Hi all, I've got a confusing problem with my '05 S40.  Yesterday my husband and I went out for a ride and after a few miles he pulled me over to tell me that my brake light was flickering.  I checked it and it was working so I made a mental note of the flicker and we continued on our ride.  A little while later I noticed that my blinker indicator lights weren't working.  While running these two problems through my head, the bike started backfiring and then stalled.  I got it over to the side of the road and it restarted but it stalled as soon as I tried to pull away.  I managed to coast off onto a side road and we both checked it over - full tank of gas, choke off, gas on, all systems go.  My husband started it up and revved it with success.  Then he tried pulling away and it died again but this time it was dead.  No lights, no horn, nothing.  So it was time to ride home on the back of his Triumph and get the trailer.  Once the S40 got back in the garage I hooked up the battery charger.  This morning the green light on the charger was on so I tried the bike again - still nothing, completely dead....but, when I put the key in the PS position, the lights came on.  Does this sound like an ignition problem?  Any help would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks.   ???

It could also be the voltage regulator - if its malfunctioning or badly connected then the battery won't charge.  Eventually the ignition drains enough from the battery to flatten it.

Check the battery connections at both the battery and where the ground wire attaches to the frame and the hot lead to the solenoid. Sounds like when the load goes up the circuit creates enough resistance it won't work. Max

Check under the front right side of the tank for a wire harness connector and see if it has worked loose. I had a loose one on my '02 and it acted the same as you are describing. There is also an engine ground on the lower right side of the engine that can cause problems.

there is a fuse under the seat, i dont know how much it controls the electricals on the bike, but others have had it fail. if you find it blown, look for chaffed/pinched wires somewhere.

mpescatori wrote on 12/31/69 at 16:00:07:


Unless I'm mistaken, the "voltage regulator" on the Savage is really a rectifier unit which would include the function of the diodes usually inside an automotive type alternator. I'd bet money that the Savage's "rectifier/regulator" has some nice size diodes built into it.

Also, something else I was reading struck me as strange... If I understood correctly, the alternator rotor and windings on the Savage, and lots of other Japanese bikes produce multi-phase AC (Alternating Current) instead of two-phase AC like most countries use for household current. This was news to me. I guess they do it that way because multi-phase AC lends itself to easy generation.

The original battery in my 05 S40 died on me two weeks ago (lack of maintenace I'm sure). Exact same symptoms. I charged the battery up to 12.64 volts (multimeter reading), stuck it in the bike and still the same thing. when I checked it after removing it 10 minutes later, the voltage had dropped to 10.27 volts.
Repeat and same thing.
I bought a Deko (Big Crank) AGM battery and now the bike starts better than ever.