S50 stalling and not restarting

Thanks Roger.

I had trouble starting it last night, the first time since I got it back from the dealer. I guess I'll go to the city tomorrow and buy a bunch of star washers and double check the connections myself. I'm in KY now and did remember to bring my metric tools but forgot the manual.

I told the techs about the star washers several times. I'll see if they did it. Bike has 900 miles on it now.
 
What are your starting procedures? You're not giving it any gas when you start, are you?
Here's what I do:
1. If necessary, pull choke knob out.
2. Rock bike back & forth while in gear and clutch lever pulled in to break the clutch plates lose. (one and two can swap)
3. Put bike in neutral.
4. Make sure kill switch is in the "run" setting.
5. Hit start button.

My bike starts almost immediately. I let it idle, if necessary, with the choke knob out for 15-30 seconds, then push it in. I let it warm up for another minute or two, put it in gear, and hit the road.

It sounds to me like you just have a horrible battery. The acid type batteries for these bikes are crap, IMHO. I purchased an Odyssey battery from Gman at for about $120 for my VS800s. (I've had 3, 1 totaled, 1 replacement, and the wife had one for about 14 months). They are, IMHO, the absolute best battery you can buy for these bikes. No need for that "trickle charge" battery tender crap. It starts first time, every time.

I don't personally have the star washers on all screws on the battery, just the two outside bolts.
 
When the bike cranks it starts. It seems to be setup well now for the Classic IIs and new jets.

It starts good when it's cold but if I go somewhere and stop or stall it, that it is where I have problems. When I try to start it either just makes a clicking sound or does nothing at all. I keep trying and eventually (so far) it starts up like nothing is wrong and runs good.
 
You have a weak battery and possibly a bad charging system. Slight chance that a terminal is just loose but since you've had that checked, I'd blame a weak battery. If the battery is weak after it's warmed up, I'd blame a bad charging system. Throw a voltmeter on it when running, (or buy one of those kuryakyn voltage meter thingies to keep an eye on it), and see what it's putting out.
 
as an aside, my bike died 3 times when i took my vacation...

1st time i thought i drained it, but now i think the problem was with the battery terminals coming loose.
2nd time was a short in a switch, recharged and off i went...i did notice when i was charging it that the terminals were loose
3rd time i was close to home and the bike didn't start. push started it and when i got home, let it run and checked the voltage... wasn't charging... damn battery terminals were loose again.

tightened them up and it's been good for a few days.
star washers are probably key...
next trip i'm bringing a spare battery :)
 
Another update.

I'm back from Kentucky now and more pissed off than ever. I had trouble three times. The first was on a trip where I stopped and accidentally turned it off. Went to start and it was deader that a door nail. Did my usual flipping all the switches, bouncing and pushing, and it started.

Ran good for a few days until Saturday. I went for a long ride and when I returned to the hotel and stopped I tried to start it again (I always check now) to see if it would. It didn't. I tried again twice that night and twice on Sunday morning. Nothing, dead. Finally about noon I turned the key, the lights went on and it started. Ran good again for a few days.

On Tuesday I started it up and went for gas. Got it started again and went for a 50 mile ride down some great roads with no problems. Half way out at the farthest point from where I started I stalled it. No problem, it started right up. I finished my ride going down the best 20 miles of twisties I rode in two weeks. A car followed me the whole way and while I didn't ride beyond my abilities, I didn't sight see either. It was great. I got back to the hotel and stopped it and did my test restart. Dead. It hasn't run for a week now.

Other than the electrical problem the bike runs great. If it cranks it starts. The V&H Classic IIs and new jets are set up just right. Sounds great and really moves out.

Now that I'm back I went to the dealer and talked to the service manager. I said that if they can't find out what's wrong and everything checks out, it's time to start replacing parts until they find out what's wrong. I was told that if a part is good they can't replace it because Suzuki won't pay. He said bring the bike in and they would look at it again. I told him the looking at it phase was over. It's been ten weeks and 4 or 5 shop visits already.

I have talked to the owner and told him I want the bike replaced. He is contacting Suzuki but I haven't heard any response yet.

So thanks all for the suggestions and thanks also for putting up with my %%%%%ing. After my experience crashing my bike last year and then all the problems with this bike, I still want another S50. I have yet to think of anythings else I would try.

Regards,
-Mike
 
No I didn't. I went to Walmart but couldn't find what I wanted. In this small town since Walmart built a store it seems all the other small businesses went out of business, there is no hardware store that I know off. I was going to go down to the maintenance department and "borrow" a few spit washers but didn't because the bike started running again, until the weekend.

I should have checked myself. I've told the techs several times about the star washers and even emailed the diagram wildwolf posted. Still, I should have done this myself. Point taken.
 
Just thought I follow up and close out this issue. The bike is finally fixed and yes some of you guys were really close. From what I understand is was a bad connection in what I would call the terminal block that the ground wire bolts to which in turn bolts to the battery. I didn't see it so I'm not sure. Apparently one of the bolts was either loose or over tightened and I would intermittently get an open circuit. Lots of evidence of arcing due to black deposits. Their fix was a star washer along with gluing everything in place with epoxy. The factory rep found the problem right away.

I don't know if I would have found the problem had I taken things apart myself, it fooled their best mechanic. Perhaps everyone there was over-thinking this.

Anyways, I don't like to leave my threads dangling just in case somebody in the future digs this up in a search. So here it is, from start to finish. This is a great forum.

Thanks again to everyone that helped. Ride safe, have fun.
 
i think i'm going to epoxy mine with washers as well. i haven't had problems since my trip and fixed up my electrical, but i'll bet many motorcycle electrical problems are due to a terminal not connected properly...

i've even seen that problem on car/bike build offs, monster garage... you name it.
and THEY run around and swap out parts, etc... and someone who doesn't knwo much says "check the battery?"
heh
love it.
 
I asked the factory rep about the star washers being a popular fix. He said yes but that if the bolted connections are tight there will be no problems. I think that without star washers the chances of these connections staying tight are not good. I still think the star washer idea is the way to go and if bolts or threads are damaged the epoxy is a good fix.

I'll have some new terminal blocks handy when I change out batteries.
 
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