Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum

Yesterday at the Creek Chris's bike just totally died electrically speaking.

He was on his third lap half way through turn 1, got on the gas and it just spluttered and struggled. It just made it through 2 and 3 and then died going down the hill to 4. Tried to start it and nothing, just the dead battery sounding click when you hit the starter.

You turn the ignition on and everything happens as normal but when you hit the starter you get the click and everything else dies totally ie dash lights etc, the ignition resets and goes through the normal start process.

Being an electrical Gumby, anything beyond dead battery has me knackered, so here's the question. If the battery totally shit itself would it do this or are we looking at something more complex eg regulator rectifier etc.

With two weeks to PI any advice would be much appreciated.

Id start with battery and look for loose connections, terminals etc. It could also be a dodgey fuel pump, stator or fuse or relay. Track bike batterys dont get started every week so they dont last as long generally

What Hoffy said but also a common electrical problem that is exactly as you describe is bad or corroded battery terminal connectors. Place a volt meter on the battery, (not on the terminal connectors) and try to start it. If the voltage on the battery stays at 12v but does the same clicky shit, then put the volt meter on the battery connectors, (not directly on the battery terminals) if voltage drops to zero when you try to crank it you have corroded terminals or a loose connection to your battery. If however the battery voltage drops to something way less than 12v when you are connected directly to the battery the battery is farked. God drinks beer.

Thanks Guys

I spoke to Glen at Allfixed this morning and he reckons its the Battery so I'll give that a crack first.

And if the battery is cactus when you get a new one if it starts make sure that it's running at 13.8-14.2V when it's running otherwise your regulator/rectifier could have shit itself and you're just going to suck the life out of the new battery as well. Report back with voltage across the terminals when it's running at idle with the new battery .

Bogan wrote:And if the battery is cactus when you get a new one if it starts make sure that it's running at 13.8-14.2V when it's running otherwise your regulator/rectifier could have shit itself and you're just going to suck the life out of the new battery as well. Report back with voltage across the terminals when it's running at idle with the new battery .

Will do. Gotta get one of those electrical metery measurey things though.

glen let me know when you're getting the new one i'll drop aroung with my meter after work and we can test it.... Busy wed night tho at tallica

deadX6

Glen remember the SV at Marulan...... almost dead battery = headache, hope that all its is mate

robracer wrote:Glen remember the SV at Marulan...... almost dead battery = headache, hope that all its is mate

Yeah it's a pain in the arse when they go so hopefully that's all it is. It was a weekend of electrical gremlins. Have a similar problem with my boat. I went to dewinterise it ie take the cover off it and start it and hello hello, nothing..... tried to charge the battery still nothing so I thought a new battery was in order. Laid out $160 and guess what.......still nothing. I rang the boat shop this morning so I have it booked in next week for my annual marine raping. The only thing I've got going for me is that I got the guy some cheap steel for his warehouse so I'm hoping I might get an "at cost" fix.

A wise man once told me that there are two good things about a boat.....buying it , and selling it. Everything in the middle just costs you buckets of money

Ok so we put a new battery in and we've still got the problem. Now when you hit the start button you get the click but now nothing dies and it sounds like the starter or something is spinning.

When it first went everything was fine and then it run like a dog ie it was missing, coughing spluttering etc.

Now you put a mutimeter on the battery and when you hit the start button it drops to 9.6 volts and the spinning noise carries on.

With a week now to PI I'm thinking we're screwed so I'm going to drop it at Glen's (Allfixed) tomorrow and if he's got the time see if he can check it out. If anyones got any words of wisdom tough it'd be much appreciated.

hmmmm. i have a zx10 with a blown fork seal if you get desperate...

I'd offer my bike too, but Chris wouldn't want to ride it lol

9.6 volts does not sound abnormal when starting as the starter motor draws a lot of current and will cause a voltage drop. It sounds more like a bad starter clutch. Pull it out and inspect it. If the starter is not engaging it sounds more like a starter clutch problem than an electrical problem. I am not familiar with how your starter assembly works as we have different bikes but I would pull my starter motor and do some inspecting.

oldman wrote:9.6 volts does not sound abnormal when starting as the starter motor draws a lot of current and will cause a voltage drop. It sounds more like a bad starter clutch. Pull it out and inspect it. If the starter is not engaging it sounds more like a starter clutch problem than an electrical problem. I am not familiar with how your starter assembly works as we have different bikes but I would pull my starter motor and do some inspecting.

Yep that was Glen's first thought this morning. He's going to pull the cover off it this morning and have a look. First step is going to be to see whether the engine will actually turn I hope it does.....or Chris hopes it does. The interesting bit is how it actually died in the first place though ie running flat out then just dying.

..............hold everything...........

The phone just rang, it was Glen It dropped a valve and the engine is totalyy pharked, bits of valve in the airbox, holes in pistons, head destroyed............

Anyone got a spare engine for a 2007 ZX6..........................

Looks like the roady's getting a run at PI. Thanks for the offer Wattie and Pinchy but I'll load the roady up.