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Hot power failure, crazy marker and shutdown. Problem similar to that of our friend @Clipper!

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Victor YourSelf

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Discussion starter · #1 ·
Hello Guys,

My name is Victor, and I am writing in desperation from Spain. After searching a thousand forums in my community I have found here the symptoms of what seems to be a very similar fault to the one @Clipper had.

I've had a gsxr 750 20th anniversary for 3 months. Everything has been going perfect until the weekend I decided to go out for a 2 hour ride with some heat.

So far the bike had used it only to go to work and small rides and its functionality is perfect.

When I had been riding for an hour and a bit, I saw with my eyes how the bike electrically turned off although the engine was still running. I could check it because the dial was turned off. The needle went all the way to the end and then the whole electrical system came back on. It was doing it more and more until I got to a traffic circle and the engine shut off.

It's like I was driving and we turned the bike off with the key, because it stopped dialing anything. When we press the red button the marker is still on, that's why I say it's like turning it off from the key.

In the afternoon once I got home, I disassembled everything and touched the wires of the relays and with the ignition on the bike made electrical strangeness. As if it turned on but not, something very strange.

I also saw that the negative terminal was a little loose but not enough in my opinion to lose electricity. I have seen many threads and I am going to check all the electrical connections, clean them well, check fuses well and I will install a fan in the control unit to cool it to see if I can alleviate the problem.

Does anyone know what could be happening? Thank you very much in advance.

Regards,
 
#2 ·
Interesting...

I mean checking the terminals is good, and I'm going to say the same thing almost everyone says, but check for battery voltage and stator/RR if you haven't. Any electrical issue affecting more than one thing at the same time is usually a voltage/charging/battery related problem. Worth checking and relatively easy to check first.

My K4 750 had burnt harnesses when I bought it. I just pulled the entire engine and front-end harness entirely off the bike, and went to town replacing burned wires, fixing damaged areas, cleaning connectors, using my multimeter to check for continuity, etc. I would say if you don't have a voltage/charging/battery related issue, the next most common thing is an issue with your grounding. Might as well be all those issues if you have a ground issue, since everything on a vehicle relies upon an accurate and stable ground.

Hope this helps.
-Mike
 
Discussion starter · #3 ·
Thank you very much Mike,

It's a pleasure to listen to you all, I don't understand too much electrical stuff, I'm a computer guy.... But I hope to learn a little more with you every day.

I'm going to check the terminals. I will also disassemble the wiring that goes to the ECU and look at the pins, along with those of the fuse box. It is true that I have changed the flasher relay for a leed flash because I have put the leed turn signals and I do not know if that could affect....

When you say ground, forgive my ignorance, what wire do you mean? what connection should I check? Thank you!

PS: Tomorrow I get a multimeter to check voltages! I will keep you informed and especially if I find the solution so that someone can benefit from it because I have found many threads but people almost never post how to solve them. It is nice to see a thread like Clipper's.

Greetings!!!
 
#4 ·
There's a big connector under the left ram air tube that connects the front harness to the main wiring harness. With the key off, check resistance across that connector. You should be able to back probe it on both sides. You'll likely find a high resistance or open circuit. Possibly multiple bad.
 
#5 ·
^^ I thought of that as well, but that doesn't prevent the bike from running. Mine had exactly that issue. You can run the engine and drive the bike with no front cluster or harness at all.

That's why I was thinking it might be something worse, and maybe then it's not actually the front harness, but an issue that manifests on those devices on the front harness like the cluster and lights.

OP, ground is just all the black (usually black) wires on the harnesses. It's the electrical reference plane that every sensor and electrical component on the bike uses to measure voltage (and thus sensor readings). Just about everything on the bike has a ground lead somewhere.

-Mike
 
Discussion starter · #6 ·
Perfect, guys,

I'll get the multimeter and the contact cleaning spray tomorrow. I will follow your instructions to the letter.
I also want to say that I found something this afternoon. The regulator is spliced to the wires with insulating tape. Apparently they burnt the wires and made this mess.

I'll start checking the battery voltage, at idle and at 5000rpm to see what values it gives and I'll report back to you.

I will also repair all the connections and clean the contacts.

Thank you very much for your help.... It is something super strange, as I said is to go in motion more than an hour and with some heat and as if someone turned off the bike from the key because the box is turned off and on again alone ... some things that I had never seen before.

Could it be that I washed the bike with a pressure gun a few days before?
Thanks!
 
Discussion starter · #7 ·
Today on my way home from work (40 minutes approx) driving from Barcelona to my village in 3rd and 4th gear at 6000-7000rpm and heating it to 104-106º with an ambient temperature of 20º and nothing... perfect. These breakdowns or problems make you go crazy .... especially because it is so complicated to replicate the conditions and test at the moment of failure...

I will keep you informed, if anyone can give more opinions or anything, go ahead!

Thanks.
 
#8 ·
That loose battery terminal could cause all sorts of problems, even if you think it was only a little loose.
Power washing can also cause many issues that resolve themselves with time.
Before you go crazy pulling it apart I would just quickly check connectors, put dielectric grease in every one and go for a ride. Bring a multimeter and some tools with you just in case. The more you start pulling pins out and pulling wire harnesses apart the harder it's going to be to track down the problem. One step at a time.
 
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#9 ·
SparkyMJ said:
^^ I thought of that as well, but that doesn't prevent the bike from running. Mine had exactly that issue. You can run the engine and drive the bike with no front cluster or harness at all.

That's why I was thinking it might be something worse, and maybe then it's not actually the front harness, but an issue that manifests on those devices on the front harness like the cluster and lights.

OP, ground is just all the black (usually black) wires on the harnesses. It's the electrical reference plane that every sensor and electrical component on the bike uses to measure voltage (and thus sensor readings). Just about everything on the bike has a ground lead somewhere.

-Mike
Click to expand...
I guess I was confused. I though he said it cut out electrically but the motor stayed running. Now it looks like a combination of things. That loose terminal could be the root of all of it.
 
#10 ·
I had to read the post a few times too, but I am also understanding that the engine died at the same time as the dash (i.e. the engine didn't continue to run). @Victor YourSelf, please confirm.

Even so, it sounds like a different issue to mine as my bike didn't electrically die completely. My dash stayed live and only the ignition circuit of the ECU failed.

I have not heard of, or read about the heat issue in the ECU affecting any other functionality of the bike apart from that, but I guess it is not impossible.

You are right though, the dash going out on its own won't kill the engine.

The loose connection sounds plausible, but that wouldn't be something linked to the heat would it?
 
#11 ·
Victor YourSelf said:
Today on my way home from work (40 minutes approx) driving from Barcelona to my village in 3rd and 4th gear at 6000-7000rpm and heating it to 104-106º with an ambient temperature of 20º and nothing... perfect. These breakdowns or problems make you go crazy .... especially because it is so complicated to replicate the conditions and test at the moment of failure...

I will keep you informed, if anyone can give more opinions or anything, go ahead!

Thanks.
Click to expand...
By the way, the "heat related" ECU failure doesn't seem to be triggered at such "normal temperatures". I could ride mine with the faulty ECU all day long at 20º ambient temp. It only failed with over 35º. That's why it took me so long to diagnose it. I had to do long test rides in July and August only, otherwise it wouldn't replicate the fault.
 
Discussion starter · #12 ·
Hi guys,

Sorry for not explaining myself exactly, my English is not perfect... sorry!

The basic problem is that after an hour or an hour and a half, the box turns off, the electricity goes out of the box but the mode continues to work whether I go to 60 or 70 kilometers per hour on route. The frame turns off, turns on again, turns off, ect several times, and more and more and if I happen to be decelerating, the bike shuts down.

It is as if it was It's as if we were in gear and the electrical system shut down but the bike continues to run.

Today I will check voltages! I got the voltmeter. I will inform you of the results.

Cheers!
 
Discussion starter · #14 ·
Hello colleagues,

Today I checked all the connections, and all the fuses. Everything seems OK. I have put contact cleaner on all the connections. I have checked the connections of the regulator and I have taken off the insulating tape and I have seen that the splices were welded so I have put new insulating tape and insulated all the connections.

I checked the voltages. The battery at idle is at 12.12 volts with the ignition off. When you turn it on at idle it's at 14.20 and at 5000rpm it goes up to 14.36. I think these are correct voltages and when the bike is at 105º it also gives more or less the same voltage.

I'm going to change the indicator and kickstand relay because I see that it's a bit loose... But otherwise everything seems to be OK. What else can I check?

Thanks!
 
#15 ·
You need to be very methodical in your trouble shooting.

I studied the wiring diagram and identified the wires which, if losing power, would cause the symptoms I was getting. Then I tapped a small digital voltmeter onto each of them in turn and went riding with the display of the voltmeter mounted next to the dash so that I could monitor the voltage of the wire in question.
If you start this process you may be able to see where you are losing electrical power.
 
Discussion starter · #16 ·
Thanks for the indications mate.

I have checked these voltages and I have already seen that they are approximately the standard. I would like to be able to measure everything at the time of failure but it is very very complicated. Today the bike after 45 minutes of riding, has been perfect... but of course at 15º of ambient temperature.

I will keep you informed. If anyone else can contribute something will be welcome! And if I find the key I will inform you here!

Best regards
 
#18 ·
Jimmyboy said:
in my 180,000 miles I’ve changed 3 ecu‘s.
Click to expand...
Man that is rough. I am still in the camp that ECU's should never just 'go bad' but I guess they do. I would almost believe that a sensor failure or wiring issue would usually be the co-culprit in killing an ECU.

At least in my car mechanic days as well, we never just replaced an ECU or TCU and everything magically worked again. It was always accompanied with a sensor that went bad, shorting wires, fluid that leaked all over electrical stuff, etc.

Jimmy was that your experience replacing ECU's? Short of seeing actual burnt pins on the ECU or having done something seriously wrong with electrical wiring, I've actually never seen a bike in person that 'needed an ECU'. What has that looked like for you?

-Mike
 
#19 ·
Mine was an intermittent problem that started to happen in the 45 min run time. Problem with ecu is no one can test it and tell you it’s good or bad. Imo it makes sense to have a xtra one to add to your tool bike for these types of issues
 
Discussion starter · #20 ·
The problem is to buy another ecu and have it be the same or worse.... We will continue the tests. I will do what Clipper says with the diagram and wiring.

On the other hand I have noticed that the bike in some places has connectors that are not in place so I fear that it may have been manipulated. For example above the shifter area there are a couple of connectors and at the end of the bike there is also another connector ... It would be from the automatic transmission or a possible power unit. But everything is apparently fine. I will continue to check the wiring as the hot voltages are also the same and it seems that the system is going well.

I will continue to report!
 
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mikelstudy
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