1992 Suzuki GSXR 1100 Power/Electrical Issues

hi, I have a 92 GSXR1100 that has always had problems while I had it
but i've fixed them all one by one, now there is an issue with the
electrical system that has some funny symptoms.

One day I come home and tried to start the bike and the battery was
totally dead. (this is a new battery) I charged the battery up again
and put it on the bike, but what i noticed is as soon as i connected
the battery. All my lights turned on without me even having the key in
the ignition, much less actually on the "ON" position... so apparently
thats how my battery got drained. Now i've been trying to figure this
out and posted on some other forums looking for solutions. Some told me
that my key terminal was messed up which just allowed electricity to
flow without me having the key in there, but I disconnected the wires
to the ignition switch and found that all my lights are still on... so
I was thinking it could possibly be the fusebox or something else... am
I missing a system component in my analysis or is there something else?

Thank you and I appreciate your help.

 

If the lights are powered via a relay (to reduce load on the
switches) the relay may have stuck, or otherwise failed.

--
Ivan Reid, Electronic & Computer Engineering, ___ CMS Collaboration,
Brunel University. Ivan.Reid@[brunel.ac.uk|cern.ch] Room 40-1-B12, CERN
GSX600F, RG250WD "You Porsche. Me pass!" DoD #484 JKLO#003, 005
WP7# 3000 LC Unit #2368 (tinlc) UKMC#00009 BOTAFOT#16 UKRMMA#7 (Hon)
KotPT -- "for stupidity above and beyond the call of duty".

 

What do you mean by "all my lights"?

Are the instrument lights, tail lights, brake lights, and warning
lights on, or is it just the headlights?

The typical Japanese motorcycle has two separate set of contacts in the
ignition switch so you can leave the motorcycle parked on the street in
Japan with the parking lights on.

If you disconnected the plug that goes to the ignition switch, the tail
light should go off. It's a WHOLE different circuit from the headlight
circuit in most designs.

The ELECTRICAL diagram on www.bikebandit.com doesn't show any
electromechanical head light relay, but Suzuki has been known to use
multi-function solid state control units to switch the head lights from
bright to dim and to light warning lights when your bulbs burn out or
you forget to put your sidestand up.

Like Dr. Reid says, headlight relays (and solid state switching units)
take the heavy electrical loads off of the headlight dimmer switch on
the handlebar, but power to CONTROL the headlight relay (or solid state
control unit) STILL has to go through the dimmer switch, and there is
always the possibility that the dimmer switch internal contacts are
stuck in the position where the high or low beam (or both beams) is on.

So, carefully disconnect the headlight switch plug to see what happens
while you have everything else connected.

Finding weird problems like you describe is a matter of unplugging one
thing at a time and seeing what happens.

(One time I was working with a partner on a jet airliner,
and the overhead lights in the passenger compartment kept tripping the
main light circuit breaker. We disconnected just a few strategic wires
after studying the wiring diagram for about a minute and we fixed the
problem in 15 minutes without running around like chickens with our
heads cut off and removing all of the overhead storage compartments off
the walls. The boss was really impressed.

(On the other hand, another aircraft electrican in our crew was a
really nervous type who did run around like a chicken with his head cut
off. He would have run all over the airplane and torn it all to hell
and gone to find the one wire that was hooked up wrong.)

Also trace your headlight wires to see if they go to a plastic box and
unplug the box and see what happens.

Be careful with the plastic plugs on older Japanese motorcycles, they
get hard and brittle and might break if you aren't gentle with them.

I recommend that you take the tiny wiring diagram in your owners manual
and use a Xerox machine to enlargen it so you can see it better.

A red wire comes from the battery to the main fuze, which may or may
not be in the fuze block and a red wire goes on to the ignition switch.
Then an orange wire will come from the ignition switch back to the fuze
block. The wire that powers the tail light is probably brown.

It will power the ignition fuze and everything that is supposed to come
on when you turn on the key will come on, including the headlight,
instrument panel, and warning lights.

The headlight wires are probably yellow and white.

Well, trying removing fuzes one at a time and see what happens. Write
down what you did and what happened to avoid repeatring your efforts.
Then you can use your logic to figure out what's wrong.

Headlight dimmer switch, headlight relay or solid state switching unit.