Dead on the water - PLS HELP!

[live-to-ride]

Hello everyone!
Quasi new member (have been a member since 09, but never posted a question), used to have an '04 VMAX that gave me quite a bit of satisfaction, and almost no grief.

I moved to Miami a few weeks ago, and bought my everyday vehicle; a 2006 VMAX.

After riding it with no problems for a couple of weeks, last night while i was out on the town with the GF, the bike just plain and simply DIED on me, when an hour ago it was purring happily down the road.

It was as if the battery died in an instant, and so did the engine. To make it clearer, i was about to park, and everything went dark. Turning the key did nothing, so no lights, no vboost sound, no valves movement, as if it had no battery. Needless to say, the engine was dead as well.

Waiting for a tow truck at 2 AM with your GF by the side of the road was not fun. Now I need to have it towed to the shop.
Any ideas of what could've gone wrong? A fuse? Would the battery die on me so abruptly? Why would it make the engine to stall?

I took the seat apart once the tow truck brought it home and tried the battery with the tester, and it had juice; however, turning the key to the on position does absolutely nothing! Not even the neutral light comes on. Looked at the fuses under the faux tank, and they were all in great shape.
The bike has 15K miles on it, and has never been laid down.
PLEASE HELP! :ummm:
Thanks to all
Jer

 

[mckzx9]

Jer it's kind of late but I'm sure the geniuses we help you out as soon as the see this. The electrical system on our bikes are a little finicky. It sounds like something real simple. So wait before you spend money at a shop. These guys will diagnosis it for you I'm sure. Sorry to hear you got stuck especially with the misses. I have a 2006 with 11,000 miles so I will be watching this post closely. Good luck my friend

 

[Chopcor]

Might check the main fuse- small black plastic box on the left of the rear coil under the seat- should be a 30 amp. That would definitely kill all power to the bike.

 

[MaxMidnight]

+1

 

[dannymax]

+2 That's what I'd check first.

 

[95spfldmax]

Ok. +3.

 

[one2dmax]

Remember, the main fuse has one "fused" location and one location that is a "spare". I just had a similar occurrence at the drag strip last weekend (a week ago) and my battery just up and died. It's not common for them to do it like that. It had 12.5 volts with the key off but when the key was turned on it dropped to 1.5 volts!

 

[wildweasel_pt]

Now if you come to the conclusion thats the main fuse you need to know why it happened... Maybe a short or a problem with the RR

 

[naughtyG]

I had that problem with my '86 here, but obviously it was a lot older than your '06!

What had happened is someone had piggy-backed a battery tender connector to the main + wire coming from the main fuse to the harness, and over time corrosion had got into that wire where its insulation had been split to splice in the battery tender. So that + wire would completely fail when hot, resulting in no power whatsoever, very much like your issue.

The fix: replace that wire. I put a new spade on one end (inserted in the main fuse connector) and the other end was crimped (I soldered it) to the harness just above the battery.

 

[live-to-ride]

Thanks to all of you for such kind responses! I thought that could be it, but since i don't have a voltimeter or amp meter, it would've been hard for me to diagnose.

The battery did have a little cable (just one, not 2 like the ones that piggy back to the battery tender) that is held with a screw to the frame of the bike. I thought that was the ground cable, but it didn't look corroded at all.

Sean, what would make the battery die so much in a split second, and not even be able to light the idiot lights? could it be serious?

Thanks to all of you again! I'm quite concerned for my baby.

 

[one2dmax]

On mine I am thinking it developed an internal short. This theory is only because I can see the sides of the battery case had imploded in (most of the time they swell outward when they go bad).

Sean

 

[live-to-ride]

Fixed.
The problem turned out to be the battery and a rusty connector.
The battery had a broken plate inside of it and stopped charging. Cleaned the rusty cable, and good to go!

Thanks to all of you guys for all your help!