| Author | Message | ||
     Orangeulius |
Well after several days in the shop, my second service trip this year for electrical flakiness and failure to start, I got the call from my HD dealer....."we couldn't find anything wrong!" I'll pick it up on Friday because the next few days here will be in the 60's and Sunny. I'll start it up, enjoy riding it home and it will sucker me into another false sense of security. Then one day I'll be out riding and the tach or speedometer will quit working, then it won't start and I'll be right back in the same place. I hate my Uly because it has such potential to be a great bike but quality wise it fails to pass the most basic of requirements....that I can trust it will start when I am ready to ride and that I can be confident when riding more than a few miles from home that it won't fail. Damn bike. For the details on my electrical problems see the post "Uly Quality Issues". | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
Mark, Did you have them replace the Bank Angle Sensor? There is absolutely NO way to know whether it is the issue or not but to replace it. It doesn't throw any codes. You can't test it with a meter. You can't visually inspect it. It's either bad or it's not. If it is bad, it will give you most of these symptoms. Think of it as an in-line kill switch. If your switch thinks it's on his side, nothing is going to work. I don't think they are very expensive parts. As I mentioned before, I would go ahead and spring for the BAS myself and try to see if it fixes the problem. If it does, see if they will credit you back (plus a T-shirt or two). I would just hate to see your ownership experience ruined by a $15.48 part. | ||
| Rocketsprink |
Did they check the bank angle sensor? I know that's been an issue with the Uly. I believe it's mounted in a bad location, prone to excessive vibrations. Don't ask how I know this. Worth a shot. I hope you get it figured out. | ||
| Daves |
Orange, You have mail | ||
| Orangeulius |
I told them about the BAS but it's like talking to a sponge. I'll pay for the part and have them do it. I didn't realize it was so cheap. I was just so PO'd after their call I had to vent somewhere. Thanks FB BTW ETENNULY said you guys had a pretty nice ride a week or so ago. I would have come along but probably woudn't have kept up. Oh wait, my bike probably wouldn't have started anyway....he he | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
Orange, The $15.48 price was figurative, but I don't think it's very expensive. Dave probably already has a price for you in your inbox. Get your ride well and come with us. I have been made an honorary member of C3 as long as I fulfill my noob beer fetching duties. We are trying to book an east meets west ride. I'd love to meet you and have you ride with us. If we are doing another ride from Nashville, it would be great to get you and Etennuly to come out. Everyone rode to their abilities and had a great time. Our group always operates under the "ride your own ride" doctrine. The fastest guy waits longest, and no one gets left behind. You'd have had no problem keeping up. The fastest guy was 50+ on a beat up 1996 Suzuki Bandit that smokes like a chimney. Surely you could have beaten him!  | ||
| M2nc |
Ulius - I hate that you are have problems with your bike. This is the second time I have seen where a small and inexpensive wiring glitch has spoiled the ride for its owner. If you were closer to me I would direct you to Shelton's HD/Buell which excels at these kind of problems. What I have seen personally and told by technicians is a broken wire within the insulation or terminal that can not be easily seen. To discover which wire you have to do a little diagnosis. I personally found a broken wire on a friend's 03 Lightning under the dash that was causing similar problems you describe with the gauges. The insulation of the wire was in tact so you could not see the break. We had to check each wire and it took about 30 minutes to find. In another case that was under warranty, Shelton's techs found a similar issue with a wire almost broken in the terminal (Holding by one strand). We had the same issue at my work and we call it an over-crimp issue. The wire is cut when the terminal is crimped on the wire. The terminal holds, or not, but has more resistance than it should. It is hard to find without inspecting each terminal. A multimeter helps narrow the search area then a manual inspection is needed. Its time consuming but usually less that $5 bucks to fix. My dealer spent three hours diagnosing the problem on that one Buell I was talking about. It cost less than $1 worth of parts to fix. Push the dealer to diagnose the problem. Electrical problems do not just disappear. If you are having problems with the gauges, you are loosing current to them. It could be because the battery is loosing charge, (Happen to my M2 at 36,000 miles when the voltage regulation was left unplugged after an exhaust change), or a wire that is cut or damaged and causing intermittent problems. The dealer needs to keep your bike and ride it for some time. It is hard to find a ghost and try as much as you like, but a tech seeing the problem for himself will do more to resolving the problem than a 1000 work essay explaining the problem to him. Good Luck P.S. - The shame of it is that the bike is great, but you need to trade in your dealer! | ||
| Diablobrian |
I thought we talked about the BAS on a different thread. kind of an odd thing, but the way the software is set up, it does not throw a code in the diagnostics. I had a spare on hand, but I already mailed it off to another Uly owner in need. I hope it fixes the problem. | ||
| Lowflyer |
Orange, Lots of good advice here. I hope you can get it fixed. However, if none of the possible solutions pan out, you should just give your bike to me.  No offense, but I think it is in the Badweb bi-laws to have at least one member offer to take possession the guy's bike in the case of some sort of mechanical failure. Just doing my part. | ||
| Blake |
Not sure the issue is one of faulty tip sensors but more of a sensor mounting issue where at certain speeds a resonance develops and trips the sensor. If the bike then starts after flipping the kill switch to off and then back on, that is a good indication that the vibration induced resonance is the issue you are experiencing. If so, take it to the dealer and have them contact Buell to get the issue resolved post haste. | ||
| Etennuly |
The problem Orange is having is more an intermittent wiring failure or bad connector than that of the BAS. My bike had the BAS problem, his symptoms are different. The instrument cluster quits functioning, but the bike still runs, the battery continually looses charge even with a trickle charger backing it up. Mark if you have time this weekend I'd make time to look it over if you'd like. We can do some diagnostic work and discuss the findings on here with these great folks. I'll PM you. | ||
| Lowflyer |
Check the voltage regulator connector. I had that issue. The pin fit on that connector can be sketchy. My symptoms were that the battery lost a charge, gages went dead with bike still running, bike started running like shit, then it died and I could not restart without charging the battery. I lightly pinched the female end of that connector with a pair of fine needlenose pliers and haven't had the problem since. | ||
| Etennuly |
Low.... Thanks, that is where I'd like to start if he would like my help. | ||
| M2nc |
I had a dealer that is not worth a crap change out the front muffler mount (to the upgraded mount) on my M2. After they changed it I rode with some friends about on a 100 miles ride. As we were riding I noticed that the bike was missing at times. Over time the missing got worse. Later the speedo started jumping around periodically until it quit all together. Then the head light got dim. The bike would not start without a jump but then would run as long as you did not gun it. High RPMs would cause the bike to back fire and miss. I got home and looked the bike over. The dufases at the dealer did not hook up the voltage regulation back to the battery, so the motor would run on magneto but not charge the battery. The voltage regulator has three wires I think. Two to the stator and on to the battery. Just look at the connection between the battery and voltage regulator if the symtoms are the same. Look at each connection and terminal carefully. Make sure that the terminals are secured properly. I do not know what Buell's test method is, but we use a 10# pull test at work on our terminals and plugs. Check all pin & plug connections. Make sure all the pins are pushed in all the way into the plugs so they are making a good connection. Look for resistance between terminals with a multimeter especially if the battery is loosing charge even on a tender. That means you have a ground fault situation. | ||
| Brad1445 |
Lowflyer Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) Posted on Wednesday, November 22, 2006 - 11:19 pm: Check the voltage regulator connector. I had that issue. The pin fit on that connector can be sketchy. My symptoms were that the battery lost a charge, gages went dead with bike still running, bike started running like shit, then it died and I could not restart without charging the battery. I lightly pinched the female end of that connector with a pair of fine needlenose pliers and haven't had the problem sinc __________________ +1 | ||
| Orangeulius |
Well it looks to me like 3 things I'll do to the bike this weekend. First I'll check Lowflyers recommendation on the VR connector, 2nd I'll go through the wiring as M2nc suggested, and 3rd if these don't work I'll replace the BAS as FB and others have suggested. Blakes idea is interesting but not sure how I would follow up. Thanks for all the input. I'll be hooking up with Etennuly and follow up with the results. Thanks for all the support and ideas. On this turkey day I'm thankful for a lot of things...you guys are one of them! Have a great day. "Today is the day where we all get to enjoy being a bit of a Fat Bastartd".  | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
Thanksgiving's a day where 299,999,999 Americans that get to step into my shoes for a day!  Have a happy Thanksgiving! | ||
| Old_mil |
Dude, pull that picture! People can't ride motorcycles if they go blind. | ||
| Treadmarks |
daayuum Thats scary.  | ||
| Javadog |
I just lost my appetite. | ||
| Etennuly |
I won't be eating much today ..... ah thank you.  | ||
| Dmcutter |
FB, as the southerners say, yain't raht. | ||
| Lovehamr |
 Eeeesh! Happy thanksgiving anyway! | ||
| Lowflyer |
I dunno, that has a sort of a Michaelangelo feel to it. He looks like a guy that is thinking about clearing the hair-clog from the shower drain. I can empathize. | ||
| Etennuly |
You looked at it long enough to decipher that? eeeeeeuuuuuwwwwwwww  | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
Flyer's a bit odd like that. | ||
| Lowflyer |
Some folks are more quick-witted than others, I reckon. It didn't take me as long as it did you.  | ||
| Lowflyer |
A lady was picking through the frozen turkeys at the grocery store, but couldn't find one big enough for her family. She asked a stock boy, "Do these turkeys get any bigger?" The stock boy replied, "No ma'am, they're dead." Quick wit. | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
Sorry. I was too busy growing more body hair. Where is Gardner? I'm assuming it isn't too far from Wichita (aviation stuff). | ||
| Lowflyer |
38 deg 48' 39.69" N 94 deg 55' 38.85" W Near KC. (Message edited by lowflyer on November 23, 2006) |
