garybro

I have a 1998 Suzuki Intruder 1400 I just bought. It had the exact problem yours did and I had to walk it home 2 miles. I do not like the battery placement either. My older Shadow is much simpler. Anyway, after clicking once or twice, there was no power at all. My battery won't hold a charge. I just got the bike and know the owner hadn't changed it for at least 1 - 1 1/2 years, maybe more. I found a replacement 14BS at Walmart for $61 (but had to use the existing bike terminal nuts to make good contact with the different style posts so it would work. The supplied nuts only worked for top mount or rear mount terminals, not side mount. I am wondering if the bike has a charging problem. It took 3 weeks (one of vacation), for the battery to quit, from when I bought the bike. Should the bike indicate a charging problem or do I have to check the charging voltage? Is there a better indicator, (ie. non constant headlight brightness). I don't want to walk it miles again.

Oh yeah, when you put down the kickstand while running in gear, with the clutch in, it kills the ignition and the bike dies.

I had experience with my 85 Shadow VT1100 and when the battery is going, usually starting power is weakened. On the Intruder, the starting power seemed weak when I bought it. It starts fine, but it does not crank nearly as fast as the Shadow does. When I put in the new battery which has a fresh charge, the bike also seemed to crank kind of slow in comparison with other bikes. Is that normal?