Died on the road!

[Red Setter]

Unfortunately I had to take my 04 Ridgeback into the shop today. My baby died on the road last saturday, 75km into an 720km round trip. I am in France.
A week earlier, I lost acceleralion, from 65mph down to 35mph, backfired and accelerated again. This happened five or six times. Then it drove perfectly for 700km. I put it down to possible dirty fuel or the fuel sitting in the tank for a month or so.
This time I lost acceleration and decided to change down the gears. It cut out and would not re-start. Occasionally the start button would click once on pressing but mostly there was no responce except for the ignition lights running on half power.. My rev lights have never worked but today while inspecting the wiring system, they flashed on and off intermittently.
my 04 Ridgeback is the most wonderful ride ever. please HELP!!

 

[prizepup]

I'm not the most mechanically inclined guy on here by any stretch, but it sounds like it may be a short or loose wiring somewhere.

 

[RAW Blue Rider]

Ridgebacks Rule!

Welcome!
There are lots of posts dealing with similar problems.
Here's my experience...
Bike died once last year and had to be towed home = wouldn't start.:angry:

Early this year it died while riding, restarted after turning key off and on a couple times while still moving.
Then it died again and had to be towed home...AGAIN!
Later on I lost my low beam and then an hour later high beam too.
That was the EHC dying. No fix for it but to replace it. While at it I put in a new battery (was 5 years old) cleaned all connectors with a dremel and/or contact cleaner and things seemed fine... for a while.
Bike died while riding but this time I still had turn signals and it seemed like a fuel problem. New Float Needle and Seat (cleaned the carb while at it) and so far is running like new!!:2thumbs:
The EHC is REAL sensitive to any electrical disturbance, something like
24 milliseconds will make it shut down. So... battery condition and any and all connections/connectors are crucial.

Best of luck!

Happy Motoring!

 

[JeffM]

Battery, Voltage reg and all the conections in between.
Also check the ones behind the key.

 

[Red Setter]

Died on the road.

While at the shop yesterday we checked all visible connections. The lights, horn and turn switches function. The ON-OFF and START do not function.
Removed the switch housing and all looks normal.
Removed the starter motor cover and pressed manually, no responce!
Got irregular readings from the battery so fitted a new one. Now manually pressed the starter motor and it responded but no fuel flowing.
Still no life in the ON-OFF or START switches.
The power in the ignition, ie. neutral and oil lights varies as does the head light. Sometimes they flicker, sometimes half power and sometimes normal.

 

[Jayster2744]

I had similar issues for years, finally it wouldnt start. after much research on this site, the ECH is a pile on the '04 models. many here used the wire plus to fix the problem. i used a local independant shop to rewire the entire bike making some modifications at the same time. no computer justa a fuse pannel now, updated the ignition and put in a HD battery. only about 600mi since the fix but, i can tell my dog runs 100% better now then ever! extremly happy dog owner now! good luck.

 

[BigDogBro1]

While at the shop yesterday we checked all visible connections. The lights, horn and turn switches function. The ON-OFF and START do not function.
Removed the switch housing and all looks normal.
Removed the starter motor cover and pressed manually, no responce!
Got irregular readings from the battery so fitted a new one. Now manually pressed the starter motor and it responded but no fuel flowing.
Still no life in the ON-OFF or START switches.
The power in the ignition, ie. neutral and oil lights varies as does the head light. Sometimes they flicker, sometimes half power and sometimes normal.

we checked all visible connections..

Checking the battery connections isn't GOOD enough....get down there and clean them so they shine.

The headlight bulb socket can sometimes melt and cause an EHC shutdown.
There are ceramic H4 bulb connectors that are recommended as replacements.

I think there should be around 8 volts at the starter solenoid GREEN wire before starting and battery voltage when the start button is pressed with key on.

You could have a intermittent wire connection inside the speedo housing.

The battery MUST have 12.8 volts minimum for the electronics to properly function.

 

[Red Setter]

Died on the road.

Thanks guys. We can only learn from our experiences,
We have cleaned all connections but I don't want to have the same experience again next year so going to dump the EHC and fit the Moto Gadget M-UNIT.
fingers crossed!:up:

 

[Ray]

Thanks guys. We can only learn from our experiences,
We have cleaned all connections but I don't want to have the same experience again next year so going to dump the EHC and fit the Moto Gadget M-UNIT.
fingers crossed!:up:

I have an 04 and mine died on the road never to do anything again. Replaced the EHC with the wire plus. I just sent ( a few minutes ago) the wire plus modules back to wire plus after the switch module started smoking.

From what I have read and my experience the EHC is crap from new. It is either dieing instantly leaving us stranded or f - a -d - i - n-g away as it dies doing all kinds of weird things. I think mine ran better after the change out and after it was all over and done with was glad to see that thing gone.

Hope you get it back up soon, wish ya the best on it , take your time doing the install more patience than problem,

Ray