Total Motorcycle Community Forums

Hi all,

I have the above bike and have been having trouble with it recently. My battery died (cause I was dumb and left the lights on) so I had to jump start it. Anyways, I got it jumped and let it run for about 4-5 minutes to get some charge back and then went to hop on it and it died, no stall just died. I figured I had overheated it and let it sit for about 15 minutes. After that I jumped it again, immediately got on it, put it in first, released the clutch and it died again. No stall out this time either. Jump start it a third time, rev it up a bit, leave the choke half way on and manage to get it out the driveway and down the street about half a mile. I make it through the first stop sign fine, so I cut the choke down to run and keep going. 2 blocks later it just dies. Flat out dead, as if I had hit the kill switch, no slowness at all, just idle...dead. Needless to say I am lost as to what the heck is going on and was hoping someone here might have an answer. I have checked my connections, they are solid, it has a full tank of gas, I just refilled the battery reservoir and I don;t know what else to do from there. This has been a solid bike historically and I would really appreciate anyone who could help me get her back up and running.

Thanks guys

Matt

First off, do you have a battery charger of can you borrow one? I think you should charge the battery for a couple of hours before you try to use it. Motorcycle electrical systems are not designed to recharge dead batteries.

Kickstand safety switch?

Sounds electrical if it "just dies" without any putt putt.

I'm not sure if it has the kickstand safety switch on it, my 80' xs400 special doesn't, but check anyways.

Check the connections inside the fuse block. The little tabs that hold the fuses can get brittle and cause problems.

+1 to charging the battery all the way up if you can, if you don't have a charger it might be worth having one.

hi there i have a 82 yamaha maxim 400 and had a little problem kinda like yours it end up it was the kill switch it kills the spark can or will it turn over wen you hit the start button

+1 on the battery.. Charge that thing to full or get a new one, my guess is that will fix the problem. I've got an 82 400 maxim as well, it does have the kickstand safety switch, so make sure you do put your kickstand up before putting it in gear.