[mroberto]

My bike just presented me with this problem yesterday. While running, the bike's electrical system will completely die for a split second, then return. The headlights, instrument cluster and engine all shut off. When the power comes back on, I haven't even had a chance to pull in the clutch so the engine fires back up, the instrument cluster goes through it's starting sequence, and everything is fine, until it happens again. I've had this problem occur when idling, at high RPM/high speed, low RPM/low speed. In a 20 minute ride, this can happen about 3 times randomly.

I checked the battery connections. Both are clean and properly connected.

Does anyone have any idea what the likely cause could be? The power is intermittent and I haven't blown the main fuse, so I'm ruling out a short unless a short could happen slow enough to kill the power but fast enough to not blow the fuse.

My other thought is the ignition switch.

Miscellaneous fact: I have a homemade GPI installed on the bike. It’s been on since the beginning of the season and I haven’t had any problems with it. It also returns to life when the bike turns back on.

Any help you guys can give me is greatly appreciated!

Thank you everyone!

 

[TeeRiver]

...I checked the battery connections. Both are clean and properly connected...

Besides the connections at the battery terminals, some other things to check would be:

- The other end of the battery cables where they bolt to the case (negative cable), or at the starter relay (positive cable).

- Possibly an internal fault inside the battery (broken post or inter-cell connection).

- The green connector that connects the ignition switch to the bike's main harness. This is more common on the early SV1000s, but has happened to a couple SV650s.

- Ignition switch like you've mentioned.

- Bad connection anywhere along the Black/Red wire that runs up from the starter relay junction to the green ignition connector.

Hopefully it will fail hard and make itself easy to find. In the mean time, I'd be very careful riding that bike. Having power cut out unexpectedly in a turn or when, say, making a left hand turn in front of on coming traffic could be lethal. Good luck!

 

[mroberto]

Thank you very much for your help! I've marked up a wiring diagram with the points you've mentioned as well as a couple of others. I'm going to try to have a look at it this afternoon.

I've already parked the bike. Once I realized that this wasn't a momentary issue, I stopped riding it.

But I do agree - I wish it would fail completely. Then it would be cut and dry. These intermittent failures are so hard to find sometimes.

 

[Hedgehog]

Do you have any custom wiring at all? Turn signals, etc? What does the GPI do? Garage opener? did you have to cut into the harness? I had similar symptoms before my harness connection for the front lights burnt out and I had to have the electrical harness for the bike replaced ($100 off eBay vs $500 oem plus 4 or 5 hrs labor).

 

[mroberto]

Thanks for the response hedgehog. The GPI is my Gear Position Indicator. I don't think that's the problem, however.

This morning I found some time to go look at the bike. My plan was to start it up and let it run while I removed the seat and propped up the tank to start poking around. Much to my delight, however, the bike wouldn't turn on. Turned the key, and nothing happened. I guess I got my wish of a hard failure!

So as a result, I decided to start with the ignition switch. I moved the air box out of the way and found the green connector. When I pulled it apart, and it took some effort to do so, this is what I found:

One pin was corroded and had melted the plastic of the connector surrounding it. This happened on both connectors. I de-pinned the three good pins and cut the two melted ones out since I couldn't just slide them out. Now I'll be able to remove the contact, clean (or trim) the wire, re-crimp a new contact on and replace the connectors. I just ordered the connectors/contacts/seals from Eastern Beaver Company for $9.74 USD (shipping included). URL:

http://www.easternbeaver.com/Main/Elec__Products/Connectors/Sealed/SM-HM/sm-hm.html

Specifically, it looks like part number 4P090WP-HM is the one I want because, a) it's a 4 position connector, and b) it looks like it has the appropriate clip on the side so I can mount it back on the tab that I removed it from.

If this doesn't solve my problem, I'll be back. Thanks for the help guys!

 

[TeeRiver]

If this doesn't solve my problem, I'll be back.

Haha, pretty sure you've found it! Excellent job. :thumbsup:

Thanks for posting those crisp (in more ways than one!), photos. Also, how many miles do you have on the bike?

 

[Hedgehog]

Glad that was a quick fix and hopefully that gremlin is gone for good.

 

[mroberto]

TeeRiver, I'm sorry I forgot to answer your question. I had almost 20,000 KMs (not miles) on the bike when this happened. I've put a few thousand km's on it since then and I haven't had a problem.

Now to correct something I said earlier: I don't think this was caused by a corroded contact, but rather by a loose contact. A loose contact will arc which generates heat and, after causing the gap to widen, it will create enough heat to melt the connector.

 

[TeeRiver]

TeeRiver, I'm sorry I forgot to answer your question. I had almost 20,000 KMs (not miles) on the bike when this happened. I've put a few thousand km's on it since then and I haven't had a problem.

Thanks for the info mroberto. I was asking so we might build up data on what years are failing and with how many miles. The Green Connector problem started out on the SV1000, especially the 2003 model, but we're seeing it happen more often now on the SV650. Seems like the older bikes with more miles fail more, and well, duh, that makes sense! Well, now we know that 12,000 miles is not too early to see this happen on the '650...

...I don't think this was caused by a corroded contact, but rather by a loose contact. A loose contact will arc which generates heat and, after causing the gap to widen, it will create enough heat to melt the connector.

Yeah, that connector is sealed well so I would agree that corrosion is not the issue. Loose contact, maybe due to faulty manufacture (bad crimp, undersized pin, poor plating, etc... ?), or perhaps just undersized for the application?

Considering that little pin passes 20+ amps, it doesn't take much resistance to make lots of heat. Even 0.5 ohm contact resistance is going to generate 20 watts in that small area!

Either way, it's a dangerous place to have a failure and I'm surprised Suzuki hasn't done a recall. If anyone gets seriously hurt, there would be no problem proving to a jury that this has been a clear long time failure.

 

[dave256]

Wellity, wellity, wellity...

http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/8237/062an.jpg

http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/217/065ln.jpg

http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/7914/068nsb.jpg

http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/1616/069vv.jpg

Exact same thing MrRoberto! I am going to order that connector part. One more quick question: is the new part difficult to install? I am not particularly mechanically inclinded, but could I do it with the right set of tools? Could you guide me through it? I really appreciate the help man.

 

[hydrogen18]

dave256: Why does it look like your airbox is full of liquid?

 

[D'Ecosse]

Another good reason to do the headlight relay mod .........
Get the most significant current load out of that circuit completely.

 

[dave256]

hydrogen, I dunno. Is it supposed to be perfectly dry? I had never been there before, but I took the air filter off and figured that is how it was supposed to be. Just now that you mention it I guess it should be dry, huh? Wassap with it you think?

 

[dave256]

The pic might be deceiving...it isn't "full of liquid" just in the lowest part there is a tiny puddle a couple of inches square and a quarter inch deep...blackish dirty gasoline. But again, it should be perfectly dry I guess?

 

[mroberto]

Another good reason to do the headlight relay mod .........
Get the most significant current load out of that circuit completely.

D'Ecosse, what is this relay mod you speak of? I did a quick search but couldn't find any solid info about it.

 

[D'Ecosse]

... what is this relay mod you speak of?...

http://eviltwinsbk.com/forumz/index.php?topic=516.0

You will get improved headlight performance AND better reliability from your OEM wiring by diverting all the headlight current through relays.
The optional 'starter-headlight-cut' relay will also give you better starting voltage by reducing the total load from the battery during cranking.
(starter-headlight-cut relay not required on 05+ bikes - 'cut' is already incorporated in those models)

 

[hydrogen18]

hydrogen, I dunno. Is it supposed to be perfectly dry? I had never been there before, but I took the air filter off and figured that is how it was supposed to be. Just now that you mention it I guess it should be dry, huh? Wassap with it you think?

I'm a 'shadetree mechanic' but in my opinion the side of the airbox opposite the filter and intake should be very clean. It's perfectly normal for the other side to(top in the case of the SV) be dirty,greasy etc as the filter should prevent it from ever getting past that point. I don't know how you would have gotten so much liquid in there to be honest. Maybe the PAIR system is malfunctioning and water from the exhaust is getting into the box? I'd start by cleaning up the box and figuring out what the liquid is, then trying to figure out where its coming from.

 

[dave256]

Cool, thanks for the advice hyrdrogen18.

 

[Maverick]

WELL, this happened to me and I didn't think to come on to the forum to see if it happened to anyone else. :dizzy:

I have a SV1000 K3 with 59958 miles. Yay! about to break that 60K mark but anyway this happen to me on a ride and this was the result.

So, after not being able to get the bike started and getting home it didn't even take me 15 minutes before i found the problem so at first I thought that crap my ignition switch is bad so i was just going to take it out and found this to my surprise. **** hard to detach!

WTF I thought so wth i just buckled down and searched on line and came across the EasternBever.com which has a 20 minimum for purchases on line. lame! Nevertheless, 4 parts and a week later i had my part and now it was time to install this beast. I thought I counld save the current connecter pins but was unable to save any of them so i just replaced them all and probably was best anyway. After much electric tape, crimping, and (little) snipping, all is well for now.

This is what I used, now there is a crimp called the single terminal crimp from American Autowire
for $100.00 :cussing: or if you are machanically able then i say just do what i did.

Here is a better look at what happened to my connector, wow!

Literally! :dizzy::blob8:

anyway here are a few pictures of the repair. All is well now. I guess I should have guessed something was worng when a few weeks ago when i would turn on the bike I didn't hear what I think is the fuel pump ingauging and i would have to turn bike off and then on again but didn't happen often just once in a while. I also have notice that since this repair (2 days ago) that has not happened either.

Now, for those that know of my previous problem with the speedometer I will be posting about that next week. Heads up, check -

A Good Crimp

male side done!

female pins done! Um, i would recommend tapping connectors before inserting into female case. It would be easier to a line the wires a long the harness before inserting into female case or just disconnect battery (bing!)

tape wires up good from water protection and good to go.

Hope this helps anyone that has experienced this problem. Since it being a continual problem i am sure it will. Happy riding to you all and drive safe.

Crap, so everything works good but when i put the key in the "P" position the parking lights don't come on.......

I am sure that I did everything right. Here is the thing though, the Male side connector has a Red, Orange/Yellow, Green, Brown wires & the female side has Red/Black, Orange/Yellow, Red, Brown wires. I have viewed the harness digram and I am sure that I placed everything as need but you tell me...thanx.

 

[D'Ecosse]

^^^ Those 'crimps' look inadequate (well intended)
Without the correct crimp tool, you might consider soldering them for additional conduction.

Also, as suggested earlier, you should also consider the headlight relay mod to prevent recurrence of the issue.

Dominant colour is first - what you are calling Red/Black is actually Black/Red.
Also, the connector 'gender' is defined by the terminal pin, not the connector shell.
So you have those references also backwards I believe.

I believe the Black/Red in the main harness should go to the Red on the Switch Harness.
Those should be largest gauge respectively.

The Black/Red on main is definitely the one on the input pole - if you disconnect the switch you can validate that the Red one is the equivalent on the Switch harness - simply turn the switch to Park and see which wire reads 'short' to the Brown wire (which is the parking lights) - it should be the Red wire.
If so, ensure the Black/Red goes to the Red.