2000 - V11 Sport Sputtered and Died

[jsciullo]

Once bitten - twice shy they say. Well this is the second time this has happened. Took the bike out yesterday and about 2-3 miles from home it started to sputter and jerk. I was able to pull off into a small park and she died. After I gave her a good talking to I jumped on and turned the key to start and nothing- no lights, no fuel injectors, nothing. Took the seat off and pressed and moved the relays around and nothing. Removed the last relay and replaced it with a spare and I got the dash lights to come on and the fuel injector strarted but when I hit the start switch it made this horrible sound much a toy "Tommy Gun".

 

This sucks but it ran fine for 4 hours when I had it out on Sat. Started right up on Sunday morning. This happened before and when I got the bike back I plugged it into the battery tender and it started the next day.

 

Since it is cold, I had my Gerbings jacket and gloves on for both rides. Could I have drained the battery using these. I did not recharge the bike on Sat night and as of today - its still not fully charged which is unusual.

 

Im probably going to replace the battery (any suggestions) and keep an eye on it. The battery always seemed to need charging even in the summer.

 

Any suggestions that I should be looking at? BTW, I did replace all the relays with Boush over a year ago.

 

Jim

 

PS - This bike still rocks, most fun you can have on two wheels.

[Guest v11eric]

My battery is fine.

It never needs extra charging, even after four months in the freezing cold in the barn this winter. It started with one touch on the buton and was eger as I was to pick the first sunshine after the winter.

 

I supose youre heater is tomuch

 

greets

 

Eric 01 V11Lemans

[Guest russ]

Your heater definitely overran the pathetic alternator output. I had the same issue with my driving lights. Turn off your heated gear about 10 minutes before the end of your ride. I would definitely replace the relays with the later Seimens or Bosch relays if you haven't done so already.

[Guest Buck]

Sorry to hear about your troubles, Jim.

 

I use a Gerbing jacket liner and gloves too. I can almost gaurantee the alternator is unable to keep up with both of them on at the same time, although it really depends on how high you had them turned up, which translates into % duty cycle. As a rule of thumb if I am using an Gerbing stuff on my Le Mans I try not to use the high beam headlight, and I really try to avoid idling for any length of time because the alternator hardly produces anything at idle. When I'm done riding I immediately put the bike on the battery tender. If I don't use the Gerbings I don't worry about the tender at all.

 

I'd love to find a retrofit alternator that produces more than 25 amps.