I don't know sh!t about electronics

[mojocho]

Let me start by saying I don't know sh!t about electronics other than flipping a switch. Let me also say that I am frustrated as hell and my patience is wearing thin.

long-story short, I dropped in a replacement engine into my 06 R1. Over the weekend, I was able to finally fire her up. It was a rough start, but she turned over and purred on. I let her get up to temp and rev'ed the engine several times. After about 10-15 minutes of her running on the stand, i shut her off. Then when I tried to start her again she wouldn't fire back up. The engine would crank but not turn over. Although I had the battery on a battery tender for the last month the battery still sat for almost a year up until that. I figured it was some bad cells and ordered a new Ballistics Performance 8 cell battery replacement from STG. I dropped her in last night and hooked up everything. New bolts came with the battery to connect the wires to the terminals.

This didn't resolve the issue. It still cranks but then eventually the dashboad lights flicker off and the battery sounds like it is draining and chugs to a stop. I put a multireader on the terminals and it's reading 13.08 volts. Starter Relay under the seat reads 12.8 which is in spec. I even pulled the fuse for the headlights and turn signals in the hopes that it wouldn't try to draw as much amps on start up to no avail.

I will say that my Neutral light is not coming on so I've probably got a bad wire there. But it wasn't working over the weekend and I was still able to start her up by pulling in the clutch, so although that may be an issue, it doesn't explain this specific event imo. I put in fresh spark plugs.

one odd thing I noticed was that i put the battery tender on the new Ballistics battery and walked away for a couple of hours. I just wanted to make sure it is OK. But when I came back it was still a solid Red light. That doesn't make sense to me since the multi ready is saying I have over 13 volts and the design of the new battery is supposed to not lose more than 10% of life even if sitting for a year (according to the mfg).

Again, I started her up maybe a half a dozen times in the last week with no problems. Now I can't get her to turn over. Any guidance would be appreciated. But please don't send me a wiring diagram. I've got one and it's a foreign language to me.

[Helmutt]

I would check your grounds and double check the spark plugs are right and gapped correctly. Is it getting fuel, meaning the pump is cycling?

:edit:Sorry, sadly I didn't read every word of your post so I jumped the gun on the above advice. Now, are you saying you've changed the plugs AFTER this issue or before? And most likely the pumps working since the bike ran after the engine swap, so now I'm wondering ( more like hoping for you ) if it's not just a bad ground? As far as the battery is concerned, I'd make sure there's good contact on both terminals of the charger's lead ( jumper harness for the Tender ). And I don't know if it matters or not with charging, but the Tender's ground should be earthed and not connected to the negative terminal on the battery. Only the positive lead should connect to the battery

Edited August 22, 2012 by Hellmutt

[mojocho]

Ground wires are good. I made that mistake before so i double checked that. The fuel pump is cycling when I turn on the ignition. I'll check my fuel lines. I did have to remove the tank to install the new battery so I could have kinked the line on the reinstall.

[Helmutt]

Any headway on this? Just curious

[mojocho]

Yup. I came home last night after she sat for a day without a trickle charger and she fired right up!?! I let her run for a few minutes and shut her down to see if she could restart. Well she didn't.

So I unhooked the battery and started from scratch and reinstalled the fuel tank as well. I waited a few minutes and then started albeit pretty roughly. At this point I bolted everything up and took her out for a ride for about 20 minutes. Parked her back in the garage and shut her down. After that it started up again. Must have been the fuel lines is all I can think of.

A little nervous that I don't know exactly what it was but I'm not going to look a gift horse in the meeting mouth.

Thanks for asking and the help!!

[Helmutt]

I didn't do much for ya via internet diagnosis, just wondering if it was sorted out. Good to hear. Hopefully it stays up and running.

[Ziggy]

Nothing so frustrating as an intermittant electrical issue. Glad you got it sorted (apparently)!

[Gixxus Christ!]

I'm willing to bet it was linked gas line.

[Bad324]

^^^must be sarcasm, I thought I'd never hear that proclamation from you

[mojocho]

If I bought a Honda, then I'd never have gained all this wonderful and intimate knowledge of my steed...(not sure what my point is...)

I'm hoping it was just a kinked fuel line too. I'll try to start her up this weekend and see if the issue is gone. If not, then please scan the news for a suicide attempt in N.Canton. I'll probably screw that up too...

[jdonn]

I would check your grounds and double check the spark plugs are right and gapped correctly. Is it getting fuel, meaning the pump is cycling?

:edit:Sorry, sadly I didn't read every word of your post so I jumped the gun on the above advice. Now, are you saying you've changed the plugs AFTER this issue or before? And most likely the pumps working since the bike ran after the engine swap, so now I'm wondering ( more like hoping for you ) if it's not just a bad ground? As far as the battery is concerned, I'd make sure there's good contact on both terminals of the charger's lead ( jumper harness for the Tender ). And I don't know if it matters or not with charging, but the Tender's ground should be earthed and not connected to the negative terminal on the battery. Only the positive lead should connect to the battery

Not trying to steal your post but... really? The ground for the tender should be grounded to earth not neg? I did not know that!

[RidersDiscount]

Let me start by saying I don't know sh!t about electronics other than flipping a switch. Let me also say that I am frustrated as hell and my patience is wearing thin.

long-story short, I dropped in a replacement engine into my 06 R1. Over the weekend, I was able to finally fire her up. It was a rough start, but she turned over and purred on. I let her get up to temp and rev'ed the engine several times. After about 10-15 minutes of her running on the stand, i shut her off. Then when I tried to start her again she wouldn't fire back up. The engine would crank but not turn over. Although I had the battery on a battery tender for the last month the battery still sat for almost a year up until that. I figured it was some bad cells and ordered a new Ballistics Performance 8 cell battery replacement from STG. I dropped her in last night and hooked up everything. New bolts came with the battery to connect the wires to the terminals.

This didn't resolve the issue. It still cranks but then eventually the dashboad lights flicker off and the battery sounds like it is draining and chugs to a stop. I put a multireader on the terminals and it's reading 13.08 volts. Starter Relay under the seat reads 12.8 which is in spec. I even pulled the fuse for the headlights and turn signals in the hopes that it wouldn't try to draw as much amps on start up to no avail.

I will say that my Neutral light is not coming on so I've probably got a bad wire there. But it wasn't working over the weekend and I was still able to start her up by pulling in the clutch, so although that may be an issue, it doesn't explain this specific event imo. I put in fresh spark plugs.

one odd thing I noticed was that i put the battery tender on the new Ballistics battery and walked away for a couple of hours. I just wanted to make sure it is OK. But when I came back it was still a solid Red light. That doesn't make sense to me since the multi ready is saying I have over 13 volts and the design of the new battery is supposed to not lose more than 10% of life even if sitting for a year (according to the mfg).

Again, I started her up maybe a half a dozen times in the last week with no problems. Now I can't get her to turn over. Any guidance would be appreciated. But please don't send me a wiring diagram. I've got one and it's a foreign language to me.

WHOA! you do not put the Ballistic batteries on battery tenders. You need a special charger to balance charge them or run the risk of ruining the battery. At most you put the tender on for 10-15 minutes if it's completely dead and you're in a pinch, no more.

They shouldn't even need a charge and are drop in and go.

[mojocho]

WHOA! you do not put the Ballistic batteries on battery tenders. You need a special charger to balance charge them or run the risk of ruining the battery. At most you put the tender on for 10-15 minutes if it's completely dead and you're in a pinch, no more.

They shouldn't even need a charge and are drop in and go.

That would have been good to know. The literature in the box it came with said it shouldn't need a charge. but if you do, only use one that doesn't exceed 14 volts....Maybe I misunderstood. my engrish not so good.

I guess later this weekend I'll try to see if she starts. Hopefully i didn't fry the battery.

My biggest confusion was when I was cranking it, it would just start to die like the battery was draining. The dash lights would eventually flicker off as the cranking slowed down. Doesn't seem like that would have been a fuel issue. I replaced and correctly checked the spark plug gaps, I even swapped out the starter motor for one i knew worked, checked the starter relays.

I guess it's all a moot point. Because it did eventually start and was able to run it for awhile and also restart it. That was a couple of days ago. And if it doesn't start again this weekend, then it doesn't matter cuz I'll just close the garage door and start my car up and take a "nap".

[RidersDiscount]

Yamaha's have a diagnostic mode (or they should).

I would run through this real quick and check your safety switches (neutral, kickstand, clutch) to see if the computer sees what you see. I had a similar problem where it would crank and crank but never caught. Everything checked out, except for the main relay that all these safety switches run through, that turned out to be broken. Replaced said relay, and it started right up.

[mojocho]

I'll do that. Thanks for the suggestion.