another electrical mishap lol

[GabrielGoes]

So i noticed today my guage lights and my headlight was dimming quite sporatically. luckily God allowed me to make it home 25 miles from work. it was on the way home on the highway i noticed the headlight was dimming i was like oh no disaster again. Got home let it cool down and i goto start and the bike wouldnt click or anything, no headlight eaither but the neutral and oil p light was on. the bike decided to work (really it decided on its own which is why im so greatful i made it home) rode it around thinking i fixed it straightening out the switch wires (which i found out wasnt the case at all).. i noticed out of no where the guage's got like 2x brighter than i've ever seen it and my headlight was extremely bright too, i was totally baffled it looked beautiful and than it went back to its regular self (the dim looking way its been its whole life) and than started to flicker, then i parked it in the garage. the little glimpse of brightness showed me how much i was missing out on the bike the whole time, ive never seen the guages or lights that bright before, i mean my bike probably wasnt even charging at its full potential which i guess explains the 13.9 @ full charge. Now i am going to "cowboy up" and try my best to get down to this... i am going to spend all of tommorow that way i can start commuting on the bike again. This will be the 3rd time im doing an electrical nightmare job but every time it only improved, the 3rd times a charm they say!. Thanks guys for reading any hints or ideas is always encouraging, even a little bashing helps lol

[tom203]

Sounds like your wiring is coming loose in places- brighter lights might mean the r/r has a poor connection to battery and is trying to compensate- or the r/r could be failing.

[GabrielGoes]

Sounds like your wiring is coming loose in places- brighter lights might mean the r/r has a poor connection to battery and is trying to compensate- or the r/r could be failing.

hmm that sounds about right, the r/r is fairly new i dont think it is failing although its possible, can i wire the r/r power wire directly + battery?

right now i have it connected to the one red power wire that goes to main harness, which i believe ends up going to the solenoid near the seat, than the other stator wires are directly soldered. im thinking im gonna take the main power wire from the harness, directing that right to the + instead of the r/r, and than the r/r directly to the + , anyone see any problems with this?

[spyug]

I think you have some loose contacts and likely some corroded connectors. Very common with any old bike and usually the first thing you need to attend to.

The problem is that dirty and corroded connectors cause resistance in the circuit and you end up getting dropped voltage situations that can cause the dimming of ligts and such. The loose connectors can cause the intermittent or flickering light scenario too.

How is your charging? I'd start there. Refer to the Stator Papers and check everything through. You may be getting good voltage from the stator but if the connectors to the R/R are crappy then you may not be getting correct out put from it. Junking the old connector and going to individual spades can usually sort this.

Good grounds are also extremely important so make sure everyone you find is clean and tight. Even a loose negative lead from the battery can cause weird electrical issues. It is also a very good idea to run an additional ground from the r/r directly to the negative terminal of the battery as the stock ground from the R/R does always seem up to the job. I had poor charging with mine at first but this mod sorted it out.

It is a bit tedious but if you want reliability and peace of mind you will need to dive into it.

Good luck with it,
Spyug

[bakalorz]

hmm that sounds about right, the r/r is fairly new i dont think it is failing although its possible, can i wire the r/r power wire directly + battery?

right now i have it connected to the one red power wire that goes to main harness, which i believe ends up going to the solenoid near the seat, than the other stator wires are directly soldered. im thinking im gonna take the main power wire from the harness, directing that right to the + instead of the r/r, and than the r/r directly to the + , anyone see any problems with this?

The stock wiring harness (after leaving the battery) first goes through the main fuse before it connects to anything else (including the R/R).

If you want to run the R/R output direct to the battery thats OK, but make sure the direct wire is fused near the battery.

OTOH, the layout of the stock wiring run from the R/R to the harness is actually pretty good, and a direct run is slightly inferior to the stock one IF (and its a big if) the stock one is good (i.e. all the connections are good)

(the above may seem controversial: But realise that when the bike is running, a good bit of the R/Rs output runs the loads directly without going to the battery. If it goes through the battery first (through a fuse, then back out throught the bikes main regular fuse) it has to traverse some extra wire both ways, and also two fuses it otherwise wouldn't)

[tom203]

"(the above may seem controversial: But realise that when the bike is running, a good bit of the R/Rs output runs the loads directly without going to the battery. If it goes through the battery first (through a fuse, then back out throught the bikes main regular fuse) it has to traverse some extra wire both ways, and also two fuses it otherwise wouldn't) "

Yeah, most of the charging ouput goes to running the bike- the leftover goes to the battery ( or to cooking the stator if things go bad)!

[GabrielGoes]

the screw where all my grounds were was about to fall off, all the connections were just barley touching teh screw, put a lockwasher on it and gorilla'd it on, also guys when swapping my points and condensors my consdensor screw was stripped so just left it hanging untill i got another one, big mistake, huge power loss i didnt know it had a function (screwing the condensor on), i thought it was just to hold it inplace, i guess it's gotta be grounded to the plate or something

[Steve]

Nice to see that you are finding things and reporting them.

If you are still in "work on it till it's fixed" mode, here is one more problem area to check:
The red wire to which the r/r connects is crimped to the wire that runs from the MAIN fuse to the ignition switch. The crimp is buried a few inches into the harness, so you will have to do some unwrapping to find it, but you will be much better off if you can clean the connection, re-crimp it, then solder it to prevent further corrosion. When that is all done, re-wrap the harness and check your work with a meter.

As bakalorz mentioned, one popular 'mod' is to wire the r/r straight to the battery (through a fuse, of course), but then the power has to go through two fuses and some extra wire before it gets to the bike. Assuring that the crimped connector is clean and tight will prevent you from having to make this 'mod'.

One way to assess whether your crimped connection is good is to do a test that I believe is in the stator papers. If not in the original papers, it's in posplayr's update of them. With the bike running, measure the voltage between the r/r output connector and the battery + terminal. You should see virtually ZERO volts there. Anything larger than a couple of hundredths of a volt shows you have a bad connection. You should do the same test for the ground side of the r/r. Measure the voltage from the ground wire of the r/r and the - terminal on the battery. Again, anything larger than a couple of hundredths of a volt shows you have a bad connection.

.

[1_v8_merc]

I used to have annoying dimming problems too.

Cleaned the wiring harness and connections,
problem solved, bike was WAY brighter to the point where it actually hurt my eyes with lights on. I feel sorry for anyone behind me, cause the brake lights are wicked bright now!
The headlights are cyber white and insanely bright now.
I always get people flicking their high beams at me, lol.

I feel so stupid for ignoring the wiring harness for so long!
All I did was have a few beers, crank up the radio, and go thru the harness with a brush and contact cleaner and shop towels.
Very cheap and easy way to improve your bike!