Kawasaki Vulcan Forum banner

nomad wont start

11K views 18 replies 4 participants last post by  gator21 
#1 ·
help? I have a 2001 fi with approx. 48000 miles. after installing a new battery, going for a ride and parking it for 24 hrs. , the fuel pump wouldn't come on. so it doesn't start. I tested the relay I have power to the fuel pump at the harness plug but no fuel pump. so, I pull it out, put it to the battery +/- and just as I thought, nothing. I ordered another unit @110.00 delivered to the house, plugged it in and it didn't work. so I read some more and learned about the ecu blink codes and how to retrieve them. I did it , told me fuel pump. after that the damn thing started working. cool I thought,so I put the whole bike together and fired it up. it started,died, and again no fuel pump? now when I re test the ecu for codes its not giving me anything.
does anyone know if any of the sensors will cause it to not start? my hayes manual says some but im not sure how to figure it out. im leaning towards a bad ecu...
 
#3 ·
key on, fi light comes on and stayes on (that's why I did the code retrieval)
key on,fuel pump was on then off. I replaced the fuel pump and again, on long enough for it to start and run for a minute, then it died and wont come on again
other than the battery being dead (so I replaced it) , no other issues
about a month ago, the fuel pump wouldn't come on. I cycled the switch 4-5 times then it came on.it started up but ran on 1 cylinder only for about 6 miles. then it smoothed out and was fine.
like I said, there is power to the pump at the harness plug . ??
 
#5 ·
Gator,
That's a mystery. I would have been like you and thought the pump was bad since you put power directly to it and got nothing. I wish I could be some help, but I don't have enough experience with the FI bikes and ECU codes to be of any value. I'm interested to see what this ends up being. Follow sfairs lead and he'll get you to the root cause. Keep us posted.
 
#7 ·
now I think I have a relay issue. I just stuck the test light into all 4 wires going in the relay( that was clicking) I got 1-constant power
2 that powered up when the key is turned on
1 - that does nothing....
then I tapped on it and now only one of the three has power
 
#9 ·
I did the test as described in the manual and its telling me its a bad relay. so I guess ill pick one up tomorrow
 
#10 ·
so, I replaced the relay. that did nothing to help, still no fuel pump,no more codes in ecu. im beginning to think I got a bad used fuel pump. or it could be the ecu. the service guys at 2 different dealers say they want to know because this kind of thing never happens to a nomad. its loaded up and going to the dealer today. this is gonna hurt. new fuel pump is is 600, new ecu is 900 +..
 
#12 ·
well, the dealer called after trying all his testing. he told me he had to call Kawasaki corp.to get help. they determined that the ecu is bad. the part is 860.00. there is a national back order on it, so I have a used one coming from philly. 350.00. they said I have a 10 day warranty on it. the bike it came from was an 04 with 20,000miles. im still waiting for it to arrive so i can take it to the shop. so my wife and i rented a car to go to "roar to the shore" event in wildwood nj. that sucked on one hand but it rained a lot too. bittersweet. had a good time with my wife anyway.
I don't understand how there is a national backorder on a part that expensive when the dealers have told me the nomads NEVER have these problems...sounds like b.s. to me. anyway, not knowing the other bike. how will it work with my powercommander? will I have to re-dyno tune it ? will the dealer even be able to get it to run? that's why I had it dyno'd in the first place. it wouldn't run right because the dealer that installed the power commander in south jersey f'ed it up.
"stay tuned" isn't just for old t.v. shows, that's serious life words to live by.....
 
#13 ·
well, as of now the dealer has determined the ecu was bad. the ignition switch has a bad diode/resistor in it causing it to not send the signal to the fuel pump and other stuff. the 'tip over' switch is also apperantly not working properly. ive had this thing for 11 years or so and never had any problems. when it rains it pours
 
#16 ·
nope. the tech. ordered a new tip over switch and since none of my family can find the original ign. switch,...I told him to go ahead and order one of those too.( im on the road for another 3weeks)
 
#17 ·
I am with Sfair on this one. You say you no longer have the original ignition switch, which makes me assume you have used the Harley clone switch in the tank console. At this point I would condemn that switch( cause I had one fail, poor contact internally). I would at this point short the white wire to the brown and grey( keeping in mind that you NEED the 100 ohm resistor on the grey upstream of the ecu). I had to do this this past summer to bypass an ignition switch failure and lo and behold it ran
 
#18 ·
yes , when I bought it ,it had a thunder mfg. Harley style switch on the handle bar clamp. they told me about the in line resistor. they did that also but there is no spark. tests showed the tip over switch to be bad also. just waiting on parts.
 
#19 ·
all said and done.... I replaced the fuel pump, because there was fire going to it. that didn't need to be replaced. $150
- I replaced all the fuses and the relay $35
- the dealer tested the e.c.u. said its bad, so I had one sent in from philly off of a 2004 model. $362
- then they found the bad ing.switch, ordered it. $120
- then there was no spark, now the tip over switch is bad $130
-then it started and ran for a few minutes, then died.??? they unplugged the power commander, bypassed it and low and behold ,
the pos runs perfect.they said it didn't need it anyway after they test rode it. if I wanted it on there it would be $370 + 1 hr labor($73). so, my bill is $625 all in for the dealer. I wont be home for another week & a 1/2 to get it.:frown2:
I think im gonna ride to panama city and back when I get there:serious::grin2:
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top