Dead Bike, Need Help!

[Jinx]

So this may have a little history to it. While riding for the last couple months, every so often, it felt like my fuel hose was being clogged (I get a jerky deceleration) as if it wasn't getting the proper fuel. I added some additives to the engine to try to clean up the fuel injection since I didn't want to replace the entire fuel pump to change the filter. On top of that, there were rare occasion where the motorcycle would not want to start up (Not even turn), however, a few cycles of turning the key on and off, eventually it would crank and start right up.

Now, on my way home, I had the same incidents on the freeway and when I got back to the apartment complex, riding around in low gears, it died on me. I wasn't able to start it back up (Engine wouldn't crank). Every so often, it would crank and start, but then just die.

Interesting thing, when I try to start it and it won't crank, I'm not hearing the fuel pump engage (turn on). When it does, that's when I can crank it and start it but then it just dies a little bit afterwards. I'm wondering if there's a loose connection on the fuel pump, but how does that prevent the engine from even cranking?


My two target points to test sometime tonight are the contacts to the fuel pump and the kickstand safety switch... Any other possible insights? Thanks

 

[Motogiro]

Check your kill switch. It may even be intermittent...

 

[Jinx]

Went back out there to mess around. Turned on the key and heard the fuel pump kick in and it started right up. Note, this was in neutral so it wasn't testing the kick stand... But went through the standard kill cycles, put in gear, kick stand was still down and it died. Brought up the kickstand, started right off... I was wiggling the kill switch while it was running and it immediately started cutting off.

Tore apart the kill switch assembly and everything seems to be in order. didn't see any corrosion on contacts. Even took an ohm meter to it to test the on/off. I'm still unsure, but think it deals with the kill switch. Never even use the damn thing. I'll keep an eye on it.

At least now I know what to listen for next time. Apparently there's a slight click behind the left side of the bike when the kill switch is engage/disengaged.

 

[Motogiro]

Went back out there to mess around. Turned on the key and heard the fuel pump kick in and it started right up. Note, this was in neutral so it wasn't testing the kick stand... But went through the standard kill cycles, put in gear, kick stand was still down and it died. Brought up the kickstand, started right off... I was wiggling the kill switch while it was running and it immediately started cutting off.

Tore apart the kill switch assembly and everything seems to be in order. didn't see any corrosion on contacts. Even took an ohm meter to it to test the on/off. I'm still unsure, but think it deals with the kill switch. Never even use the damn thing. I'll keep an eye on it.

At least now I know what to listen for next time. Apparently there's a slight click behind the left side of the bike when the kill switch is engage/disengaged.

Cool! You can make a jumper for the time being and eliminate the switch. See how it behaves!

 

[philosopheriam]

Fuel injection systems on both cars and motorcycles get very cranky when the fuel pump fails to:

Build the proper pressure within the specified time
Maintain proper, consistent fuel pressure

What you describe could be a fuel pump problem - the only way to test this properly is to perform several fuel pressure tests

Startup to psi
Leakdown
Running psi

Having these numbers will tell you what's going on with your fuel system. Feel free to PM me if you need any additional info.