Bike will do nothing when turning on the key

[chief]

I had one on my goldwing which measured fine, but under load would fail. Wait a bit and it'd would light up the bike, but not start it... and it was a new battery... one season old anyway.

[49Reo]

If a battery has a short in it,  it can show good voltage until a load is put to it; such as hitting the starter. Had the same problem several years ago, got my son to hit the starter while I watched my voltmeter; 14.4 volts at rest, soon as the starter was engaged, 1 volt. Put in a new battery, and all was good.
Good luck and happy hunting.

Regards and such,
49Reo

[chief]

Yeah, sounds like a bad battery to me.

[Troll]

The battery should read 14.5 v right after a charge, or engine running. 12 v is not enough. Keep the volt meter connected to the battery when you crank the engine, and see what happens. A good battery, charged and under the starter load should maintain at least 11.5 v. I suspect that you have an open cell connector internally in the battery. Load testing the battery is the only reliable way to test this. I have seen batteries with 1.260 specific gravity (fully charged) that wouldn't turn on the lights. All it takes is for one of the cell connectors to crack, and the battery won't put out enough amperage to do anything. The fact that you get something to happen after a battery charge confirms this....

[chief]

Ummm... strange.

[fatflash]

Hey CW, not sure if you got the email, I went ahead and just replaced the key switch, it was 98.00 but that seemed a whole lot easier than checking all the wiring, had that not worked it was going to the shop, dont have the patience for that, lucky for me I plugged in the new key switch and she fired right up. Good luck.

[CWDRIFTER]

OK me too...road the bike regularly....came home , shut down.  opened Garage, hopped back on and turned on ignition as normal and hit starter..one turn and lights out.
Main fuse ok..as are all others..
get absolutely nothing..no whir of fuel pump nada...will fiddle with ignition switch I guess after making sure battery leads didn't vibrate loose.
OK, ignition switch OK..manually make contact and no juice is getting there...battery terminals solid and battery holding 12 volts...so not draining...so the dreaded 'ground' or fried wire in a wiring loom is propbaby the culprit.  Have to start chasing down with test light and or ohm meter..if any one has suggestions...HELLP!!
OK seems weak battery..put on charger and now get the lights and whir on fuel pump when turn on..but hit starter and starter relay clicks loudly and lights out..nothing..if I disconnect batter that seems to reset something and I can then do the same ...turn on key...idiot lights good, turn indicators work..etc but thumb that starter and click lights out.  Is headlight supposed to come on but 'go out' when starting the bike?  Cant remember if headlight comes on with just switch on..I know ther is a cut out for the headlight when cranking it over...
just too dang complicated...

[lumper]

The day this happened to me it turned out I had accidentally unplugged a sensor located behind the clutch lever while I was installing a bar mirror.
IT never occurred to me and I spent two days agonizing over why it wouldn't run after doing all sort of battery tests and circuit tests, lol.
I barely hit the plug and never even knew it was there because of the way it is installed.
Lump

[jtuter]

i had the same problem last weekend,the problem turned out to be a stuck spring in my ignition switch.there are three spring loaded contact points,one was stuck in the down position.check to see if the switch has juice to it[white wire]if its going in but not coming out thats probably your problem too.simple fix but be carefull not to loose the two bb's when you take it apart,a little lubricant should free it up.

[chief]

Ok. start at the beginning...

Turn on the ignition switch... You should get some lights (ECU) and hear the fuel pump priming... The FI light will come on for a second then go off...

If you ARE getting these... make sure the kill switch is on.

If you aren't getting these things...

1) Check the battery connections... actually wiggle them a bit, or remove, clean and replace them. Test to see if this resolved the problem.

2) If connections are ok... check battery itself...

3) If 2/3 are ok,  time to start looking at fuses... check the main relay - right side cover...

[fatflash]

Rode my bike all day, shut it off to go eat, came back and it will not do anything, tried to jump it and nothing, nothing on the bike will come one, no lights no nothing. Where do I start looking.