Messed around with starter relay, bike now misfiring????

[Kylie]

Fitted a starcom to my sv650s K3 this morning, worked fine, off go the girlfriend and I for a ride. Bike runs ok at low revs for a few minutes but hit open road, open throttle and all hell breaks loose. Bike is now stuttering badly at anything above idle, black smoke is "banging" out of the pipe, exhaust seems to be getting super hot and if you throttle too much the bike stops completely.

I had wired the 12v supply for the starcom across what I thought was the supply to the main fuse and starter relay, it is a black base, clear cover, is just behind the battery, has a thick black and red wire with screw connections on left and a black loom connector on right. Tested across black and red connectors and was 12v alright, wired across here and did not replace clear cover

After the problems I disconnected my new wires and replaced the clear cover. Bike is now running a bit better but put the engine under a lot of load or higher revs and it will stutter and/or cut out like before. I've broken Kylie!!!

I'm hoping that I have disturbed an essential electrical connection and need to dissemble the connectors, clean them and put them back. I hope I haven't shorted out something bad and caused permanent damage. Any ideas?

Thanks if you read this far!

[Kylie]

Here's a picture of where I wired to, connected + and - of starcom to the left and right screw connectors under the clear cover bottom right. I also undid and then retightened the battery connectors. Disregard the red cable, thats the wires for the starcom after I'd disconnected them. Have I connected across something bad?

[Kylie]

Ok, so I've read the manual (should have done that before job!) and that is the starter motor relay, I shouldn't have been connected across that.

So I had the starcom between the 12v supply to the relay and the starter motor connector. When relay open that would give 12v across the starcom which is why it worked, when relay closed that would short supply on starcom (12v on both inputs) and power the starter motor. Both starcom and starter motor seem ok (at least they work) but what other damage could I have done by my stupid wiring caper that would cause these running problems?

[Kylie]

Called ebike's home breakdown cover, they sent a bloke round 2 1/2 hours later, apparently the problem is misfiring. He checked over most of the bikes, cleaned the plugs, no change. If we shook the starter relay a bit then that seemed to affect the misfiring, looks like me wiring the starcom across it might have bust it in some weird way. Suppose I better get me a new starter relay, or pay a garage loads of money to tell me that the relay is bust. That'll be the bus to work next week then..

By the way the ebike rescue cover was pretty good, though if I weren't at home 2 1/2 hours by the roadside would have sucked.

[Quiff Wichard]

unlucky matey

spose "read the manual first" is the thing eh ?

I have a curvy, so excuse my ignorance, but is that not the ECU/CDI sat in front of the battery, near where you have been playing??

My guess is that you have knocked the plug, or dislodged a/some wires in/on that … try removing plug and checking the wires out, then put it back pushing firmly home. I bet that is all it is as I can't really see how the starter relay would have any effect on the fuel mapping/ignition!?

[Kylie]

I can't see how the relay would affect fueling either, having slept on it think that might be a red herring. I had to take the tail unit off to fit the starcom, could have knocked a connector like you suggest, will go try that.

Originally Posted by Kylie

Called ebike's home breakdown cover, they sent a bloke round 2 1/2 hours later, apparently the problem is misfiring. He checked over most of the bikes, cleaned the plugs, no change. If we shook the starter relay a bit then that seemed to affect the misfiring, looks like me wiring the starcom across it might have bust it in some weird way. Suppose I better get me a new starter relay, or pay a garage loads of money to tell me that the relay is bust. That'll be the bus to work next week then..

By the way the ebike rescue cover was pretty good, though if I weren't at home 2 1/2 hours by the roadside would have sucked.

poor you hun

thanks for the review tho, its good to know that the free breakdown cover is worth having

[Kylie]

Hmmn, took the tail off again, checked all the connectors, started bike and it seemed to idle fine, put tail back on, bike won't start now. Starter turns the engine over but it doesn't fire. I give up, its off to the bike shop for Kylie.

The starcom works beautifully however, girlfriend and I can talk, music sounds good. If only we could go anywhere...

[Kylie]

Might aswell close this thread up. Bike went in to Brian Grays (aka Powerbiking) in Wycombe and now she is running just fine. They say that an electrical connection to the fuel pump had got corroded, most likely due to water after riding through the winter, needed a clean, reconnect and bit of waterproofing and its all fine now. So thats good.

Not at all sure if this was totally coincidental to my electrical shenanigans. I didn't go anywhere near the pump (tis under the tank) so either I wiggled a loom that wiggled an already dodgy connection or I was just plain unlucky. Anyhows shes up and running again so will have another crack at the wiring this weekend.....