Electrical wits end

[Anonymous]

OK, I'm lost. I tested and tested and basically fried my electrial system by having a ground line lying on the frame doing nothing but bad. I now have a good stator, good r/r, good battery and cleaned all of their connectiong but STILL when I ride the bike I drain and don't re-charge the battery. I have no idea where to go from here.

I'm thinking of actually taking it to the shop to let a pro fix it for a million dollars. I sure don't want to do that. Any ideas?

-mike of the lost sheep

[Anonymous]

Sounds silly but check the fuse box I had a simmilar problem, checked the fues at the start, they fused some time during fitting the new R/R unit and it took me 2hr to discover they had gone. It worth a try, start with the simple things, double check everything

[cbxchris]

I bet its something simple as a broken wire. Just take your time with it. I also hate electrical problems...they are my weak point.

[Billy Ricks]

I'm with Chris on this. You need to go through your wiring thoroughly. Make sure no solid black wires are hooked up as grounds, they're not. Also make sure you have a good clean ground on the crankcase.

[Anonymous]

If the solid black wires aren't grounds, what are they? The black wire coming out of the r/r is grounded to the metal harness that holds the airbox on. Is that right? It had been that way previously and when I cleaned the carbs I reinforced it.

When we're talking wiring here do I have to check every single wire on the whole bike? One thing I just thought of is all of this started right about the time my horn mysteriously started working again. It hadn't worked for months for some reason. Nothing dealing with the horn seemed frayed though.

Thanks everyone.

[Billy Ricks]

The one coming off the R/R is a ground. The rest of the grounds are black with a white tracer. There is a black wire to the turn signals that is actually a hot wire. There is also a black to the ignitor and signal generator circuit that is a hot wire.

[Billy Ricks]

Actually my wiring diagram shows the ground on the r/r is black with a white tracer as well.

[Anonymous]

Do those black wires for the signals and such come off of the fuse box? I'll have to do some digging into the wiring. Something has to be loose and causing trouble.

-mike

[Billy Ricks]

The turn signal switch seems to be where they turn black. Up to that point they are light green or light blue. Poke around in the headlight bucket. That's where most of your connections are.

[Anonymous]

Will do. I wondered why the headlight bucket had so many wires in it. I sure don't want to take this to the shop, they'll charge me a ton of money for basically looking at wires.

At least now I know the r/r and stator work. Before if the battery died (and of course it always doed) the bike shut off. Now if I get it started it runs and runs. But I'm afraid I'm going to ruin the same parts again in the process.

-mike

[Joe Guilbeau]

Will do. I wondered why the headlight bucket had so many wires in it. I sure don't want to take this to the shop, they'll charge me a ton of money for basically looking at wires.

At least now I know the r/r and stator work. Before if the battery died (and of course it always doed) the bike shut off. Now if I get it started it runs and runs. But I'm afraid I'm going to ruin the same parts again in the process.

-mike

To troubleshoot an electrical drain, you should have an ammeter to put in series with the battery.

Once you do that and turn the key off, there should be no current flowing in the circuit.

If there is current flowing thru the ammeter, remove one fuse at a time to see if this stops the current from flowing.

If removing a fuse stops the current from flowing, you have identified the system that the "short" or current drain is in.

Most likely you have a diode that has shorted out in your regulator circuit.

Check your voltage when the bike is running, it should be above 13Vdc, rev it up to see if the voltage is being clamped by the diodes, shouldn't go above something like 14 or so volts.

Anyway, if the current flow is stopped by unplugging an electronic component, then you can be pretty sure that your electronic component needs attention.

Let us know how these test progress.

I'm fighting my own stupid mistake in the electronic arena.

[Anonymous]

Do you mean a diode in the r/r? But I just replaced it. How could that be the problem? I sure hope it's not. I'll try those tests. Wow, this is no longer a fun thing to spend my days doing.