Electrical problem with 1999 gz250

[wildwolf]

Bought this bike this past summer for wife to learn to ride on. She's barelyl got any time on it (one real ride....rest parking lot practice before, during, and after NSF course).

Anyways, it has ~1650 miles on it. Yesterday, we went out to start our bikes. She put key in, turned key to on, head light & running lights came on. Neutral light came on as expected. Wife had kickstand down and did not pull in clutch to attempt to start bike.

Soon as she hit the starter switch, all lights went out. All. Even the neutral light in the speedometer housing. None of the lights have came back on. Nothing I have seen indicates anything is "broke", yet I'm not much of a wrench and have no idea what else to check.

The bike came with no manual, nor can I find any online documentation for it. The items I have checked so far include:
Battery, replaced battery as soon as we bought it & got it home. Original that was with it was shot, and wouldn't hold a charge. I put this one on the charger last night, and it registers ~12.5 volts on the multimeter. I found one fuse near the battery that tests good. I found a small fuse box under the seat and under the tool kit "plastic box" that I lifted out. There are ~8 fuses in there, with 5 appearing active and 3 for spares. All fuses test good and are of the correct #s.

I'm at a loss here. I'd love to get her bike going again....but do not know what else to check/look for. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[wildwolf]

Update, albiet a minor one.

Wife says that she is almost positive that the bike's lights/electric system went out when she pulled in the clutch.

I have no idea what to check in relation to that information, but perhaps somebody could point me in the right direction. I was lead via another site to Bike Bandits parts website ordering....but I'm still at a loss.

wild-

[wildwolf]

Surely somebody's got an idea? This happened so suddenly, with so little miles on the bike (albiet with an older bike) that it has to be somewhat of a common problem with this particular bike? Or maybe I've just got a fluke part gone bad and somebody can take an educated guess as to which particular part and how to diagnose the part to verify? Starter relay or something?

My only option at this point...is to borrow somebody's truck, load up the bike, and take to a stealer...which I'd rather not do. All of the parts appear to be fairly easy to get to, with the exception of replacing the entire wiring harness maybe. But most of the wiring/starting parts seem easy enough to get to in order to try & replace them. Still hoped somebody could point me in a more guided location to try.

[2005GZ250]

I have a factory repair manual and looking at the wiring diagram all the power to the lights goes thru the ignition switch. There is a "main fuse" between the battery and the ignition switch, it is a 20amp ATO fuse. On my '05 the main fuse is right next to the battery. My uneducated guess would be the ignition switch has a problem or the main fuse was overlooked.

[wildwolf]

Kpreis, a member of another Suzuki forum, suggested I follow the K.I.S.S. methology...and have the battery tested, even though it's only 6 months old.

Instead, I just yanked the battery from my vs800, sat it on an upside down bucket, and connected the terminals to the wires on the 250.

The 250 cranked right up, with no problems. Thus, I'm saving up for another new battery...

Thanks to all those that looked. Hopefully somebody else will be able to learn from this as well.

[2005GZ250]

Sounds like your battery shorted out, didn't think of that one. Be sure to remove the old battery and store it in a bucket until your'e ready to buy a new one.