drharveys Posted March 9, 2007 Share Posted March 9, 2007 A little over a week ago my '04 R1150RS decided to stop running. I was happily cruising along on the interstate, and, for no apparant reason, it just stopped running. I was able to get over to a relatively safe place on the side of the road -- no small blessing, as the next stretch of highway was the bridge over the Mississippi followed by about two miles of elevated highway with a minimal shoulder! I checked all the obvious things I could given the location; kill switch, put bike in neutral, flip the cold-start switch up & down. Same thing. The engine turned over, but there was no evidence of spark, and no smell of fuel. Fortunately my towing insurance covers RV's and motorcycles and the flat-bed tow truck had a Condor Cycle Towing Loader (http://www.condor-lift.com). I ended up getting home later than I planned, but without any serious difficulty. Last night a buddy from the Gateway Riders stopped by and helped me put the bike on the trailer in anticipation of its transportation to Grass Roots BMW tomorrow. They're the closest dealer to St. Louis, and it's about two hours away in Cape Girardeau. This afternoon I was checking and filling the trailer tires. Just for good measure, I decided to confirm that the bike was behaving just as it had been. That is, the engine would turn over quite merrily, but not catch. No evidence of spark or fuel, and no ability to self-propel. Of course, it kicked right over. Had it not been for the electric-starter-only nature of the bike, it would have been a first or second kick situation! The only thing I did differently was to move the side stand out and in. Still, if it had been a side stand sensor switch situation, the bike would have at least started in neutral, which it hadn't done previously. I guess my course of action will be to take the bike off the trailer, ride it around the neighborhood and finally venture out on a club ride on Sunday. At least that way, should the problem recur, I will have a ride home! Link to comment
Ken H. Posted March 9, 2007 Share Posted March 9, 2007 Well if you can get it to reoccur, first thing to observe is whether or not you can hear the fuel pump initialize or not. Link to comment
Yukonlarry Posted March 9, 2007 Share Posted March 9, 2007 Something similar happened to me with a Gold Wing I had just purchased a few years ago. I was cruising along at 120 Kms when the engine quit and wouldn't re-start. I had it towed to the nearest dealer (400+ Kms) and when it was looked at it started right up! I took it on another run and the same thing happened. While I was standing on the side of the road an older Honda rider stopped and after discussion told me it was the fuel pump. When I got back to the Honda dealer I had them order a fuel pump and install it. I didn't have any problems after that. Link to comment
ShovelStrokeEd Posted March 9, 2007 Share Posted March 9, 2007 Symptoms are suspiciously similar to a bad HES harness. Might also be a bad side stand switch. Intermittent faults are a vernacular for female dog to troubleshoot. A little under the tupperware investigation is probably in order. Link to comment
drharveys Posted March 9, 2007 Author Share Posted March 9, 2007 Symptoms are suspiciously similar to a bad HES harness. Might also be a bad side stand switch. Intermittent faults are a vernacular for female dog to troubleshoot. A little under the tupperware investigation is probably in order. OK -- what's an HES??? I guess I'm a bit acronym impaired. Link to comment
Davis Posted March 9, 2007 Share Posted March 9, 2007 Hall Effect Sensor The plate with 4 sensors mounted around the front end of the crankshaft that tells the Motronic when to provide fuel and spark. Link to comment
bmwmick Posted March 9, 2007 Share Posted March 9, 2007 Symptoms are suspiciously similar to a bad HES harness. Might also be a bad side stand switch. Intermittent faults are a vernacular for female dog to troubleshoot. A little under the tupperware investigation is probably in order. OK -- what's an HES??? I guess I'm a bit acronym impaired. Hall Effect Sensor. If you do a search you will find LOTS of data on it. I sends timing signals to the Motronic unit to control timing and fuel. Mick Link to comment
smiller Posted March 9, 2007 Share Posted March 9, 2007 Like Ken said, if it does it again note whether you get an approx. 2-second fuel pump run when you turn on the key (with the sidestand up of course.) This will help eliminate some possibilities and point towards others. Link to comment
drharveys Posted April 1, 2007 Author Share Posted April 1, 2007 Bike's back, and it's running. And the problem was... Apparently the Wunderlich crash bar's upper engine mount on the right side interfered with a fuel line connector, causing it to open. The computer cleverly shut down the gas flow. When the bike was on the trailer with the tie-downs secured to the bars, it permitted the gas to flow, at least enough to run at idle, but when I took it off the trailer, the problem re-surfaced, at which time the computer just shut the bike down when I kept turning it over in frustration, thereby preventing some relay from burning out. Grass Roots figured this out, and it took a few steps. Once everything was re-connected, with a shim at the engine mount to prevent a recurrence, the bike STILL didn't run. Following some trouble shooting of all the usual suspects, it turns out that the computer needed to be cleared of it's various error codes. Today I'll take it out for a shakedown ride. I would have preferred to have ridden it home, but the state of public transportation in the US is such that the closest bus would have taken me to Jackson, about 10 miles (16 km) away -- and Cape Girardeau is a college town! Thanks to all for the suggestions and sympathy. Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.