First time towed. Need assitance

[Shaku]

First time towed. Fixed!

See "fixed" post at end of thread.

I went riding yesterday to burn up some gas and see how the new gas gauge works. Pulled into a Mickeys for lunch (fortunately my home town) and when it was time to leave, I pushed the button. I got a short noise and then a second noise and the whole bike died. Nothing. No lights, no horn, no tails, nada. After staring at the fuses and relays for a while, I called a tow service and they put me up on a flatbed and took it home. I've been having starting trouble and even was at the dealer on Saturday and it wouldn't start at first. The service guy said that intermittents are hard to diagnose. Duh... So, thanks to the service guy's ambition, I ended up dead at Mickeys. There are worse places. Lots of food and a toilet. Got it home and got out the troubleshooting, wiring diagram. I checked the relays again and found I had missed the mark putting one back in. Put it in correctly and now it is all normal. I had switched the relays around figuring the problem would move to something else. It's hard to see in there when the sun is broiling down. But getting it back still doesn't answer the question: Why? This thing is only a few months old and I wouldn't expect the battery to be dying. Yet, I have a 3 light meter that showed it was charging for the 100 miles before dying at MD's. I routinely put it on a Battery Tender too. When I try to start, the cluster gets vertical lines in it and then it dies. Except for yesterday, waiting a few seconds and trying again gets the fire going. Possible bad relay? I'm thinking new battery to eliminate that as a potential problem. I would welcome any other ideas.

 

[Rando]

My brand new Spyder RT Limited had the battery cables just finger tight! Make sure they are clean AND TIGHT!

 

[boborgera]

:dontknow:
Sometimes a relay will rattle lose, If that's what happen then a little extra foam inside the realy box will hold the relay's down.

 

[Shaku]

Thanks. I knew about loose connections and wiggled what I could touch. I guess left panel removal is next.

Thanks also for the loose relay ideas. I live on one mile of dirt road to get to pavement and it gets very washboardy. Just about rattles my teeth out. The foam idea sounds like a good one. Out of curiousity, does the foam heat up the relays and cause problems?

 

[cougar]

JMHO. All OEM batteries suck. One of the first things I do after one year old I replace them with a high end battery.

 

[napper39]

relays and fusess vibrate loose form engine vibration and battery cables also,i check all realays and batt, cables every 500 miles and found loose relays two times,and battery cable once.and if im not riding its on the battery tender all the time.:spyder2::chat:

 

[boborgera]

. Out of curiousity, does the foam heat up the relays and cause problems?

No it won't cause any problems:thumbup:

 

[fastfraser]

JMHO. All OEM batteries suck. One of the first things I do after one year old I replace them with a high end battery.

I will buy your 1 year old battery . Think battery tender

 

[Shaku]

Fixed!

Rando wins this one. I followed the manual to get the battery access cover off. Could they have made things harder? I still couldn't see the positive terminal but I heard bacon frying when I moved the neg around. looks like it was less than finger tight and the times it started were through the head of the bolt. It was blackened a bit. I cleaned and tightened the terminal and voila! What really triggered me was the battery tender flashing as it does when it has no connection. Now it does! As much as this happens, it seems like the dealers would check during the preflight. BTW my frunk relay box cover already has foam in it. There are even little impressions of the tops of the relays. Thanks all for the help.

 

[clueless]

the other thing to check is the ground screw next to the fuse block under the seat. the computer i think is grounded there. it will spark if lose when hitting start button. also the screen will flash and then go blank or reboot

 

[Y Rider]

BTW my frunk relay box cover already has foam in it. There are even little impressions of the tops of the relays.

This is there to keep some pressure on the relays so they will not come out of the sockets. Relays coming loose had been a common cause for the symptoms you described.