Need some help- losing all power when I hit start button!

This is my first post, I have used the site to gain some technical knowledge in the past, but this is my first post. I am stumped and would greatly appreciate any help!

I have a 2004 midnight venture. I turned my bike on the other day, I had lights and radio, but when I hit the start button, I heard a pop and lost all power. The last time this happened, I replaced the battery and all was well. This time I replaced the battery, and got the same pop, and lost all power with the new battery. I still had 12.73 volts at the battery with it connected. Voltage does not drop when I turn the key, and i now know my old battery was fine because it is in another bike now. All fuses are fine, and i can actually unhook the battery, let it sit overnight, hook it back up and get power back until I hit the starter button again.

The pop sounds electrical and seems to come from around the battery. I'm thinking I must have a bad ground, bad start button, something. I came to see if anyone has experienced this before and can point me in the right direction. Thank you in advance!

I think you are right in suspecting ground or other electrical gremlins.

If all is normal until you hit the starter then start tracing those wires. You might have a frayed wire that when you hit the starter it shorts out. See if there is a test for the starter itself. Haven't seen anyone post issues with bad starters but there is always the first one. Check electrical connection at this point since you hear the "pop" coming from this area.

My guess is that if you were to give a good tug on the battery leads, one of them will be found loose or come off entirely.

Make sure you have clean connections at the battery posts.

First off, welcome!!!

One common problem with the 2nd Gen Venture is the ignition switch. If your ignition switch is bad you will lose power to everything but the radio as the radio is on a separate set of contacts from the main ignition contacts. So, if you turn the key and everything except the radio goes dead that may very well be your problem.

The second source of failure is where the battery negative cable connects to the frame gets corroded. The best way to determine if this is the problem is to connect your voltmeter black (negative) probe to the frame and the red (positive lead) to the battery when the problem occurs. If the ground connection is good then you will see pretty much the exact voltage you see with the probes directly on the battery. They should be within a tenth or two of each other. For example, if you see 12.84 volts directly on the battery terminals you should see maybe 12.79 volts with the black probe on the frame. If you see considerably less, then definitely clean the connections on each side of the negative cable. When you have the probes on the battery, make sure you have the probes on the terminals themselves and not on the screw that screws into the terminal. You can also test for the plus connection by keeping the black voltmeter lead on the battery terminal, and then placing the red probe on the red wire where it connects to your starter solenoid, which is attached to the side of the battery box.

Get back to us with this, there are several very knowledgeable people on this site who can walk you through the entire troubleshooting process...

Thank you all. I will try the procedures you recommended tomorrow. I had a busy couple of days with an old van that has been sitting for 6 years. I'm usually pretty good with electrical issues on cars and trucks, but this is my first motorcycle I've ever owned and I absolutely love it. I want to get her back on the road! I will post my findings as soon as I get the tests done. Thanks again!

The starter solenoid is behind the left passenger floor board. The 30a main fuse also. So while checking connections look there. Also a way to get around the button if thats the issue would be, turn key on and jumper across the solenoid and see if it will start. If not and you get the pop or clunk then nothing your probably looking at main cables.

That sounds like exactly where the pop comes from. I will finally have time to do get into it this weekend. I will definitely post my findings and hopefully it will help someone else one day, although I'm sure this problem has been addressed before. Thanks again

I assume my problem was just dirty terminals, as silly as that is. I pulled the battery tray out, checked all the fuses, I found one place where the positive wire was touching the frame, and friction had rubbed the electrical tape off in one small spot, but it had definitely not broken the insulation on the wire. I put everything back together, cleaned my terminals real good to start testing more in-depth, and it fired right up. So I have to assume the terminals were dirty, as that's the only real thing i did. I really dont think the positive lead going to the starter relay was grounding, so my money is on dirty terminals. Wow. I didnt ride my bike for 3 months because of that. Thanks again for all the help!