Electrical Failure - Not sure what next step should be.....

[brewdapp]

Looking for some guidance. 1996 R1100GS - went outside this morning looking forward to the ride to work. Turned on ignition and all lights were normal. Hit the starter button and everything went black. Battery is 3 years old (BMW Battery) but has been on quality trickle charger unit. Put the starter/charger on the system - dash lights came back but began flickering very strangely. Heard a whining/buzzing sound coming from fuse box - Relays in position 6 and 7 (#335) make a very odd moaning sound. Turned the whole thing off and thought perhaps I killed my beloved GS. Can anyone give me an idea (short of visiting the very expensive dealer diagnostic bay) of what I might be looking at? Could this be a dead cell in the battery? Did I torch the Motronic something or other? I'm willing to research, learn, turn wrenches myself and generally do what it takes to revive my riding companion. All help, guidance, suggestions and pointers are greatly appreciated.

Thanks! :dunno

[jingdog]

Whats the battery voltage? Did you try to jump it?

[Flyer5]

Looking for some guidance. 1996 R1100GS - went outside this morning looking forward to the ride to work. Turned on ignition and all lights were normal. Hit the starter button and everything went black. Battery is 3 years old (BMW Battery) but has been on quality trickle charger unit. Put the starter/charger on the system - dash lights came back but began flickering very strangely. Heard a whining/buzzing sound coming from fuse box - Relays in position 6 and 7 (#335) make a very odd moaning sound. Turned the whole thing off and thought perhaps I killed my beloved GS. Can anyone give me an idea (short of visiting the very expensive dealer diagnostic bay) of what I might be looking at? Could this be a dead cell in the battery? Did I torch the Motronic something or other? I'm willing to research, learn, turn wrenches myself and generally do what it takes to revive my riding companion. All help, guidance, suggestions and pointers are greatly appreciated.

Thanks! :dunno


Make sure the connections are tight and clean . Sounds like a loose terminal .

[brewdapp]

I did check the connections (at the battery) They are tight and clean, but I rechecked them by taking them off last night and re-cleaning them. Seems to be tight and secure. I did try to jump the bike from a charger I have that will provide up to 55 AMPS starting power. That's when I heard the strange buzzing sounds from the relays. At that point I knew I was in over my head and stopped. I didn't think to check the voltage of the battery (of course one has to know how to do that... like I said, I'm willing to learn, but I don't know much at this point). I'll check the voltage tonight when I get home. Maybe I can take the battery down to Auto Zone and have them test it.... Thanks again for the replies and suggestions. Will keep plugging away at it. Any more suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

[rfisher]

I would suspect the battery. I have had motorcycle batteries go from full charge to completely dead over the few minutes of a fuel stop due to an internal short. This was an 18 month old, well maintained battery. Of course, Yuasa says this will not happen. This is especially embarrassing when said fuel stop is down the street from a HD biker bar, and about a 100 HD's roll by as your non American built machine is being loaded on roll back.

Roy F

[BubbaZanetti]

buzzing from the relays after applying more than twice the current your battery normally supplies on startup?

you may need to look for some new relays and hope nothing else was fried. sounds like the contact points in them may be welded together now.

[mrich12000]

Normally the buz was the half wave of the output of the battery charger as the rectifier only does half the wave of the ac input of rms 18 volts to the unit. not to worry about that . check all the engine and battery grounds. if you have a voltmeter check the batt. volts then charge it with the positive lead off, after 3 min. charge see how high the charge is if the volts stay high the batter is sulfated and needs to be replaced.
next test is with the bat. pos. connected, with the volt leads on neg. & pos. turn on the ignition note the volts, and is the lights on nornal if so hit the start. note the voltage drop,starts then note the voltage at 3000 rpm 13.6.14.7 nominal volts . this will confirm your alternator is ok..
if no start posible starter relay, Ask Don or Paul G. for more..:thumb

[brewdapp]

Thanks to all for replying to this! Turns out it was the Battery. Read the Haynes Manual - took the battery out and Paul at Atlanta BMW checked it. Dead as a door nail. He also explained the lights flashing, buzzing and "moaning" from the relays was the result of low voltage in the circuit, expected behavior. So a quick purchase of a new Odyssey battery and I'm back in business. Many thanks to Paul at Altanta BMW and everyone else who responded. All of the information and suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thanks!
:whistle :whistle