Blinking lights no battery...?

[ndanielli]

I ran into a problem on today's ride and was hoping you guys could help me out.
On my way home from a long ride with some friends, in the middle of nowhere,
my generator light came on, followed by the generator and oil light blinking together,
while my bike cut out on me. Thankfully, I was able to start it back up, ride some more, and go
through the same sequence one more time before making it home. My voltmeter gauge
is showing a bit low, 12.5volts without the engine running, 14volts at power, which is lower
than usual. Am I looking at a battery issue? I plan on pulling it tonight, double
checking the fluids, and putting it on a charger overnight. Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Neer

[ssemenick125494]

neer,
if you take your fully charged battery to any auto parts store, they can put a load on it to test it. if the battery passes, it may simply be dirty connections between your cables and the battery terminals. clean them with sand paper and re-connect them to the battery. next, put the bike on the center stand, start it, check the charging voltage with your volt-ohm meter. when you initially start the bike, the voltage should read 12 volts approx but will increase to 14+ volts once the engine reaches 3,000 rpm. i have a 96 k1100rs with 20,000 miles and had a similar problem while in houghton mi attending the RA rally. unfortunately, i didn't properly diagnose the problem until i hauled the bike 600 miles home. i went to radio shack and bought a nice compact volt-ohm meter that takes up as much room as a cell phone. it packs well with the tool kit and tire repair kit.
steve

[Acejones]

Like the previous poster said, don't put the battery back in until it's load tested.

[ndanielli]

Thanks for the advice so far. I checked the levels and the fluids were below min,
far below in the case of the cell nearest the overflow tube. I topped it up with
distilled water, cleaned all contacts, put it on the charger overnight and brought it in for a load test
this morning. It tested out fine. So now I have a conundrum. It seems to be running
fine now, but did I fix anything that was broken? Could anything else cause this
issue? A generator issue? Voltage regulation? I am afraid to go back to my commute
and have the same thing happen.


Thanks!
Neer

[rpeckham136133]

Oil and gen light blinking together..... hopefully it is just an electrical connection. Sounds like a bad or loose ground, possibly.

What year/model bike? could be a regulator, could be a connection at the instrumetn pod, could be ignition switch, could be ....?

[jforgo]

I had a similar situation on my R65 - also peppered with the idiot lights going dim. It turned out ignition switch was disintegrating.
With motor running, try pressing in or down on key, depending how yours sits. Combine this with ever so slightly rotating the key, and see if you replicate what happened.