GSXR cut out

[FartKong]

Today my K6 GSXR cut out on me while cruising along in 6th. No warning, no nasty noise, the engine just died. I pulled the clutch in straight away and pulled over but the bike wouldn't start again.
The dash had "check" warning on it but not the F warning.
I left it a while but nothing it just turned over and wouldn't fire. After taking the battery out and waiting about 15 mins it then fired up and was fine the rest of the ride.
Anyone got any ideas?

[JimClark49]

Hi mate - if the bike is otherwise running fine, it sounds like an issue with alternator or regulator rectifier. I had the same thing happen on my old K1 600 and a shot alternator was the cause.

[FartKong]

Would the battery not die if it was the alternator?

[JimClark49]

Just re-read you post. Yes battery would be dead.
Thus, it is probably not a charging issue.

Someone with more expertise will be along with a proper answer. Try and see if anyone has experienced this by checking the US GSXR forums and/or the UK Gixxerboyz technical forum.

[jjones]

Just check the battery charges with the engine running. Dead simple:

Check the voltage of the battery without engine running - should be ~12.6v. then check it with the engine running, should be ~14v

If if isn't charging then chances are it is the regulator/rectifier.

[trickywoo]

Dodgy kill switch? May also be a side stand switch issue.

[drunkenmunkey]

trickywoo said:

Dodgy kill switch? May also be a side stand switch issue.

This! My K4 750 kept doing this. The side stand kill switch was gunked up which prevented the stand from fully retracting. I cleaned it, lubed it a tad and it has never done it again.

[Fort Jefferson]

Check! Is normally when the side stand is down or the kill switch is off. I'd check the side stand switch first, or that the side stand is not stiff and doesn't push the switch shut.

[Prof Prolapse]

If it's turning over it's very unlikely to be a charging issue or a kill switch.

I'd start looking at fuelling and spark.

Best of luck.

[FartKong]

Yeah I thought it could be the kill switch but when I set it on the bike wouldn’t try to start which is what it should do. I also thought about the side stand but surely that only kicks in if the bike is in gear? It should still start in neutral?
The bike was turning over fine and the lights etc were all ok so no problems with the battery. My suspicion was the fuel pump or a relay but unfortunately due to the traffic where I stopped I couldn’t hear if the fuel pump was being primed or not when I turned the key.

[Prof Prolapse]

FartKong said:

Yeah I thought it could be the kill switch but when I set it on the bike wouldn’t try to start which is what it should do. I also thought about the side stand but surely that only kicks in if the bike is in gear? It should still start in neutral?
The bike was turning over fine and the lights etc were all ok so no problems with the battery. My suspicion was the fuel pump or a relay but unfortunately due to the traffic where I stopped I couldn’t hear if the fuel pump was being primed or not when I turned the key.

Yeah it will start in neutral. Otherwise you't not be able to idle it on the stand.

I think you lost me a bit, does it actually start now? If not, the only way to do a basic DIY test on the battery/charging is with a voltmeter. You can still potentially restart after it cuts out if a bike if a regulator or alternator are in their death throws. So don't exclude it on that basis.

If it starts and you good charging across the RPM range (not just at idle) then you should start looking elsewhere, conventional knowledge is the fuelling, but I'd try sniffing around your model specific forums first.

[FartKong]

I took the battery out at the side of the road and waited about 20 mins and then tried it again and it started and ran fine the rest of the afternoon.

[pozi]

FartKong said:

I took the battery out at the side of the road and waited about 20 mins and then tried it again and it started and ran fine the rest of the afternoon.

Rebooting your bike worked, by any chance do you work in IT

[Hooli]

FartKong said:

I also thought about the side stand but surely that only kicks in if the bike is in gear? It should still start in neutral?

IIRC the wiring is odd, at least it is on my suzuki. I've got a feeling that the clutch switch is powered off the sidestand switch, so if the bike doesn't realise it's in neutral then it won't start with the stand down.

You don't happen to remember if the neutral light worked at the time do you?

[FartKong]

I do work in IT

Yeah I got down through the gears into neutral as I was coasting to a stop and the neutral light worked fine.

[FartKong]

Just check the battery voltage and it was 12.4 when off and when running it rose to 13.2 at idle but got higher and higher the more the revs increased. I revved about half way and it got as high as 17. I didnt want to rev any higher as I wasnt sure if it should reach a peak and not go any higher?

[graham22]

Is there a tilt switch on these - has it come loose from it's mounting = bike think it's fallen over?

[Hooli]

FartKong said:

Just check the battery voltage and it was 12.4 when off and when running it rose to 13.2 at idle but got higher and higher the more the revs increased. I revved about half way and it got as high as 17. I didnt want to rev any higher as I wasnt sure if it should reach a peak and not go any higher?

Your reg/rec is fried

Boiling the battery can do odd things & I guess could cause the bike to cut out.

[Prof Prolapse]

Hooli said:

FartKong said:

Just check the battery voltage and it was 12.4 when off and when running it rose to 13.2 at idle but got higher and higher the more the revs increased. I revved about half way and it got as high as 17. I didnt want to rev any higher as I wasnt sure if it should reach a peak and not go any higher?

Your reg/rec is fried

Boiling the battery can do odd things & I guess could cause the bike to cut out.

^^^^ What he said.

Nice easy fix.

[FartKong]

Yeah just reading through some GSXR forum posts now and it looks like its a common problem on this model. About 30 seconds before I started cruising I red lined it through a few gears so god knows how many volts it was putting out then! I just hope it hasnt done any damage to the ECU etc.