[JoeT]

To start, a little background. A few months back I broke the shift lever return spring. Got that back together, and stripped out the oil fill plug. Removed clutch cover, got it replaced, and after a long stint of cold weather and waiting on parts, I trickle charged the battery all night, and took the bike out yesterday. Managed to get about 50 miles on the clock, and the bike just shut off while accelerating away from a stop, about 70mph. I try to start it back up, and it just clicks. Solonoid tests good, replaced battery just because, but it won't crank. The trip odometer and everything reset itself when it happened, so I'm still pretty convinced that it's electrical. (Or maybe im just terrified of the alternative!)
BTW, I dropped the oil pan and got the broken piece of the spring out, and I can still move through all the gears.
I'm new to MV, so any ideas would be appreciated! Thanks!

 

[Donsy]

Did you re-install the new battery the right way round, cable polarity right ?

 

[JoeT]

Yeah, checked and re-checked.

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[JoeT]

It almost sounds like the starter just clunks and can't move. I don't think the engine is locked though, since when it quit the tire didn't lock up, just coasted. I can still turn the engine by hand, too.

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[Matt M.]

Put a volt meter on that new battery and make sure it's still at 12v . Sometimes those batteries sit on the shelf for a while and need to be charged before install.

 

[JoeT]

12.7

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[revhead1957]

So if I read this right:
Click, clunk, instrument panel resets?
Classic issue that has happened to others, usually when the bike is hot. If you have time to do a search, the most common thread seems to be that the most common cause is not enough power getting through to allow the starter motor to spin up.
This can be caused by the battery not being up to scratch - even new ones can be no good, get it load tested at an auto electrician.
Next most common is bad connections at the cable terminals, including earth leads. Go back and remove, clean and put some dielectric grease on every connection. (while you are at it, do every sensor plug too)
Now you have done the basics you can test to see what voltage loss is present - google how to measure voltage drop. Some people have had success with replacing the thin battery and earth strap leads with a heavier gauge.
Do not overlook the 4 pin plug on the starter solenoid. Two of the wires feed the solenoid coil and the other two feed the ecu and dash. I had a bad connection on one of the ecu feed wires, resulting in a melted plug and corroded wire. If the ecu doesn't see enough volts, it stops the starter motor routine.
Some people have replaced the solenoid, but I would say that they are fairly robust, and usually only fail after some after fault causes insufficient voltage, causing the internal contacts to burn out. A Yamaha R1 4-pole solenoid is a cheaper alternative than the MV item.
These are the cheap fixes. After that you will need to look at the starter and starter clutch. There is only one case I am aware of the starter failing and that also resulted in a spectacular meltdown, so I would expect that the earlier paragraphs will solve your issue.

 

[gotojoe]

Test the alternator output by connecting a voltmeter set to 20V across the battery terminals when the bike is running, Refer to the manual but the out put should be circa 14.5 Volts

battery 12.63V at rest
key on 12.21V
idle 14.84V
@4,000 14.84V

Batteries start bikes and supply an exciter field to the alternator ..Alternators power the bikes systems and recharge the battery. If the alternator is faulty then the system draw will be on the battery until there is no power left. Then the bike will stop. ..and the battery will be run down....

hence..click , click , click..

Just a theory but, test the alternator..

joe

 

[JoeT]

Revhead, thanks for the ideas, I'll check those out as soon as I get home today. Have you heard of any of those issues causing the bike to die while riding as well?
Gotojoe, I'll certainly check that out as soon as I can start the bike.
Thanks for the ideas!

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[gotojoe]

Revhead, thanks for the ideas, I'll check those out as soon as I get home today. Have you heard of any of those issues causing the bike to die while riding as well?
Gotojoe, I'll certainly check that out as soon as I can start the bike.
Thanks for the ideas!

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That's cool Joe..but remember the alternator out put may be compromised by poor connections ..check em ! The bike will die while riding if the alternator out put is down . It will run the systems until the battery runs out of charge..

Ps and the alternator diode. Check that too.

joe

joe

 

[revhead1957]

Check out Lawbreaker's thread. Broken battery cable. Guaranteed to bring things to a sudden stop.
A faulty side stand switch will cause annoying intermittent stopping problems too.