Son's '88 Huricane starts, runs, but suddenly dies. Restarts, runs and suddenly dies at randon just as if you turn the key off. Has gotten worse from being an odd, occasional problem after 100mi to dying after 50, then 20, and now after being towed home last week. It may start and idle for 3min or somethimes 5 seconds but always suddenly dies without a miss or a sputter... just as if you turned the key off. Hot or cold, still suddenly dies for no obvious reason.

Carbs are clean, fuel flowing. It's not running out of gas or vac locked. Restarts immediately with a just a touch of the starter... well most time after dying suddenly but always restarts quick enough. (Damn, carbs are easy)

New battery and a new R/R this last spring some miles ago with no issues with the power or charging system. Turning the ignition off and on or waiting between failures does not seem to make a difference. (Crap, more short like than component?)

Seems to be an intermittant failure where the time between failures has gone from hours to now minutes or seconds. Does not seem temp dependent either. (at least that could be a clue)

So, what is a common failure on an early 600? I'm not a honda man but on my Triumphs I'd be looking at:
> Coil failure? (2 on a 600?)
> Bad Pick-up or Trigger? (assume it has one)
> CDI / Brain Box / Ignighter? (slow or sudden failures?)

Other stupid thing it could be be:
> Sidestand safety switch short?
> Clutch safety switch short?
> Neutral safety switch short?
> some other stupid safety switch short?
I'm guessing and don't really know what this bike has or the stupid little stuff to check first.

In summary, you are riding and all of a sudden it's like you turned the key off. Restarts but you never know how far you will go until next time. Now, you don't know if it will run for 3 min or 3 seconds before dying.

PLEASE help with:
1) The easy, obvious, stupid shorts
2) The common failures
3) Avoiding guesses at expensive replacement parts

I posted here in General looking mostly for general ideas thinking that this problem is probably more common than entirely, exactly 600F specific. Thanks for anything you can think of or suggest.

 

It's hard to say whats going on, but... if you loose all power, it could be a touchy ignition switch. try jiggling the key while its running. If it shuts off when you touch it, bingo. It could also be a loose connection on the battery, fuse box, or harness somewhere. good luck.

 

yes I would start with the wiring, wiggle the wiring anywhere there is a connection, if you can keep the bike running see if you lose headlights etc when it dies, need to see if its electrical or something else. Check all grounds, wiring connectors, and switches, for corrosion, or a lose connection.

 

Thanks for the ideas and the ignition switch sounded like a real possibility. However, today we ran the whole system and have power to and through the switch, back to the spark unit and through the coils at correct resistance.

We seem to have a high side coil problem and will post a new thread here in General Tech on reading a coil with a multimeter.