Need Troubleshooting Ideas

Going down I15 South on Expressway at 75 mph in 5th when suddenly had no thrust. First thought was transmission slipped out of gear and into neutral, downshifted looking for a gear and found nothing giving me forward motion, thumbed on turn signals and they did not work, managed to get over onto right shoulder and rolling to a stop when my gauges started sweeping and all the idiot lights appeared to come on as if I just turned the ignition on.....I shifted into first and had forward thrust again.

Having a quiet helmet, loud traffic whizzing by on both sides of me at 70-80 mph and a very quiet exhaust I can't be sure if the engine ever died during this event but twisting the throttle did not produce any power and it felt like the engine had quit. It seems to me I would have heard and/or felt the engine revving if it were still running as I tried to find a working gear. Then the gauge lights all coming on briefly and needles sweeping appears to be the ignition turning on as if I had just switched on the ignition from the off position seems to confirm that both the electrics and engine had quit and then was running again when electrical power was restored. I am assuming the engine can restart without needing me to engage the starter......like you can when push starting a car. All of this occurred within 10 seconds or so.

If my observations are accurate what might cause the ignition to turn off and then on again? I'm certain I did not turn the kill switch off and then on again. I replaced the ignition switch about 6 months ago with Decosse's keyless unit. Also replaced the regulator/rectifier with the Suzuki unit several months ago.

Faulty main fuse? Faulty brain? Faulty relay? Faulty kill switch? ??? Thanks for any suggestions.

Faulty ground strap connection? Okay, I guess no one has any more ideas than I do......bummer. So, I'll start with the battery connections and work my way outwards from there.

I had the same thing happen to me about a month ago. Right after I installed a new battery. I also have keyless. So I checked the main 30 amp (little bit loose) fuse, cleaned all battery connections, including the chassis ground and replaced the battery in the key fob. Not sure if this was the issue, but will see.

Very strange I have 08 classic and had trouble with main connector under tank loose connection.All instruments would go out and then come back on again but never happened when riding.Think if engine stopped it would have tried to lock up unless clutch was in that's what happened to me when engine cut out once had to pull clutch in quick . Think electrical route would be best place to start.Good luck wish I could be more help

Jag said:

I had the same thing happen to me about a month ago. Right after I installed a new battery. I also have keyless. So I checked the main 30 amp (little bit loose) fuse, cleaned all battery connections, including the chassis ground and replaced the battery in the key fob. Not sure if this was the issue, but will see.

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A few weeks ago I accidently left my FOB on the bike's seat for about 12 hours and wondered if that discharged the FOB battery and/or the bike's battery enough to be a problem. I decided to install a new FOB battery just to be sure. After this happened yesterday I wondered if accidently pressing the FOB button could shut down the keyless ignition. I tried that with the engine at idle and pressing the button until I got the red light on the FOB but engine and electrics kept running. I still wonder what happens when the FOB battery dies while the engine is running.

bigprop said:

Very strange I have 08 classic and had trouble with main connector under tank loose connection.All instruments would go out and then come back on again but never happened when riding.Think if engine stopped it would have tried to lock up unless clutch was in that's what happened to me when engine cut out once had to pull clutch in quick . Think electrical route would be best place to start.Good luck wish I could be more help

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As far as I know everything inside the engine and transmission still rotates even when rolling along without combustion.......my car engines have never locked up when running out of gas......which, sad to say, has happened to me more than once.

RockOn said:

As far as I know everything inside the engine and transmission still rotates even when rolling along without combustion.......my car engines have never locked up when running out of gas......which, sad to say, has happened to me more than once.

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Bumped the kill switch slightly?

My guess ifits not any of the battery terminsl conections to include connections at the starter's and engine case for the ground. You ignition is starting to go out. Bet the white wire is not looking so white. Also since you haven't mentioned it my guess is youdid not do the head light relay mod. Only guessing where I have been

atlsrt44 said:

Bumped the kill switch slightly?

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Well, I don't think my thumb or fingers were near the switch but it is possible......wondering if a flaky kill switch could have jiggled loose enough to lose contact.

warp9.9 said:

My guess ifits not any of the battery terminsl conections to include connections at the starter's and engine case for the ground. You ignition is starting to go out. Bet the white wire is not looking so white. Also since you haven't mentioned it my guess is youdid not do the head light relay mod. Only guessing where I have been

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Well, as I mentioned in my original post I have De'cosse's keyless ignition and have disconnected the OEM switch. I may be wrong but I thought his system eliminated the need for the headlight relay modification.....???

But you might be onto something with your mention of the starter and engine ground points......thanks for including those in my things to examine.