Right, so I appear to be on top of the issue although I may not have seen the end of it. I refitted the key and antenna and no different. I wiggled and jiggled loom around the steering head, opened and inspected every plug connection around the front area and tried again. After turning the key on and off several times it lit up and motor started as normal. Turned off and it reverted to "wink off" mode again. Right so lifted the tank and removed ecu plugs and inspected, removed relays (left breast)and sprayed all terminals with CRC 66 electric spray. Then removed reg/rec fuse (right breast) and it was a bit schmootzy so I sanded off the legs and put dialetic grease on and replugged. Tried key again and nothing, nothing nothing etc but left key on and pulled right breast fuse again and lights came up immediately. Pushed fuse back in and it stayed lit up, started bike and ran for a bit then turned off and re fitted all the stuff lying on the floor. Cycled switch several times with no problem then started it up and rode it to shed ready for weekend ride fingers crossed. So, if it happens again, I will lift tank (thankfully easy!) and pull reg fuse. I know it is charging so I am not going to touch anything else in case I jinx it.... Thanks for all your suggestions, comments and interest!
Well done, with perseverance it looks as though you found it and it just goes to show if indeed you have found it, that no matter what you do sometimes the smallest amount of corrosion will still result in something going open circuit. Bit late in the day to add but I have had exactly the same, with the equivalent fuse. I didn’t bother to post as the bike was an M900 and the symptoms of failure were different to yours. You can see that having the fuse orientated that way its asking to take on moisture and it should have a little cover on it, is yours missing?
No Chris it is not missing, plus it has a proper seal on the cover. Thing is tho, this bike has lived outside for a bit of it's life by the look and I am having ongoing issues of all sorts as a result with a few things. It is also low mileage and goes like a raped ape so all good!
Just as an aside, it may be useful to someone to know how to open the ign switch. Basically, you need to dot punch and loosen the screws (they look like a rivet but are a snap-off type set secrew) with a concrete nail and then use your handy vet-lab relieved forceps to back out. Then you use a mini hacksaw to put a groove in the screws so you can re-use them. Easy.
I used to have problems with the fuses on my SS. It makes sense to me that cleaning off the oxidation on the fuse blades didn't immediately help as the corresponding oxidation on the fuse holder would still be there, so coming to life after pulling the fuse a couple of times makes absolute sense. However, goodness knows why removing the fuse brought it to life, that's just weird. Also, cleaning relay contacts is not enough, the relays need to be replaced as they corrode internally and stop working properly.
Still not 100% sure that what I have done is the end of it but it definitely is turning on properly now. I get your point re the relays and they look like a std mini relay to me so no biggie, but it did not seem like they were part of this problem. Disconnecting the reg/rec was a tip I got from another forum as it immediately discounts any problems arising from that. I could be wrong tho, ask my wife!
you've answered it yourself in a way Jeremy, open-circuit-ness can happen on such a microscopic level that it's not always even possible to see and it's easy to fall into this trap. How many times have you struggled to get a modern battery clock going again despite having just fitted new battery/batteries? Both the battery and the terminal are made from stainless steel of a kind and look perfect "to the eye" but can doggedly decide that they won't pass on the current. The best material considering cost and overall resistance to corrosion but far from the best conductor. Experiencing car batteries terminals fail in a similar way is the only way I learnt - it seemed impossible but you could tighten the terminal fixing plus sometimes after cleaning it and the post all you liked and it could still cause a problem a day later.
Absolutely but that still doesn't explain the op's assertion that when he removed the fuse, the lights came on - not when he replaced the fuse - or did I misread it...
I have to smile, on the one hand we have a problematic bike that is a conundrum and can easily be misdiagnosed and on the other hand we have communication between humans which can just as easily be misunderstood. and the two combined.. well “compound“ doesn’t really cover it :—-) I do think that OP meant when he “pulled” the fuse that he wiggled it and didn’t totally remove it.
Well now, if that’s the case, that would certainly explain it. Maybe I’ve been watching too much American telly, where pull equals remove
Nope, it was pulled out. Bearing in mind this is the fuse for the charging system, not any of the fuses for the bike itself.
ok, it could be that I haven’t got the exact right model*, but at the moment this doesn’t make sense as the fuse you have pointed to powers everything except the H/Duty leads to the starter relay/starter. The manual I looked at lists this is a 30 amp fuse not a 40 amp fuse by the way. Item 13 is the fuse in question and if you totally removed the fuse then you would extinguish all "dashboard" lights. *above pics are both from a 2007 Monster S4R Owner's Manual.
I have exactly the same manual and it didn't make sense to me either. In the fuse panel there are several fuses with the one at the top being a master fuse and 30A The 40 A one is separate to this. n.b the 2007 is a 998 motor as opposed to the 996 so who know what else is different...
You need to physically follow the wiring from the fuse to see if it does indeed go to the fuse box and the ignition switch along with the regulator. Unless somebody has made some drastic changes to your loom, and of course assuming that the above diagram does represent your bike, then I can’t see why it wouldn’t.
Ok so the 40A fuse is called the regulator fuse on the wiring diagram for the 2004 s4r. I googled it. My theory is that there may be something not right with my reg/rec or my stator and when turning the key on, power was feeding back thru the system where it ordinarily wouldn't be powering up, this was possibly upsetting the ecu who called time out. As it is only a theory and my bike is now operating like normal, I am not going to worry too much unless/until it happens again. At this point it is very easy to lift the tank and pull the fuse to see if it powers up. Rather ride it than fix it at this point, coming into summer and all!
