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Ok so last week I decided to do a solo trip through the mountains. I took the bike to The Dragon and Cherohala Skyway the week before so I wasn't too concerned about breaking down. I did however pack basic tools in my tank bag and rode off. I had put about 100 miles on it and everything was going well. I hit up the interstate to get to my next stop and all of a sudden no more power. Kept fiddling with it until the battery died and had to get picked up. If I waited a bit it'd fire for a second or two then die again.
Today I set about checking my charging system per the GS Stator Papers from gsresouces and everything checks out perfect. Rode about 15 miles around town today and problem free. Any ideas as to why the hell my bike hates me?
My '83 GS550 used to eat rectifiers for breakfast. I was told by a GS specialist that the charging systems have a poor ground which leads to the trouble. The fix seems to be to run a ground wire from the negative battery terminal directly to the ground wire on the R/R. Assuming this is your problem, it does sound a lot like what my bike used to do. My bike always developed a strange high idle in neutral when the R/R would crap out, FWIW.
I wish that were the case. I've addressed those issues running the positive and negative directly to the battery and upgraded the unit to a MOSFET unit. Everything charging system related checked out with the multimeter. I'm thinking maybe the digital ignitor may be an issue. Could it get hot during interstate sprints with prolonged high rpm? If so what are some symptoms of a failing ignitor?
On a side note since checking out the charging system I've put about 35 trouble free miles on it. I don't understand the stupid thing. Lol
If the charging system is good, then quite possibly be the ignitor or the coil itself. I'd look at the coils first. What year is your bike? My '83 ESD is parted out and I may have a few things that will work for you.
Not sure how to test an ignitor, but what you describe sure sounds like a coil on the fritz to me. My coil recently failed in a similar fashion. Bike would run great for about 20-30 minutes and then would start misfiring so bad I couldn't ride anymore and would have to be towed home.
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