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My Ninja died - help please?

Naah... I don't post often enough to give anyone shit.

Generally yes, the main ground runs from the negative terminal of the battery and then it attaches somewhere to the frame. Look for a thick wire that ends connected to a largish bolt somewhere near the engine.

go take a look at Ron Ayers for the parts fiche just to get an exploded-parts view of the electrical system. Looks like the main ground is connected just below and to the rear of the battery...
 
hey skippy,
if that bike stays in that parking lot much longer your little electrical problem will be solved, because your bike will be gone. It's been there more than 6 days, once all the crackheads that have been eyeballin your bike realize that it's not a sting that bike will be taken and parted out before you can say b0rk or whatever. If i were you i would get a friend with a truck, rent a truck, or roll it home.

It won't last there much longer. srsly.
 
Last edited:
Beetlejuice said:
It won't last there much longer. srsly.
Click to expand...

My offer still stands. PM me if you want to take me up on it. I have an entire parking space for one bike, so yours will easily fit as long as you need it.
 
... or not. Beh.

So.

Friday eve, I went over to the bike to run the tests. After a little fiddling trying to get the multimeter electrical-taped to the terminals (which I couldn't get good enough contact with), I put the probes under the screws and tightened them a bit. That worked.

What follows are the squence of tests I did, and what the multimeter read. In all cases for the ignition being in OFF, it read 12.4 +- .15, so I'll omit that and just write what it read in ON. (All in DCV.)

All changes are non-cumulative (i.e. put back before the next step) unless mentioned otherwise.

Nothing changed yet: .056 ~ .4
Disconnect reg/rec: .2
fuses:
disc. main fuse: 12.46
disc. turn: .3
disc. ig: .25
disc. tail: 3.0
disc. head: .065
disc. horn: .075
disc. acc: .071
disc. fan ..130 ~ .105
disc. small box w/ 2 orange wires, labeled FW246BH9 (next to fuse box): .078
disc. lower plug of jct. box: .075
disc. upper plug of jct. box: 8.45~9.5
disc. both plugs of jct. box: 9.55
disc. lower plug & all fuses: 9.2~9.7
disc. lower plug & with all fuses, put back in reverse order: .2~.08
disc. all fuses again in order; only one not very low was tail: 8~9
disc. brake lights' plug: .14
reconnect brake lights: .06 (reliable diff)

Realized that my disc brake reminder-cord was wrapped around the brake lever enough to trigger the brake lights. Undid it.

disc. tail fuse: .6
reconnect tail fuse: .095 (reliable diff)

disc.: 2 bullets in tail section; small plug in tail section; box on under LHS panel towards back - no difference (~.05-.1)

Fiddled with the black/yellow bullet cord attached to the neg. terminal on battery - just fiddled mind you: 11.5~11.8V (!)

disc. tail fuse: 12.15
reconnect tail fuse: 11.6-11.7 (reliable diff)
squeeze brake lever: 11.4

Hit starter button. Heard one muffled click, coming somewhere from the center (ish) region of bike.

Voltage dropped to .03 (still 12.3 in OFF).

disc tail: .2
reconnect tail: .03
fiddled w/ BY- again: 12
hit start: ditto -> .03
repeat 3x

Throughout this, I think the instrument lights were on (i.e. neutral).

At this point, I had the BY- unplugged, meter reading 12V.

Realized the neutral light was off, and plugged the thing back in. Hit start.

Voltage @12.4, but wouldn't even click.

Inserted BY- plug more. Still reading 12V, but lights turned back on.

Tried the starter one more time.... and it started right up. This was at full choke.

So, proceed to tests with engine on:
choked to 6krpm: 13~14.5
- to 4krpm: 14.5
choke off, @ 3.3krpm: 14.6
reduced idle to 3krpm: 14.58
- to 2.5krpm: 14.56
- to 2krpm: 14.3
- to 1.4krpm (recommended idle is 1.3 +/- .2): 13.3
revved w/ throttle to 7krpm: 14.5
- to 9krpm: 14.3
- to 4krpm: 14.3
- to 3krpm: 14.25

I let it idle for a while, it kept reading 14.3 ish, purred quite nicely.

Figured that it'd been fixed, turned it off, got my leathers etc out of the car and on me, parked the car, and drove the bike home via surface streets. Bike ran perfectly. Stalled out once at a stop sign by rpms dropping too low, but that's relatively normal, and it started up again w/ no problem.

Parked it at home, took the bus back to the car, drove the car home. Stopped briefly at home, then took the bike to a friend's party ~50 mi away with no issue whatsoever. Took it back, also no issue. Lightly raining for most of that.

HOWEVER...

Last night, I was going to go to a different party. Went to start the bike... it clicked once (same as like in the last stage of previous test), and nothing. Instrument light went out, too.

Took the box off, seat off, and fiddled with the BY- cable again... but nothing wokred. At one point, the light came on again even though I had only *moved* the cable (not moved the plugs wrt each other); tried to start it again, and same response.

I tested the voltage between the positive terminal and the far end of the plug, to make sure it was a good connection - 12.4 in OFF, .05 or so in ON.

So, WTF mates? It's presumably at this point some sort of weird physical thing of the wiring. But I don't know what. The BY- cord isn't obviously connected to anything else except the main taped trunk of electrical lines, and I'm pretty loath to cut that open.

BTW, during the inspection Friday, I did check the negative lead to frame, and it's bolted on just fine (the bolt is in the middle forward section, fwiw).

Now what?
 
Alright, here's what I would do:

1) Buy a new battery. Even if it's NOT the battery, yours is two years old and will probably need to be replaced very soon anyway.

2) If that doesn't fix it, take it to a shop.

I understand that you're not rolling in cash, but part of being a good home wrench is realizing when you're in over your head and giving up before you do more damage than good.
 
Eh? How long do motorcycle batteries normally last? And why would that fix the problem, given that it has normal voltage in off, and tested fine under load?

I've had my car battery for several years now - at least 6 - and it's not had any problems. I figured motorcycle batteries should last the same.
 
'02 EX-250? I take it you've got a lead-acid battery?

Lead acid motorcycle batteries generally last anywhere between 6 months and three years, depending on the brand, usage and how well they're maintained. I usually get about two years out of mine, and you're about at two years now.

One thing is for certain, they do NOT last nearly as long as maintenance-free car batteries. Apples and oranges.

Kooky electrical deaths and no popped fuses leads me to distrust the shop's load test, and replacing an old battery seems like a cheap final option to try before you jump into paying a mechanic.
 
I wrote what model battery it was at the start. Dunno if it's lead-acid or not, just that it's sealed.

Annoying that it'd be different than a car battery. Sorta odd. How much are they?
 
saizai said:
I wrote what model battery it was at the start. Dunno if it's lead-acid or not, just that it's sealed.

Annoying that it'd be different than a car battery. Sorta odd. How much are they?
Click to expand...

From a quick googling, it appears to be a sealed lead acid battery. A replacement Yuasa looks to be $50-75.

For my EX500, I used to buy batteries at Walmart for ~$35 and usually a couple of years out of them.
 
I had to come back since your bike is now at home.

After reading what you have done to your bike to get it running, this is what I read:

You used a meter to get readings, and you jiggled the wires around, then the bike started.

You didn't actually find any problems, so your bike still isn't fixed. Only option left is to buy some electrical contact cleaner , and while cleaning all of your connectors, verify that no wires are loose. It's probably going to be the battery as Ziad, said. If that doesn't solve your problem, you need to put it in the shop as previously suggested.
 
Sounds like one of two things-
1.The b/y cable you're talking about has a problem. Download the manual (wiring diagram) then figure out where the other end of that cable is going. Disconnect both ends and check it for continuity with your meter. Flex it around and see if anything changes. If so, run a bypass wire.
2. Your battery is fubar. M/C batteries can (and frequently do) fail at the welds between the risers in the cells. When these welds break the battery dies instantly. I can see your battery having a cracked weld, making contact sometimes and not others. When you fiddled the B/Y cable you may have given the battery post the tiny bit of a bump it needed to close that crack, then later it opens again. Anytime the thing is making good internal contact the battery will behave totally normally, including passing a load test.
Hope that helps.
 
I scanned this from the March 2006 issue of American Motorcyclist.

It fits your problem, exactly.

2393099-battery_tip.jpg
 
Upwind - is the battery being fubared consistent with getting a good ~12.4V reading from it (consistently) when in OFF? Seems odd that the state of the ignition would be relevant here.
 
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