r/Fixxit 1d ago

Unsolved 2006 Suzuki GS 500fk6 Electrical Issue

My buddy was riding the bike a couple months ago and as he was accelerating all of the electronics went completely dark and the engine just stopped. There were no lights, warnings, anything, everything just stopped working. When we got it back home, I found that the main 20 amp fuse had blown, and later found out that the starter solenoid had a short. I put a spare fuse in it, and as soon as the key turned, it blew. I bought a new starter solenoid, hooked it up and turned the key on. This time, the electrics came on, and it seemed like I'd fixed it. When I tried turning the engine over it cracked a couple times before the same thing happened, it all died. Same thing, try another fuse, turn the key, fuse blows immediately. Since then I've done about all of the tests I can think of with a multimeter and haven't found anything, other than the solenoids (new and old) were shorted. If I plug the battery in and bypass the solenoid, just connecting the positive to the starter motor, it cranks just fine, and the terminals remain at room temperature. I took the starter motor off and turned it by hand, it turned by hand and seems to have the right amount of tension. To me at least, it seems like it could be anything other than the starter motor causing this short.

Does anyone know what it is/could be and where I should test next/how to do it?

UPDATE The starter solenoid isn't shorted, I had a false reading. Testing it tonight, the electric system powered on for a time until more current was sent through it by me hitting the horn (I didn't do this when the fuse blew before, so it's not that). I put a bigger fuse in to see if that would work with it, and it blew that instantly. Currently thinking it may not be a wire grounding itself to the bike via vibration, but rather heat causing a short. If there's anything that would cause overheating that lead to a hard-short? I'm not sure where/what is causing it still

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u/sabre420z 1d ago

Unplug everything electrical, replace fuse, reconnect things 1 at a time until fuse blows. When fuse blows the last thing you connected is the problem. I would guess there is a short to ground somewhere.

1

u/Will_is_likely_vibin 22h ago

Yeah that makes sense