| Author | Message | ||
     Ksc12c |
Me and the Wife took a much anticipated trip to the Big Bend area of West Texas. ( Pics to Follow)Heading out on I-10 the bike starting to go into Skip Spark Mode. I was doing a constant 80 MPH and it was friggin hot.If,I kept it under 75 no problems. I checked the following: Oil: Correct Level Fan: Running, although it to make a little more noise then usual. 10k service completed prior to the trip. I re-seated the connectors on the ECM It ran fine for 200 miles of highway driving. The next couple of days. It ran fine occasionally switching into skip spark mode. I just kept it below 70 mph. The last day it starting going into Skip Spark Mode under 70 and the Check Engine Light would stay solid for 20 seconds or so. Once I got to civilization I pulled the seated and took another look a the ECM connections. I noticed the insulation on one of the wires was worn from chaffing against the underside of the seat. I wrapped the offending wire in electrical tape. I saw no evidence of arcing or burning. It ran the remaining 350 miles trouble free. All in all, it was a great trip. I wasn't going to let a little skip spark mode stop me.  I do have some questions because I don't believe the worn wire was the cause of my problems. Does the ECM store engine trouble codes that the dealer can read to diagnose the problem? By re-seating the ECM connectors,did I reset the Over Temp sensor? Is my Fan be going out? Do I have a flaky Over temp sensor? Anything else I should check? Kevin | ||
| Froggy |
The bike does store the codes, so you can use ECMspy to check it out before hitting the dealer. | ||
| Hughlysses |
My guess (and it's a pure guess) is that your fan is going out, especially if it's the original. It does seem like the rubbed-through wire could be related- perhaps it dropped the voltage to the ECM or the fan slightly; either of those could cause the skip-spark problem. I don't think the bike going into skip-spark mode results in an error code, but if you have another problem, hopefully it'll show up. | ||
| Etennuly |
Ksc, I had the same issue. My bike would show a red light on the dash followed in a few seconds by a seemingly "run/skip" mode. It happened when hot out and going up a long grade. It had done it on a few different occasions under the same circumstances, for a couple of months. There was a thread posted a few weeks ago under "help Vern save his trip" or something to that effect. The problem, as it turned out, was indeed a wire chafed. The blue wire with the orange stripe that leads from the ECM to the #2 coil was just barely warn through. It would show a red light as it started to short then it would actually cause the rear cylinder to miss as it shorted to ground, making me think it was "run/skip". I figure when it was hot enough the wire would hang just loose enough to contact the battery's metal housing. When cooled off it would not quite reach. Then with a load, like a long up grade, it would bleed off enough power to make it miss. The wire had a little flat spot and just barely showed a single strand of silver wire within. A couple wraps of tape and a twist of the harness and it was fixed. I just did a 1000 mile twisted ride this past weekend and it had no problems at all. The Uly ran super and was loaded with camping gear, almost as heavy as if it were toting a passenger. I love riding this bike!  | ||
| Ksc12c |
Like, I said every time I played with the ECM Connector the bike ran fine. The last time re-seating the connectors I noticed the worn insulation. I wrapped it and had no problems. The bike was really nice for two up riding  Kev |
