I was cruising along the HW for about 45 miles at about 65 to 70 mph, happy as I could be, smooth sailing. I took the exit that leads towards my home and as soon as I slowed down to approach the exit the bike started to act up (first thing I noticed was that the lights deemed very fast) like it if it was running out of gas but, it had plenty of gas. I was able to keep the throttle high and managed to reach the traffic light but the bike died on me, no power whatsoever, none.

I had to push my bike about 3 miles until I reached my home. It was one of those days I couldn’t find anybody for assistance  . I was glad I live in Florida (flat!), it was a very cool spring evening, about 65 degrees, and that the bike was an S40 and not a Harley. Still those 3 miles seem like 50 and the bike weighted a ton! :'(

But thanks God I made it home safe. Earlier today I pulled the battery out and tested and it was completely dead, no charge. Left it at the auto parts store charging overnight (trickle change).

I looked at Clymer’s and in page 210 talks about the “Charging System Output Test” and I will try that as soon as I get the battery fully charged. Now, the guy at the auto parts store mentioned that maybe the stator was bad on my bike, I do not know?

The battery is about 9 months old, the bike only has 2,200 original miles (is a 2005). What else should I look or check for? Has anybody had that experience before? The bike dying on you because your battery was all of the sudden without a charge?

Any hints?

Thanks!

There are no loose connection. Now, bad connections? or a bad connector? I wouldn't know. I was thinking also about the voltage regulator but, I will wait until somebody (like you mentioned) with more experience suggest a route to check for the problem (battery not charging)

This is the problem solving diagram for charging system:

1. First check the battery that battery is ok
2. Engine running, check what comes out of rectifier with voltage meter, must be around 14v to charge... IF NOT ->
3. Check what goes into rectifier when running... 3wires... measure each pair (1-2, 1-3, 2-3) thay each should give you the same amount about 100V... IF NOT -> Stator is broken..
IF stator pairing are OK your problem is the rectifier.

On my 87 I bought 2 years ago, there were now charging. I had to change the stator.

Connections are ok, straps are ok. I have not gotten the fully charged battery yet to do the test

We were able to isolate the problem:
•      It was not the battery
•      Nor the stator
•      Nor the rectifier

It is a short on the tail light (that we had just replaced earlier).

When we connected the battery the bike still had no power so, we checked the fuses and one of them was blown. Put a new fuse and the bike started right away, no problem. Still, something must have blown that fuse, correct?
We checked the lights, turning signals, horn, etc, etc and everything seems to be in order. We pressed the brake pedal and Viola! The fuse popped.  

We started to trace back what we had done earlier in the day

We had replaced the stock tail light for a cat’s eye tail light (see picture).

When we were installing the new tail light we noticed that the new tail light only had two cables instead of three cables like the stock light (light, brake light, and ground). So we swapped the light bulb socket from the stock light for the new tail light. We tested and it worked fine, we were still using the original cables and connectors. Everything worked: lights, brake lights, etc. So, I returned home via the HW and that’s was the story I was telling when I started this discussion.

We have not been able to find where the short is occurring, every time we press the brake or step on the pedal, the fuse pops. Now, I was able to ride until I got in the HW with no problem (I used the brake a few times here and there) the problem started when I was exiting the HW and the lights deemed and then the bike died (now, we know why it died, the fuse)

We are baffled; we are using the original light bulb socket with the original three cable connections, why the fuse gets blown?

Qwapy,
Just a suggestion. Before you start tracing wires all the way back to the brake lite switch take a real carefull look at everything you did to the light assy. you installed. Whenever an unexpected problem suddenly crops up after a modification of any kind the first thing I'm suspicious of is the mod itself. Take a peek at anything you touched when installing the new light. Might save some time.

Qwapy wrote on 04/10/13 at 05:36:43:



I'm doing fine. Just waiting for some warm weather

Is the housing for your new light metal or plastic.? If it's steel I'd check to make sure you didn't pinch a wire when you swapped the socket from the stock light assembly.

From your discription of the problem it sounds like your new housing is grounding to your frame somehow, be it the mount bolts or the light fixture to the housing.