Bike wont start - Hornet F4

[lindrup119]

I have a feeling that something is draining the battery. The dash lights up and the needles spin round and back, but then I get a click and nothing.

I've charged the battery and changed the main fuse but no change. Then jumped it off a friend's car and got it running, but then after a 20 min ride I turned it off, let it sit and now we're back to dead.

So, my next thought was a dodgy starter relay. The battery sits around 12.5 so shouldnt be a problem right?

Any ideas appreciated!

[lindrup119]

Kept the multimeter on it while trying to start it, doesn't drop below 12 at any point. Is that still too low?

I've been running the bike daily for the last week, so not sure why the battery would die.

[lindrup119]

No, just with the ignition on, and then the voltage flickers slightly when the starter is pressed.

What should I be seeing if I get another jump and multimeter the battery?

[lindrup119]

Cheers Unbusy, will give that a go later today.

[lindrup119]

No luck with the above, wouldn't be jump started from the car either which it would at the weekend.

I'm now thinking reg/rec or a short somewhere, but now have no way of even getting it to a garage and my patience is at an end.

Coincidentally my Haynes manual arrived, time to cram!

[lindrup119]

It's a new bike (to me), and as with most new breakdown policies there is a waiting period. I have until Thursday.

[lindrup119]

WaferThinHam said:

lindrup119 said:

No luck with the above, wouldn't be jump started from the car either which it would at the weekend.

I'm now thinking reg/rec or a short somewhere, but now have no way of even getting it to a garage and my patience is at an end.

Coincidentally my Haynes manual arrived, time to cram!

What's changed for it to stop being jump started? How does it behave when you try and jump it? Can you bump start it?

Check your fuses again, then swap for a known working battery (that's the cheapest and easiest to check).

Reg/Rec is pretty common on these to fail, depending on how it's failed it may have taken the battery with it too. To be honest if your reg/rec was dead you wouldn't have been able to ride it for very long before the battery went flat and the bike had cut out, so at the moment the battery would seem to be the most likely.

Not sure what's changed. Have replaced every fuse on the bike just for the sake of it.

Haven't actually tried a bump start yet so might give that a go.

When I turn the ignition on and press the starter I get a click from the starter. But if I try again, the power saps and the bike dies completely, lights off etc.

I checked as many connectors as I could, and pulled out the rec/reg clip and found that one of the pins in the loom socket for the rec/reg is slightly charred. So rather than shell out for either a battery or a rec/reg yet I might have that replaced first.

Cheers for the input, I'm fairly crap mechanically (especially electrically) and was hoping not to have to learn the hard way with this bike but through modifications instead.

[lindrup119]

WaferThinHam said:

What happens if you turn the ignition off, wait 30 seconds and turn it back on?

Quickest thing to do as I say is find a mate with a battery of the same size and just swap it. Then see what it does.

It comes back alive and I get the dash lights, headlights and dials. Pressing the starter button seems to drain it again.

[lindrup119]

Probably will get the battery changed anyway, but (and sorry if this is a silly question) even with a slightly duff battery surely the bike would start from a jump?

[lindrup119]

Thanks for all the suggestions.

The bike was picked up and delivered to the garage on Friday and they found that the battery leads had been removed and then reattached poorly to allow space for a trickle charger.

All fixed now - Traxden garage in W.London highly recommended.

The next headache I have is with my "breakdown" recovery service. I don't know if anyone else here uses 2Gether, but my advice would be don't. I certainly won't be a customer for much longer. I arranged a home start Thursday evening, but they just sent a recovery truck. When I called to question they said "oh yeah, we can't actually really do anything with bikes. We'll try and jump start them but if that doesn't work we just recover them".

Needless to say I was a little miffed as I was hoping to avoid the bike being loaded and unloaded by morons with zero mechanical sympathy. Fast forward to Friday evening when I went to pick up the bike, I found a rear indicator strapped up with masking tape and a nice crack in the rear fairing. Courtesy of my fantastic recovery service...

But at least she runs. If it wasn't for bad luck I wouldn't have any luck at all.