ok so my bike is currently stranded at a gas station about a mile from my apartment. here's the story. hopefully someone can point me in the right direction.

was on the highway on my way to work. had gone about 2 miles and the bike started sputtering...speedometer dropping to zero then back up. my gas light had just come on so I figured I was out of gas (usually have about 30 miles after it comes on though). So I sputter and coast it off the next exit and into the first gas station. Fill it up, starts up fine. Start riding down the road, get up to about 45 and it starts sputtering again, but just short occasional bursts. So I pull into a parking lot and ride around for a minute to see if it continued. At this point I just wanted to get it home. Start taking the backroads home and its doing the same sputtering thing about every 30 seconds, where the speedometer drops to zero and back up. Then my yellow engine and red battery lights come on on the speedometer while im riding. they go off and on once or twice over the next mile. I'm about a mile from my apartment and come to a red light and the bike just dies. I push it into the gas station at the light and its completely dead. No lights, nothing. I let it sit for a few minutes , turn the key, lights go on. Turn the bike on, fuel pump goes, lights look fine. Go to start it, 2 clicks and it dies completely again. If I let it sit for 5 minutes or so it will do this routine over and over. So I walked home and now here I am.

can someone please point me in the direction of whats wrong. it seems like something electrical to me. is it just the battery is dying? This is my first bike so really don't know where to start troubleshooting. At ths point I just want to get it home to the garage. I'd push it the mile but its about 1/4 the way up hill over a bridge.

 

I had an issue on a TC88 that was very similar. Turned out to be the voltage regulator.

 

^ sounds just like a bad voltage regulator. BUT, before you go into purchasing one, make sure your battery and ground connections are all solid, no corrosion and tight.

 

Definitely sounds like the voltage regulator. My brother's RK had the same exact thing happen while I was on it one day, and I had to end up leaving it on the side of the road until a wrecker could pick it up and get it to the house. I checked all the connections and replaced the battery to see if that was the problem, and it did good for a day or so until the new battery lost all of it's charge. After that, my brother had it towed to the dealership, and was told it was a bad voltage regulator. Once that was replaced it has run like a champ since.

 

thanks for the help so far guys! seems to be a consensus that its the voltage regulator. Any way that I can get it started back up to go about a mile (if that) to my house? I don't have a truck or trailer, and really don't want to pay for a tow. If I charge the battery up would it run for a few minutes?

 

I had enough juice to run the fuel pump & was able to push start'er. Good luck!

 

Push starting may work to get you a mile or so. That's what I did, and I got about a mile or so before it died again where I had to leave it on the side of the road. I hear ya, having to pay for a tow really sucks. Luckily my brother had a connection that got it done for free.

 

x2 on checking the battery terminals..mine had exact same symptoms, pulled battery, wire brushed terminals and connectors clean, then tightened them, as tight as I could also using washers to try to eliminate vibrations. Have not had any issues since..

 

kontankerous/mobillyala - you guys nailed it. Just made the trek back to the gas station with my tools, prepared to push the bike a mile or have it towed. Took out the battery and both the positive and negative terminals had about 1/4 inch of slack in them, about to come out! Tightened them both up and it ran like brand new. Can't believe how loose these came. Have to assume it was never tightened down fully by the previous owner! Is it ok to put Loctite on the terminal screws? Or any other secrets to keeping them tight going forward? Definitely purchasing a travel tool kit today. Can't let something as stupid as this ruin my day again!

 

Geezus...



Don't locktite'em. Just synch'em down good. lol