1999 GSX intermitant electrical shut down

[Pirate Racing]

Hey guys, I have been chasing my tail on this for some time now and cant figure anything out. My GSX will completely shut down whenever, no matter how long I have run it. Once it did it after about 2 min of run time and today it did it after about two hours. Its a complete electrical shut down...clock resets, trip resets, ect. The last time I had to be towed into the ramp and then it ran for an hour tied to the dock. Today it fired back up and died again once, fired up again and ran fine for about another 30min when I loaded up. I can not find a way to duplicate it other than just running it. Choppy water or not, it will do it. I did however notice that the fuse holders by the starter solinoid were melted so I replaced them but it still does it. Any ideas? Im about to take the entire wiring harness out of it and inspect every single wire. HELP

 

[kustomkarl]

It sounds like you might have a bad wire END connection that after either a heat expansion from running it, or a vibration it looses connection. Or it might be a bad battery that has an internal problem. I would have the battery LOAD tested and checked at like Auto Zone for free. Then check the wire ends on the battery and the ground on the engine near the starter area. It could be the terminal end is corroded inside even if it looks good on the out side. I have had similar problems in the past and experienced both type failures before. If it still is giving you problems, look at the harness for a failure elsewhere. Everything shutting down and resetting tells me a main ground- or power+ failure.

Karl

 

[Pirate Racing]

I unplugged all the conectors from the battery to the mpem and inspected all of them for corrosion...none. Found small amount of corrosion on the battery side of the starter solinoid. All the engine grounds are good...just rebuilt the engine and when I did I cleaned all the grounds. I am thinking that I may run it on the hose and flex the crap out of the harness anywhere it moves. Didnt think about the battery...its old! Ill take it to work and test it tomorrow. I am kinda thinking that it cant be a conection on the main battery cable cause it will hold the load of the starter. Anyhow, thank you very much for the info!!

 

[kustomkarl]

I had a incident where the problem was in the wire terminal end...I cut them off and replaced them and problem was gone.The connections can LOOK good but are corroded inside where you can't see till you cut the end off...

Karl

 

[KSUBrian]

I unplugged all the conectors from the battery to the mpem and inspected all of them for corrosion...none. Found small amount of corrosion on the battery side of the starter solinoid. All the engine grounds are good...just rebuilt the engine and when I did I cleaned all the grounds. I am thinking that I may run it on the hose and flex the crap out of the harness anywhere it moves. Didnt think about the battery...its old! Ill take it to work and test it tomorrow. I am kinda thinking that it cant be a conection on the main battery cable cause it will hold the load of the starter. Anyhow, thank you very much for the info!!

I don't know about the 99, but I know on the 97 & 98 GSX there are 4 ground wires in the rear electrical box that attach to the base of the ignition coil. I would check to see that the screw holding these wires is tight and there is no corrosion.

Good luck.