I have an 97 CBR F3 and went to start it the other day and when I turned the key, the usual lights on the gauges came on, but then everything shut off. Now when I turn the key, nothing happens. I checked the battery, and that's good. I checked the main Fuse (30 Amp) and that's good, all the other fuses in the fuse box are ok. It it possible I have a bad ignition? Any help is appreciated.

DMC

 

Check your battery connections & the ignition wire connectors. You can get electrical contact cleaner & try giving it a squirt down the key barrel, the switch for the side stand can cause issues like this as well.
Is the 'kill' switch on?

 

Given that everything turned on, and THEN shut off, I'd still suspect a fuse. How did you check them? Visually? I've seen (on rare occasion) fuzes that blew off to the side, so you wouldn't really notice, as the center was still intact. Take a multimeter to the fuses and test for continuity. If that comes up clean, measure volatge from the fusebox contact points. That'll at leats tell you if the failure is occurring before or after the box. If it's after, then yeah, do what pacemaker said. You've either got a short somehwere, or a contact became completely disconnected.

Also, I once had a battery that "appeared" to be good, but was dead. I'd hook it up to the charger, and it would say "charged" after only a few minutes, so I though it was 'full." Turns out is was old and dead and just wouldn't hold much of a charge anymore. New battery fixed the problem. How did you check yours? Did you try throwing it on the charger overnight anyway?

 

I had a similar problem last summer. I had a battery that would show over 12 volts when it wasn't hooked up but as soon as you connected it, the voltage would drop to 0.10 volts. it was BAD dead! a new one fixed the problem But the reg/rect burned up a couple of weeks later because it had over heated trying to keep the bad battery charged so I had to replace it too.

 

Could be that the pack the green 30 amp fuse goes in has poped, i've heard of people testing them by putting a screw driver with a rubber handle on the 2 terminals on the top of it to by pass the pack and if it comes on then thats your problem if it doesnt then its something else, could be worth a try.

 

Check to see if you have 12v at the Red/White wire of the Regulator/Rectifier. If you do, then the 30A fuse is definitely good.


There is a white 3 pin connector located behind the gauge cluster. That's the Ignition Switch connector. Check for the presence of 12v at the Red wire. It should be there whether or not the ignition switch is on or off. If no, then go back to the 30A fuse. If you do, then do you have 12v at the Red/Black and Blue/Orange wire when the switch is on ? If so, then the ignition switch is good. Let us know the results of these checks.

 

I did the checks and I was able to get the 12v from the rectifier. Also able to get it from the red wire on the cluster. When I turned the key on the ignition, I suddenly got the gauges' lights to come on but the red wire on the multimeter now red like 3.55. I tested the other 2 wires and they read the same (about 3.55) I'm not sure if i'm using the multimeter correctly but it read 12v on the red wire before I turned the key, then after it read the 3.55. The lights were kinda dim so I plugged my battery tender in and then the lights started blinking on the gauge, and also on the tender indicator. I turned the ignition off and the tender light stopped blinking. Does this mean I have a faulty ignition?

 

Probably a bad battery, Batteries act differently under load then when "idle"

 

+1 on the battery. How old is the battery ?

 

The battery is pretty new. Now here is the problem when I tried starting it today. I turned the ignition and the all the lights came on normal on the gauge, then when I pressed the starter button I heard a click, then the lights on the gauge went out. I looked at the fuses and even replaced replaced it just in case but that wasn't it. Then I put my battery tender on the bike for a little and tried again, same thing happened.