GL1800DB intermittent power loss

[jasonmartin]

I am wondering if anybody out there has any suggestions on what to look at to figure out a problem that cropped up yesterday.
About 90 miles into a 100 mile ride I experienced 4 or 5 intermittent power loss incidents each less than 1 second. I happened to be glancing at the tach during one and the RPM dropped from 2,000 to 1,000 and immediately came back up.

A little background first on June 19th the bike would turn over but not start, I checked battery voltage and it was 13+ volts. After a quick search I found a list of codes for different failures so I went out to crank it again to look for the flashing code and it started up. Having experienced a Crank position sensor issue on a old Mercedes I owned I decided to replace the Spark Generator/ Crank position sensor and rode the bike for a couple of hundred miles without incident afterwards.
I also made the mistake of leaving the switch on the accessories position overnight and ran the battery down to about 4 volts. I recharged the newer battery and it has been steady in holding 13+ volts.

The only 3 things I can think of are that perhaps I didn't seat the crank position sensor plug 100% or that when I removed the Ignition relay under the seat it didn't seat 100% correctly, The last possibility I can think of is perhaps I got some contaminated gas is a little town while out riding.

If anybody has any ideas of things to check besides those three or even any suggestions I would love to hear them.

Thanks in advance.

[Techdude2000]

I am wondering if anybody out there has any suggestions on what to look at to figure out a problem that cropped up yesterday.
About 90 miles into a 100 mile ride I experienced 4 or 5 intermittent power loss incidents each less than 1 second. I happened to be glancing at the tach during one and the RPM dropped from 2,000 to 1,000 and immediately came back up.

A little background first on June 19th the bike would turn over but not start, I checked battery voltage and it was 13+ volts. After a quick search I found a list of codes for different failures so I went out to crank it again to look for the flashing code and it started up. Having experienced a Crank position sensor issue on a old Mercedes I owned I decided to replace the Spark Generator/ Crank position sensor and rode the bike for a couple of hundred miles without incident afterwards.
I also made the mistake of leaving the switch on the accessories position overnight and ran the battery down to about 4 volts. I recharged the newer battery and it has been steady in holding 13+ volts.

The only 3 things I can think of are that perhaps I didn't seat the crank position sensor plug 100% or that when I removed the Ignition relay under the seat it didn't seat 100% correctly, The last possibility I can think of is perhaps I got some contaminated gas is a little town while out riding.

If anybody has any ideas of things to check besides those three or even any suggestions I would love to hear them.

Thanks in advance.

Start it and tap on the kill switch. If it stumbles even a little, cycle the switch full left and full right about 50 times to clean its contacts, then try it again.

[AZgl1800]

1 more suggestion.

Since you changed a Sensor, the ECU is no longer Calibrated to match that new Sensor.

put the bike on the Center Stand, do NOT touch the throttle.
Start the engine and walk off and leave it alone.
Don't touch anything, until AFTER the fan cycles Twice....
Turn the Ignition switch to OFF.


Now, your problem is "most likely" fixed.

This also have to be done EVERY TIME the battery voltage drops below ~10 volts.

at 4 volts, the ECU is TOTALLY CONFUSED and has no clue what is going on with the sensors.

Remove the Negative Lead, wait 5 minutes ( a SWAG ) and reconnect it.
now do the procedure I first mentioned.

[Terry D]

It would be nice to know if this fixed the problem. I was also going to suggest a loose ground.

[jasonmartin]

I have been a little slow to get back to working on the bike, However I did try all of the things suggested above then I went for about a 1 hour ride late this afternoon. I thought everything was going to be fine until I crossed some RR tracks and once again the engine stumbled this time the check engine light came on for a couple of seconds before turning back off. When I got home I noticed that I did not have any low headlights only High, So I will be going back in to 1st check the fuse then remove the seat and make sure I clean and reseat all of the relays located under the seat.

[Techdude2000]

I have been a little slow to get back to working on the bike, However I did try all of the things suggested above then I went for about a 1 hour ride late this afternoon. I thought everything was going to be fine until I crossed some RR tracks and once again the engine stumbled this time the check engine light came on for a couple of seconds before turning back off. When I got home I noticed that I did not have any low headlights only High, So I will be going back in to 1st check the fuse then remove the seat and make sure I clean and reseat all of the relays located under the seat.

Your starter button switch may need to be cleaned. Spray some plastic safe contact cleaner into the crack at the top of the button and work it. If it doesn’t return to the full out position, it will keep the lights off. The engine cutting out on RR tracks sounds like maybe the bank angle sensor could be loose on the back of the right headlight assembly.

[Terry D]

My bank angle sensor is inside the steering stem and has to be disconnected when steering re torqueing is required.

[Techdude2000]

My bank angle sensor is inside the steering stem and has to be disconnected when steering re torqueing is required.

That’s your turn signal cancel unit, your bank angle sensor is mounted to the back of the right headlight assembly.

[Terry D]

What was I thinking. You are right

[jasonmartin]

Well I think the issue has been resolved. I took all of the plugs apart that I had originally taken apart to install the Crank position sensor and found that one of them had a white residue with a dried soap type appearance, I cleaned all of the plugs with Deoxit and applied Dielectric grease on them before plugging them all back together. My best guess as to what happened is that I did not slide the rubber sleeve back down over the connectors it was protecting and somehow soap and water got into one of them when I washed the bike. If it acts up again I will post what I have found.