Had a wee issue....

[Tal]

Sunday was looking good weather wise so i put it out to a few cobbers about a ride up the coast to Kaikoura for a beer...its about an hour and a half ride and very enjoyable.
Five of us went and when we arrived we fueled up before having a fizzy drink and some lunch.
I went to start my bike after fueling and it just made a small click and the dash went out and nothing!...I took the key fob out of my pocket and turned it off and back on again and tried it ...nothing...i put the sidestand up and everything came back on and she started...but the service light was on and i checked the menu..The time and date had reset back to the year 2000 and the time was all wrong. I reset it all and carried on around to the Pier Hotel as planned.
When i got there i turned the bike off and it wouldnt bloody start again!..After fiddling with things it fired up again.
When we were ready to leave it did the same thing and i had to reset everything so i left it running and rode home.
All the way home it was on my mind.."Might be the keyfob battery?...'no, i changed that recently'....must be a loose earth strap cos everything goes back to factory settings'...
When i got home i took my bag off and lifted the seat...sure enough the negative coupling on the battery was very loose!...i had added a digital tyre pump wiring recently and the bolt had come loose!...I added a spring washer to the bolt and tightened it all down real firm...
Hopefully, fingers crossed, ive fixed it...had me thinking all sorts of bad things for a while!.

 

[Ishrub]

Wow I thought we had a 'Back to the Future' event there for a while and we were all 23 years younger!

A good 'sort' @Tal for a common problem as with road vibrations etc, even tightened connections can loosen.
I was surprised to read in my preparation to use off grid solar and 12.8v Lipo4 batteries that it is important to use a torque tool when making your connections especially with high load currents and ensure flat terminal surfaces that closely match the battery terminal surface contact. Almost like an engine head, to ensure good even current flow over the complete surface to again prevent heat and reduce resistance.

The problem may not be evident with low amp power consumption or with the bike/machine already running but put a heavy starting current amp load on a poor connection and it overheats first even if it does start but will usually fail to transmit enough current when just touching.

 

[Ishrub]

I think that something similar may be part of the cause of some of us heavier riders who have melted our main 30amp power fuse in our Roadster's fuse box after using the factory rider seat without the under seat plastic airduct fitted when RamAir or K&N pods filters are fitted. Initially the contact of the seat base squashed the fuse block down and by flexing it the fuse loosens causing it to eventually overheat, melting the fuse block around the fuse and allowing the connection to move away even if the fuse itself hasn't blown yet!

If you can pull the old fuse out you can remove the fuse block and switch those terminals over to the spare 30Amp fuse space adjacent. Mine were unfortunately completely melted into the fuse block and wouldn't come out even with multi-grips so I cut and piggy backed in an inline fuse instead.

 

[Jagster]

I had a loose positive connection happen to me when I was riding my KTM 990s Adventure during an IAM (Advanced Motorcycling) assessment ride.
The bike suddenly started misbehaving. The engine was running, then not running as i'm riding along the road at 50mph. The dash was doing strange things etc...
It certainly added some extra entertainment for the riding assessor who was following behind me.
Fortunately I managed to pull over safely and together we found the problem and resolved it. No damage to the electronics thankfully.
Never happened to me before and has never happened since.

 

[Starmanut]

I had a similar problem 2 weeks after I bought my 2010 Touring. With lots of help from this forum I was able to trace it to a secondary cable coming of the positive battery terminal grounding out on the frame. Replaced the plug on the end of it and has been smooth sailing since.

Glad you made it home and got it sorted out!!

 

[Dr.D]

I had a loose /poor contact ground wire give me problems on my Indian Roadmaster. I cleaned and sanded down the whole works and added that electric grease and now I'm good to go.

 

[stingray]

I carry small wrenches under the seat for that continuous problem. The Rocket 3 just vibrates the ground loose unless frightenly tight at the battery. There's no telling how many service visits have been paid over a loose ground connection.