Bike Died In Rain. Thanks Everyone for Your Help

[ctRrider]

Fist of all I want the thank everyone at the Bash who helped me with my dead bike. Big thanks to Cycle Rob for fetching me and taking the time to diagnose the bike, Jim, Jim, Mike Cam and everyone else that helped and had some theory as to why my bike died. This is a wonderful group to be part of.

On Friday on the way to the Bash ( it rained the whole ride there) I had just topped up my tank in Dallas PA, about 30 miles from the Central Park Hotel. About 15 miles later, it was still raining and the bike just died. No sputtering, no warning. Just died. Lights still worked, starter worked, engine would not start. 5:30 on a Friday evening in the middle of nowhere on a two lane highway deep in the woods. Think. What are my options? Call a tow company and have the bike towed? To where? I was about 15 miles from the Bash. I remembered that Cycle Rob was bringing his bike in the back of his pick up. Maybe he would be good enough to come and get me with his truck and get me to the Bash where I would have a better chance of figuring out what was wrong with the bike. I called the Central Park Hotel and asked to speak to someone from the Bash. Jim got on the phone and luckily he was Cycle Robs room mate this weekend. He said that he would ask Cycle Rob if he would come and retrieve me. About 30 minutes later he showed up with some help. We got the bike on the truck and back to the hotel.

On Saturday morning the sky was cloudless and the weather warm. Cycle Rob broke out his tools and we tried to figure out the problem. Someone had a set of quick disconnects and we were able to determine that there was no water in the fuel, found that there was no spark, so the consensus was that it was either the Hall Sensor or the side stand switch. The option was to call some dealers to see if I could get a part today. Decided to try to locate a Hall sensor, no dealer within 180 miles had one. Could get it by Tuesday. The one dealer that had one, Cross Country asked me, Does your 12003 R have the triangle connector or the 6 pin connector? We checked it against the VIN, but it still showed both type for my bike. I wasn't about to take the alternator pulley off to find out.
Jim, Mike Cam and I were standing around in warm sun discussing all the options when Cam suggested we try to bypass the side stand switch. Got a couple short pieces of wire, tried it and still didn't work.
So, the the final solution. Called my insurance company, set up a pick up and have the bike hauled to Two Jacks BMW in Wilkesbarre, 32 miles away. The towing company that came had an enclosed trailer with wheel chocks for motorcycles so all was well with the tow. All was well, so we gave some thought to going down the street to the firehouse and enter the gun raffle where for $25 you get lunch and every hour they raffle off a gun, pistols, rifles and shotguns. After all we were in hunting country and in the Pennsylvania Gamelands, so it only seemed natural to raffle guns. Instead we decided just to get some lunch at the Central Park.

Now the bike is at Two Jacks and they will get to it after Memorial Day. I will keep you up to date when I find out what was wrong. Thanks again for everyones help.

[towerworker]

ctRider,

I met you just as you and your family were leaving the Bash. MikeCam and I were talking after you left and were discussing the possibility of the Hall Sensor being bad or at least the opinions of those involved thought it might be that. I was fascinated by the discussion and knew I had read something in the past about that same device. I did some research and found the following information. Hopefully it may help. The oem part is pretty pricey but seems there is a viable and inexpensive alternative.


http://www.ebbo.org/2av54.php

http://advwisdom.hogranch.com/Wisdom/oi ... ensors.pdf

Hope this helps.

Wayne/Towerworker

[STDocLizard1]

If the master tech can't fix it roadside;



then it has to go to the dealer.



I hope things worked out for you Tom.

Jim

[DSKYZD]

Tom,

Good to see you again and meet your lovely wife and daughter. Keep us posted, hope you're riding soon.

DSKYZD

[ctRrider]

Thanks for the links and pictures. It was actually a bonus for me to have my wife and daughter meet the crew. Now she knows the type of guys I like to hang out with and she is now more comfortable giving me kitchen passes to ride with the Bashers and spend time in the site. Thanks for not showing your tattoos, getting sloppy drunk, using foul language,shooting the windows out of passing cars and doing burnouts in front of the hotel until after we left.

Looking forward to riding with you guys again since all I could do this year was watch you ride off and guard the parking lot during the day.

Tom

[scottybooj]

nice to meet you and the family...sucked that you had to deal with a dead ride.

[CycleRob]

Picking up ctRrider's bike in the rain with traffic zooming by so close was a dangerous moment. There was only about 4 feet of grass shoulder then a dropoff into the roadside drainage ditch that now was full of water. I had to park the truck with the driver's side wheels actually on the solid white border line. That meant the truck and it's mirror were sticking out in the travel lane. With the noisy rain's poor visibility and traffic noise interfering, I had to talk loudly the warning for nobody to block the left side tail light as the 4-way flasher warned the oncoming traffic while we were seriously in harms way!! With me holding the bars and 2 adrenalin charged guys pushing, it went right up the 2x12 wood ramp like a bicycle. I was surprised that Tom (ctRider) was smiling and happy the entire time I was with him and his dead bike . . . when most of us would be hostile and depressed. I think the reason why showed up later. My guess is it was the stunning natural beauty of his pleasantly amiable blond wife (& daughter) that drove the 3.5 hours from Connecticut to pick him up. The world needs more women like that!!

Back the 17 miles to the Hotel, we unloaded it and parked it (still raining). The next day it was sunshine and I started the troubleshooting before breakfast. They said the fuses were good. We borrowed someone's (Daryl?) QD, plugged on my 6 foot siphon hose and stuck the other end in my empty 1 gallon gas can I carried in the right system case for riders that might have run out of fuel. Turning the key on & off several times cycled the fuel pump and gave us a good fuel sample to check for water. Even though the bike went through rain and puddles before it "died all-at-once", there was zero water in the fuel sample. Next step was to check for spark. I took out both plugs and grounded them to bolt heads. Cranking on the starter, there was NO spark. Then I switched the (identical) 4 little black relays to different sockets to rule out a failed relay. That involves swapping the critical with the non critical or currently functioning - - - - - fuelpump to load relief, Motronic to horn, etc. Cranking the engine, still NO spark. After removing the belt cover, I wrench turned the engine through a compression stroke with the key on. There was no fuel pump activation at TDC. Ut-oh. That's bad.

There are a few things that can cause those symptoms, all of them bad and hard to fix in the parking lot. The look on my face must have said it all. We decided to abort. I noticed many of the bikes were gone by now so I went back to my room to wash up. Walking 30 seconds to the main building for breakfast was a waste of time because it was so very over. The buffet was cleaned up and gone. Nobody there. Time flies when your having fun. Oh well, I had a box of 6 Dunkin' Donuts in my room that soon would have 2 less in it.

Enjoying the donuts in my room, I was thinking what it could be when an OilHead dies all-at-once while riding in the rain -AND- the fuelpump is not actuated when the engine is turned past TDC with the key on:
--Hall Sensor failure.
--WireHarness failure.
--Sidestand switch or it's connective wire/plugin failure.
--Motronic computer failure.

After that, I geared up and went for the group ride to the Grand Canyon of PA that turned out to be a 222 mile (357.2km) dry day for my bike.

As to what killed the bike . . . . I guess we'll have to wait and see.

.

[wncbmw]

Tom - tough to have the bike die like that, especially on Bash weekend but I agree, there is an upside to the SO meeting some of the guys you ride with. At least, if they behave while she is there! Mine has met some of the guys before and at least now can put names with faces.

Hope to see you again before long. Give a PM if you are heading this way to ride! Or coming with the family for that matter!

[TonyT607]

Hey Tom, it was good seeing you again; and good luck with the bike. Like you said, if you're gonna break down, probably no better place and time then near a gathering like this one when one of our own has his truck handy.

Glad you made it home safe.

[Biff's R]

Tom,
What is your review of the K1200R Sport?

Good to see you again, too.

[touchton]

As to what killed the bike . . . . I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Has anyone heard what happened to ctRrider's bike? I would think it would be fixed by now.

.

[towerworker]

I'm going to venture an uneducated (kinda) guess. Failed Hall Sensor.

Though I really would like to know for sure. Part of my quest to be hopefully a 10th as smart as some of the sharper members of this board. I won't mention any names but their initials are CycleRob, Boxermania, MikeCam, Doug and so on.

Wayne

[duckdave]

Yeah, I kinda been waiting for the other shoe to drop on this one too.

[ctRrider]

As of today it is still not ready. The problem is an electrical gremlin in the wiring. They can get the bike running but sometimes it will die and have trouble starting. They have been going over the electrical system trying to figure it out. The Hall Sensor and fuel pump are fine. The problem, according to Two Jacks BMW in Wilkesbarre, is between the starter and the engine. I thought that was a just a catch all expression since they had no idea what the problem is. They told me that if I lived locally I could take the bike home and if it died, bring it back, but since I need to ride it three hours back to CT, he would not trust it yet. I am hoping to get it back next weekend. When I brought it in service was booked until June 16, but they have been working on it when they could squeeze it in. Hopefully I will have good news next week.

Tom

[wncbmw]

Electrical gremlins suck. Hope you can be back on the road soon Tom.

Since the shop is having trouble, that should make all the folks trying to help you feel better about not finding the problem!

[P_Jensen]

I would assume that they have checked the front harness? the dreaded over tight zipties.

[ffafp]

any new updates?

[ctRrider]

The bike is fixed and runs fine. I picked it up Saturday from Two Jacks BMW in Wilkes-Barre PA. Two thumbs up for Two Jacks. 160 miles home and the bike rode just fine. Boy have I missed it. Luckily I had access to my sons Ducati ST3 which I took out for some rides in the last couple of weeks. I prefer distance riding on my R1150R, as I am more comfortable on it with less weight on the wrists, but the Ducati is one sweet, fast bike. Two Jacks went over the entire system and all they could find was a bad ground to the computer and everything else on the bike is in good shape. They put 50 miles on the bike trying it out to make sure it did not happen again. Hopefully it will not reoccur. Either it went bad on its own or it was a ground connection that I might have not re-tightened enough when I was adding some lights or other farkle. Anyway it runs. I had no idea how much they would charge me since electrical gremlins can take a long time to figure out. I was quite pleased when the bill came to $265. So I am glad that it was not the hall sensor or the fuel pump or some other mechanical/electrical problem. I can live with a bad ground which I could have created. The quality of the bike is still great after 69,000 miles. I am ready and have the confidence in the bike to take it on a long trip, looks like somewhere in Canada in August.
So that's the final chapter in the bike that died in the rain in PA. Thanks again for everyone's help at the Bash.

Tom

[wncbmw]

Glad to hear it Tom! I know you are glad to be back on the road. Someone who does your miles on the bike must have been suffering withdrawal!

[DSKYZD]

Great ending to this story. Confidence in one's machine is a quality you cannot put a price on. Enjoy Canada!

DSKYZD