Fuse blew I presume - Spyder 2012. Any suggestions?

[Dubliner]

I stopped at a ferry booth to pay the ferryman, turned off before using the parking brake. Turned the ignition on again and reset the brake. Paid the ferry girl, turned on the ignition and nothing. Turned on again temp gauge flipping up and down and the dash went wild. Turned off again pulled key. Pushed to the side out of the way of traffic. Turned on the ignition again nothing. I have a Noco booster so connected that waited 20 seconds, started up and it worked ok. Let it run for 20 minutes. Turned off! Turn on nothing! Recharging booster on the ferry now hopefully will get home with out any more problems.

I presume it’s the main fuse, I find it interesting that it will run continuously once boosted. But appears flat once you turn it off. Hopefully I can solve it.

Any suggestions welcomed, thanks!

I should say it doesn’t have any electrical modifications other than an external battery changing cable.

[Woodaddict]

Not a fuse problem. If it was would continue to not conduct and not work. It's the start of battery problems

[pegasus1300]

Battery going out. Get a new battery and your problems are over.

[Dubliner]

Thanks for your reply!

So had to boost it on the ferry and rode it home, I had done 180km this weekend traffic was very busy in Vancouver today. Stopped for gas and once boosted again power steering was gone and now check engine light when I got home.
It was fine until we stopped to pay at the ferry. I’ll pop the battery out tomorrow and see if there is anything weird there and check the fuses too! I have heard before that they can get a bit strange once the battery goes awol.
Although once I connected the booster pack it started right away, ticked over everything worked lights hand warmers etc, it was -30 on my kneecaps. I have another bike that runs on a dynamo and it gets very dodgy when the the battery is flat and will never tickover without cutting out, you need to blip it all the time.

[Peter Aawen]

I doubt it really matters all that much if you don't find anything weird going on with the battery itself, the cause of this issue is almost certainly STILL going to be the battery; whether it's due to old age, poor charging, dead cell/s, loose connections somewhere, or maybe even something else like a blown fuse somehow draining the battery! When it comes to a Spyder, especially a V-Twin with a Magneto Charging System, what you are describing is a dead or dying battery to a 'T' - the ONLY thing you haven't described for us yet which is common to this & which most notice is the completely black, blank, or grey lined dash when it fails to start....

As for it running fine once you've boosted it, that's common too. On the V-Twin Spyder's with their standard electrical fit-out & load, their Magneto Charging Systems tend to be more than capable of keeping the whole thing working efficiently once you've got the engine & all the computers/electronics up & running - if you've added electronics that push the electrical load past the system's standard charge/run capacity (like maybe added heated seats, clothing, & gloves) or it's just loosing charge capacity, then you might be lucky enough to run into those blip type issues you mention on your other bike; but more likely, even just mildly poor output from the magneto will mean the computers simply shut down & shut down everything else along with them pdq after you disconnect the booster!

Still, from what you've told us, it really sounds like it's time for you to look at why the battery was dead &/or dying after a good 180 km run like that (or was it??) & if you can, remedy that before fully recharging your existing battery on a charger/maintainer for at least 12 hours or so; or simply buying a new battery if it's just old age on behalf of the battery in there now, & it has given you it's last good charge/discharge cycle!

How old is the current battery anyway?? Do you regularly do lotsa short runs?? 180 km with a half dozen or more shut down/start ups could've been more than enough drain to kill a battery that was 'a bit tired' to begin with, while 180 km of good highway riding should've beem more than enough to fully charge even 'a bit tired' battery! And what about how often you use a battery tender?? All good/helpful info in tracking down the root cause of your battery's poor condition, but still unlikely to change the end diagnosis/remedy....

Good Luck!

[Dubliner]

Thanks for reply, we had an Indian summer up to about ten days ago. Suddenly the weather and temperature dropped like a stone. This week we had some snow fall so I put the Spyder on tender because of the trip this weekend. No problem starting every time until we stopped at the ferry booth on the way home.

So it is always possible it was the original battery, we bought the Spyder this summer with 12500 kms on it. Very little mileage for a twelve year old machine. With the sudden drop in temperature it may have put a hex on it however!

Originally when I tried to start the machine after paying the ferry girl, I turned the key on and the screen was blank, totally dark, I thought I heard a noise but there was a lot of clanging around us at that point then the temperature gauge needle started oscillating up and down. I turned it off again then on after a few seconds. This time the screen went grey and there appeared to be a series of parallel coloured lines. That didn’t look good. So I attached the Noco booster, gave it 20 seconds turned on the ignition and it started right up. After that it would only start with the booster.

Thanks for the suggestions.
ps that Noco booster saved our bacon on this trip and well worth the money. It is such a small unit yet had no trouble starting the Spyder several times.

[Mikey]

If you think you have a battery problem the best way to fine out is take it down to the auto supply store and have them load test it!! It's a free service most of the time, only takes a few minutes then you know for sure!! We have all seen people write a thread on my bike s acting up what is wrong with it and guess what? fight and fumble and work all around the battery to find something else and most will change the battery out of desperation and what do you know it was my battery! Good luck!!

[Dubliner]

I've got it on charge at the moment however I'll probably change it out if everything else checks out. I've owned bikes since the 1970's everything from a BSA Beagle to Gold Wings, solos sidecars and everything in between.

It's really the suddenness of the power going out that surprised me. It was alright one moment and totally dead the next. No in-between, usually when a battery is in the process of failing there is a period of odd behavior. This was like a lithium-ion battery, power one moment none the next.

[Peter Aawen]

......

It's really the suddenness of the power going out that surprised me. It was alright one moment and totally dead the next. No in-between, .....

That's one of the joys of these hi-tech computer controlled machines we ride! Fantastic fun while there's enough electrickery to flash up & keep all the computers going, especially during the high power-draw starting process! But the second the power drops too low to keep the computers running, all the fun stops - Dead!

That said, there probably were some subtle signs things were heading that way, but you can gloss over them if you ride regularly, cos they're so subtle.... a slow build up to juuust a half-second of extra cranking effort; maybe a little longer to flash up the main screen on the dash; or maybe juuuust a little bit more sluggish starting on cold mornings sorta thing!! And if the extra load of cranking the starter on cold mornings drags the voltage back below that keep the computers going' level, she's not gonna start &/or keep running! The subtle signs can be even harder to notice if you don't ride all that regularly & also pay very close attention then whenever you do, cos that extra half second of cranking or the juuuust a tiny bit slower cranking on the first start up of the day can catch you out if you do that & only ride slowly for saaay 10-15 mins or so then shut it down for a bit - the V-Twin charge system needs at least 30 mins of highway speed type riding just to start to put back the charge you lost from that initial start, so that sliiiightly longer crank followed by one of those short runs &/or at low speeds can be the final straw - or maybe it was doing too many of them that were the initial battery killers - they only need a couple of short runs like that to drop the voltage lower than what the computers need to flash up properly &/or keep running while the battery is being sucked dry by cranking loads!! And so, even if you might sneak in the first start, if you don't run it long enough/fast enough, you get caught out by what 'appears' to be a 'sudden failure', but isn't really!

And now you've done it once.....

[Mikey]

I find when I go to start my bike and it don't roll right over well or acts like the timings off and it rolls slow like it having a hard time pushing through the compression stroke, it's getting time to check the battery! Everything else will work maybe not well, but work, it's a power munching beast and it wants its plate full to start!!

[Dubliner]

So, you were all right! I replaced the battery, and everything appears to be back to normal. we are looking at a possible four days of snow this week so I don't think I'll be scooting around for a few days.

Thanks Peter Aawen for your in-depth knowledge and everyone else who chimed in