| Author | Message | ||
     Eryngium |
I'm planning on leaving Friday evening for a trip from my home in WI to visit family in MD via Canada (the north shore of Lake Erie), the Finger Lakes, and the Catskills in NY. Lots of good stuff planned along the way including a ferry ride across Lake Michigan, birding at Point Pelee (yeah, birding - I'm a biologist!), a visit to Brewery Ommegang in Cooperstown, NY, camping and hiking in the Catskills, a Labor Day cookout with my family, and watching my niece in a play. Very excited for my first multiday trip on the Uly and all the other adventures. Heading to work yesterday a.m. the check engine light comes on. I get a sick feeling in my stomach. There's a rest stop less than a mile up the interstate. As I'm pulling into a parking space I notice the digital read-out is gone; electrical system is shutting down. Son of a....! After I stopped I hit the starter and nothing but rapid clicks. Not good timing! I remove the seat, switch a relay, check fuses, but in the back of my mind I'm thinking 77 connector based on the story I've heard repeatedly here. Didn't want to dig in there, so I called work and they brought a trailer and got me and the bike home. When I got home I gave the 77 a quick glance and it looked okay. More queasy feelings in my stomach. I decided to charge the battery, get to work, and dig deeper later. Care to guess what I had sitting on the kitchen table waiting to be installed? Yup, a voltmeter. When I got home the first thing I did was go to BadWeb to read about problems folks have had in the past. While my symptoms didn't match other's exactly, they sounded similar enough that I went back to the 77. Looking a little closer I noticed that one of the female sides of the connector was a little too "open" and while there was no black or charring,there was what looked like it could have been one very small spot where plastic was melted. Even with my reading glasses I wasn't sure that's what I was seeing. So I got a needle and pulled the connector out a little, applied a generous amount of dielectric grease and put it back together. I also checked and re-tightened grounds while I was at it. Put the charged battery back in place this morning and using the voltmeter as a tester I started it her up. It was a little low at first, but it was definitely charging while it was running. Schweet! I figured I might as well give it a test and rode it to work. Made it the 14 miles to work with no problems. Borrowed a voltmeter from the shop during the middle of the day and sure enough 12+ volts at rest and 13.7 or something at idle. I'm a very relieved and very appreciative Uly owner right now. You guys are awesome. Thanks! I would have had no idea what to look for without having read about it here. I'm very much looking forward to a cool trip and visiting with my family. I will install the voltmeter THIS EVENING. Couple follow-up questions: How may grounds should I find and where are they? I found the one the left side near the battery and one behind the headlights. Is there a second one under the seat, just behind the other? And under the flyscreen, is there a ground adjacent to the turn signal "controller" or is it just a mount? I had put star washers under these spots some time ago (as I saw suggested here), but wasn't sure which were grounds or if there are others I need to find. |
