2008 TE450 mystery

Ripping through the whoops on a trail in Ocotillo Wells and my bike just dies. The green light on the computer was lit and that's it. The tail light still powers up but that's all. Had to walk it 1 mile to pick it up in my truck. Any ideas?

The only things that power up are the rear tail light and the green light in the upper left corner of the computer.

fuse??? but which one I checked the 2 on the left side of the bike. Is this a common problem?

This got me to thinking...will the bike run without a battery? can the stator output enough juice to keep the EFI going?

Thanks for the help.

Could you hear the fuel pump prime when you turn the bike on? If so, the clutch start safety mechanism probably wiggled loose.

Should have a row of 3 fuses on the right side of the battery as well. Is the fuel pump spooling up when you turn the key on with the kill button in the run position? Hopefully your fuel pump didn't give up the ghost.

I'd start by checking all the fuses and that they're seated. Then check for a broken wire or loose connection. May have to remove the tank to get a good look at the harness connectors. Hopefully it'll be something simple.

Clutch safety shouldn't cause it to die while riding though. Only prevents a button start from happening, right?

Check bat connections, if loose will not start also will not charge. Later George

No priming...and it wouldn't show when the bike was in neutral. The computer isn't on either. I checked one of the fuses under the right side panel and it looked good...but I didn't check the other two. I looked at the bigger fuses under the left side panel and they looked good. I checked the clutch safety dingus...and that was fine....the bike didn't stall...it quit while I was riding it.

Battery terminals = tight - Good hint George.

I've heard that some people have broken the battery by riding hard...That was my 1rst guess since I've pretty much tortured this bike. The rear tail light goes on, so there's some juice left which may negate a short in the battery.

I'm a little put off by this...I was relatively close to a accessible road. I'd hate to have this happen somewhere more remote. I'll search but I also wanted to ask what people have done (gel batteries) etc to switch away from the stock battery.

Did you check the starter relay terminals near the battery? If that comes loose there are similar symptoms. Did on mine and several others.

How many volts across the battery with the key off? It might be enough to power the lights but not the EFI.

You said the fuses "looked good". I have been burned by this before. The fuse looked good but it wasn't. The only way I check fuses now is with a meter.

Pull tank and look for loose wire have seen wire come out of crimped connection on coil wire. With wire harness zip tied up could not see or tell, ck ground wire to starter. Pull head lite and check connections also.
Later George

Mine has done this also more than once, for me it was the ignition key. Sometimes when I turn it on, the fuel pump primes other times it does not. So I just wiggle the key back and forth until I get it to prime.

I have moved the ignition key to fit with the HDB handguards mount so I just figured I did not have it secured to well. Do not know if is this the same problem just fyi.

Thanks for the help everybody. Since it's still under warranty, I took it to GP Motorcycles where I bought it. More or less, having the information you folks shared with me will serve me well out on the trail where the luxury of "having Grant do it" isn't available. Spare fuses are going in my trail tool kit. Coming from a bike with a carb and simple electrical system to this is a little daunting.

Chad

What was the problem 1kstep

I've had this happen on e-start bikes in the past.

I hit the kill botton with my knee, then proceeded to disassemble the bike in the field in the the dark looking for a loose wire/whatever then finally noticed the kill botton depressed!

Dooh!

DANG! that's not even worth laughing about...

It's like the time I thought my RMz wouldn't start...I kicked it for about 5 minutes and then my genius friend asked me if it had gas. DANG.

I'll tell everyone what it was when the pros find out.

Solved...

So, the metal buckle on the battery retainer strap grounded out on the starter wiring and popped the main fuse. the mechanic has done something to prevent this from happening in the future; I've not seen what that is but if it's something interesting, I'll take pictures and post them.

Chad

Well that was an easy one...nice! Fuses are cheap and light to carry.

The mechanic put more red tape on the conductor to insulate it. This might be a good trick when setting this bike up. The rubber mount, for what I'm guessing is the starter motor relay, allows the wiring to easily touch the metal buckle on the battery retainer strap. POOF...you're cooked...not to mention if you're going 45 mph through whoops and you get major huck-a-buck when the bike suddenly dies.