine doesn’t falter, it is as if I hit the kill switch. Up to this point this seems to be a typical short or poor ground (and either of these could in fact be the issue). But I want to mention a couple of things I noticed to aid one of you gurus towards pointing me in the right direction:
The problem occurs once in ever 20 or 30 stops
When the bike dies, the gear indicator goes blank - and then after 10 seconds or so, the indicator comes live and the bike will restart.
And today’s secret clue is this: the low fuel light comes on. The low fuel light has not worked in years and the tank was about 3/4 full (and verified by a fuel gauge and a recent receipt from Chevron).
During the last two occurrences, I refrained from panicking and flipping switches and pushing buttons, rather just I waited ten seconds or so until the gear indicator came live, at which time the bike restarted and I continued on my way. It was during these panick-less stops that I noticed the low fuel light burning.
The purpose of this post is hopefully get advise from you on where to start, as opposed to spending my time in a direction which doesn’t make sense.
Dave
Recently the bike has taken to going dead as it idles or, more commonly, as I come to a stop. The engine doesn’t falter, it is as if I hit the kill switch. Up to this point this seems to be a typical short or poor ground (and either of these could in fact be the issue). But I want to mention a couple of things I noticed to aid one of you gurus towards pointing me in the right direction:
The problem occurs once in ever 20 or 30 stops
When the bike dies, the gear indicator goes blank - and then after 10 seconds or so, the indicator comes live and the bike will restart.
And today’s secret clue is this: the low fuel light comes on. The low fuel light has not worked in years and the tank was about 3/4 full (and verified by a fuel gauge and a recent receipt from Chevron).
During the last two occurrences, I refrained from panicking and flipping switches and pushing buttons, rather just I waited ten seconds or so until the gear indicator came live, at which time the bike restarted and I continued on my way. It was during these panick-less stops that I noticed the low fuel light burning.
The purpose of this post is hopefully get advise from you on where to start, as opposed to spending my time in a direction which doesn’t make sense.
Dave
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Dave