Something wrong with electrics?

I have tried to compile this list since I noticed that a lot of people who don’t know very much about electrical systems on bikes seem to think that there is some sort of conspiracy behind electrical problems and I have seen comments like “ why cant anyone help me?”
The usual complaint goes something like “ my bike wont start . There's something wrong with the electrics” Here is a list of all the things which I can think of which may be the cause of your bike battery not being good enough to start your bike.

1. poor connections to battery
2. poor earth connection to bike from battery
3. poor connection to 3 phase generator
4. poor connection to regulator
5. poor connection to generator field coil
6. Faulty ecu giving out erroneous signals to generator field coil
7. poor in line connections to battery
8. silted up battery
9. reverse charged battery
10. low electrolyte levels in battery
11. Faulty regulator
12. Faulty generator windings
13. Faulty field coil windings
14. Broken cables ( outside insulation is intact but inside conductor is broken)
15. Cables short circuiting to earth ( by chafing or cuts)
16. Faulty starter relay
17. Faulty starter motor( drawing too much power from the system)
18. Wrong battery capacity ( should be at least 12 amp hours and 12 volt)
19. Battery connected the wrong way round. ( Positive onto negative and negative onto positive)
20. Ambient temperature too cold for optimum battery performance.
21. The all time favourites handlebar kill switch and side stand inhibitor switch and their associated connections.
22. corroded inline wiring connector blocks; water can get in there and can corrode the terminals until they are just powder.. this can happen in almost any of the connector blocks on the bike and it is a good idea to keep the moisture away from the terminals with petroleum or silicon jelly terminal grease smeared liberally over the metal electrical connections.
23. Corroded switchgear internal connections. Again this is best solved by smearing the switch internals with petroleum or silicon jelly. DONT USE WD40. WD40 is a good insulator but it CAN set like a varnish on the electrical connections and insulate them and can actually cause electrics not to work.


This list goes on and on but these are the things which I can think of. There are some easy solutions and to some items, some electrical knowledge, experience and diagnostic equipment is required.

Hopefully, this gives those of you who don’t know too much about electrical systems some insight into the amount of troubles which may lie behind the simple statement “ my bike wont start, there's something wrong with the electrics”

Nice one mate , made it into a '' sticky ''

Baz