Lights go out, combustion is sporadic and rev counter eratic

Hi guys

Apologies if this has been asked before - couldn't find anything close.

Here's the story - SV650S, 2003, no mods.

I purchased the beauty a few weeks ago - it stood for about 2 years.

The bike was absolutely perfect the first two weeks. It pulled perfectly, handled like a dream and life was great.

Yesterday, I drove it to work and it was fine. Started it in the afternoon, rode it to the front gate (about a km away) and then strange things happened.

Firstly, my rev and speed counters started acting up - both counters went wild and behaved very erratically. Soon after, my lights started going off/coming back on/going back on again/flickering and then died.

A few k's up the road, the engine cut out and then jumped back to life and never really recovered - I had to drive home with sporadic combustion.

The weird thing is that sometimes when I pulled on the front break, the bike jumped back to life, all lights came back on, combustion was excellent, etc. But then it would just start acting up after a few hundred meters...

I really want to get my baby back on the road - any help is GREATLY appreciated!

Thanks!

2 words...

Dodgy earth.

If its affecting combustion, it's somewhere between the brake lights electrics & the HT leads.

2p, spent.

Thanks, mate - really appreciate it.

Any suggestions? Take it apart and review connections?

Thanks again.

[northwind]

I'm going to go out on a limb here- it's probably electrical The very first thing I'd check is the battery terminals, not neccesarily because it's likely, but because it's easy. Just make sure everything's firmly connected really. How many miles does it have?

Yeah, also checked the terminals first. Nadda.

It only has 7800km on it (Methinks that's about 5000 miles, give or take).

Thanks.

[northwind]

Shouldn't really be a worn through loom then. If it was sat somewhere wet or damp, could be corrosion somewhere, or penetration damage. But not so easy to find, that. Fraid I've no other ideas...

On the note of penetration damage... unplug the ignitor. Look for any green mess inside the connector. Not pretty to fix, as your choices are a new look (or part of it) or splice the connector from another loom into it, replacing the old connector.

If this is the problem, you MIGHT also need a new ignitor.

Cool. Thanks for all the help, guys!

I'll take the beast apart over the weekend and see what I can see... as good a reason to drink beer as any, I suppose.

Cheers for all the help - have a good one!

Originally Posted by Wlf013

Cool. Thanks for all the help, guys!

I'll take the beast apart over the weekend and see what I can see... as good a reason to drink beer as any, I suppose.

Cheers for all the help - have a good one!

Electrics and beer... Interesting... wonder if a certain other forum member would mind that whilst we strip their bike(s) during an Electronics-101.

EDIT: I forgot before, and can't believe no-one has mentionned it, but welcome to the mad house! (since your first post was about this).

Originally Posted by northwind

Shouldn't really be a worn through loom then.

I like your reasoning (5000 miles) but mine had a worn loom which manifested itself with one total loss of electrics and then sporadic engine cutouts and it had only done 4000 miles.

In fact, ever since new it had a fault with the fuel light which Suzuki could not fix and that fault disappeared when I fixed the loom so I suspect the problem had sort of been there since new.