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Was it the mice or me?

4K views 21 replies 12 participants last post by  jobustrom 
#1 ·
Went to the garage to start the Glee this afternoon and I got nothing. I once made the mistake of turning the key too far to the parking light position, but I cannot remember if I did this in this instance.

I took off the seat, and was surprised to see that the area above my battery is now home to an apparent mouse nest. I removed as much as the nest as I could and used my portable Sears charger to get the Glee running.

I noticed that the mice had apparently scraped and stripped some of the wires to the components directly to the rear of the battery. The wires were still in tact, however exposed in some areas.

I let the Glee run for about 25 minutes, then ran it around the neighborhood for ten minutes. I turned it off for about ten seconds, and was able to start it right away. I then filled up at the gas station, and didn't have enough power to start the engine. After a couple of attempts, the display went completely blank. I had to walk home, use the portable charger to get it started, and trailer the bike home.

Can't determine if I made the mistake in turning the key too far, or if the scraped wires created by the mice are the reason for the bike not starting.

Dead battery, or damaged components? Any help is much appreciated...
 
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#2 ·
Bared wires created a danger of shorting to ground. Check the fuses. If they are okay, the battery is the likely culprit. Running it down to nothing more than once is pretty bad.
 
#13 ·
Thanks Greywolf,

Pardon my ignorance, but is it true that the only ways for me to find out which wires need to be replaced would be to?:

A: Buy a service manual for $80+ to view the wiring diagram (wait for this to be shipped, then wait for the wires to be shipped in peak riding season)

or

B: Trailer the bike to a dealer and hopefully run into somebody pleasant enough to go outside and help me identify the part numbers to the individual wires that need to be replaced

I understand intellectual property, but shouldn't it be common courtesy for Suzuki to offer customers a means to identify wires/parts that need to be replaced?
 
#3 ·
I would say the battery is the culprit for the second no start. I mistakenly left my ignition on all night in my garage a few weeks ago. Same symptoms (aside from your wiring issue). Went for a 30 min ride after jump start (ran like crap). Got home, shut it off for a minute to strip my gear, went to start and no go. Display shut off. Put the bike on a charger for a few hours and it was fine. Once you drain a battery that low. A short ride is going to only put a surface charge on it. Maybe good for one or two starts before its drained again.

Also try wiggling the wires around, where they ate the insulation. Could be another stripped spot.
 
#6 ·
Thanks fellas,

I am going to throw together a mix of cayenne pepper, peppermint extract, and moth balls, into a triple wound fishnet satchel. Hopefully the aroma will penetrate the battery compartment from the area holding the owners manual, where I plan on housing this concoction.

I've removed the stock battery and found that my battery tender is giving me the flashing red signal, signifying that there is either something wrong with the stock battery or the battery tender. Brand new battery and brand new battery tender are both on order from Amazon.

If the stock battery is salvageable, maybe I can use it as an emergency backup if more undetected areas of mouse-chewed wires give me issues in the future. Next stop is to the hardware store for some quality tape to hopefully repair and insulate the exposed wiring.

One perfectly good riding weekend, as well as a couple hundred bucks, right down the damn drain...
 
#16 ·
Tried the peppermint oil and aroma method of getting rid of the little suckers in my cabin with no success.. The only thing that really works in my case is a good old mouse trap with a little peanut butter.

Let us know what the final findings are on the battery issue..
 
#9 ·
Wifey once stored bird seed in our garage :headbang:. After winter when I first started up my Bandit 1200 bird seed came flying out of the exhaust like out of a shot gun. Had there been anybody behind it, I think they would have looked like out of a bugs bunny cartoon. :yikes:
There was a whole nest under the seat and we also found seed in the air intake. It was a huge messy cleanup, luckily no chewed wires.

I think in your case, the batter is the problem, but I would replace the chewed up harnesses anyway.
 
#10 ·
When I store my bike in my friend's mouse-ridden barn for the winter, I stick the cheapest and most awful-smelling 'dryer sheets' I can buy under the seat, in the air intake and all over the exterior of the bike before I put the cover on it. I also stuff an oil-soaked rag in the exhaust port. Haven't found any evidence of mouse-y visits, yet.

Oh yeah...and as a courtesy to my friend, I buy a few packages of mouse traps to bait and set to at least help put a (small) dent in the local mouse population. There hasn't been an unoccupied trap to be found, yet, when I return in the Spring to reclaim my bike.
 
#14 ·
#22 ·
Thanks again Greywolf,

I will try to repair what is bared. That does indeed look like a complicated diagram.

As for the suggestion of bump starting, I have bump started bikes much heavier than this Vstrom many times. I pushed and ran the Vstrom down the street, unable to bump start it in either first or second gear.

As for the mice, the moth balls and aromatics have fended the critters away, at least for this week. Hopefully they stay away.

Thanks for all the responses everybody...
 
#15 ·
You don't have to walk the bike home. Next time just push the bike to jump start it. If you rode the bike already and had just depleted your battery power with trying to electric-start the bike there is enough juice in the battery to push start. I did it numerous times.
1. Put it in neutral
2. Key is ON position
3. Start pushing the bike, then try to run a little with it (slope helps)
4. Jump on the bike
5. Pull clutch lever
6. Kick it in 1st gear
7. Release the clutch, give a little gas, bam, engine screams and roars.
(repeat if the pushing speed was low).
 
#20 ·
You need enough power to run the fuel pump on a fuel injected bike to push start it.
 
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