| Author | Message | ||
     Treefrog |
Well crap. Got ready to leave school tonight. (08 XT) All geared up, hop on the bike, turn the handle bars to the right and the low beam goes out. WTF??? Now, over this past weekend I did just do the headlight mod and install HIDs in both housings. Figured I goobered something up while I was in there. I tore the whole front end apart in the parking lot to check everything I touched when I put the HIDs in and swapped the wires for the headlight mod. Nope. Not it. If you straighten the bars out, or turn left, everything is fine. High beam is not affected at all. I finally wiggled and jiggled enough stuff to find that the problem is in the main harness on the steering neck...under the little plastic protector thingy that is supposed to protect the harness. I buttoned it all back up and rode home with my thumb on the high beam switch just in case. I didn't have any issues coming home though. The problem only happens at parking lot speeds when you are really turning the bars. Guess my upcoming weekend is shot now. What are the odds that the break will be right there where I can get to it and repair it? Yeah, right.  I will say though that the HIDs are the bomb. I put 35W 4500K in both sides and now I am wondering why I waited so long. I'm not trying to whine, I just needed to vent a little to some people who understand my pain. | ||
| Griffmeister |
You sure it's not a ground at the steering head? Same area you were tugging on and very common. Could be a broken wire that is under tension in right turns. | ||
| Cyclonedon |
yes, try fixing the ground wire on the steering head. There has been many problems located with that ground. I had it happen to mine also. | ||
| Treefrog |
I will pinpoint it once I can get in there with a multimeter. Couldn't get it to blink by wiggling the grounds where they bolt to the steering held. I'm figuring it's the euro light wire. Never had this problem until I did the headlight mod and the euro wire is now feeding the low beam. It is possible it has been broken for a long time and I never knew it. I haven't pulled out a schematic yet, but it seems if it were the ground it would affect both headlights. Time will tell. | ||
| Towpro |
Better yet, just run a new ground to the head light circuit, and back-feed the old ground wire. Good for what ails it. | ||
| Mark_weiss |
The orange w/ black trace wire in the harness at the steering head is broken. The break is just where you think, right where the harness is pinched against the leading edge of the plastic guard. The insulation is probably not broken, but the conductors inside have given way. When you cut away the wrapping, you can see the pinched spot on the wire. When you turn the bars to the right, it pulls at the wire and the broken strands separate. I just fixed that problem some weeks ago. To button things up, I added an extra layer of plastic cable armor and left the guard off. | ||
| Andrejs2112 |
It's probably a ground in the steering head bundle. Mind did that. The wire was broken inside the insulator. I couldn't see a break in the insulator. It looked fine. It took a lot of troubleshooting to find it. I have some wire harness tape if you need some. | ||
| Rkc00 |
Like Mark said. Broken wire in the harness | ||
| Mark_weiss |
The wire is power for the normally unused (in the US market) front marker/parking lamp. Initially, I did not know that my headlamp was out, I also had a pinch break in the power line to the turn signals. To ensure that the wires would not pull apart after repair, I used heat shrink/solder splices that I was able to pick up at Home Depot. They look like regular insulated crimp splices but the metal portion is really a low temperature solder. The key item for me was that the heat shrink sleeve was lined with heat activated glue. For both breaks, I cut out several inches of wire in order to locate the splices along areas of the harness that did not seem to need to flex or pull much. | ||
| Treefrog |
I will try to start on it tomorrow. I don't have time to get into it today. Mark: What did you use to heat up the connectors you bought? I have a heat gun that I normally use for such things, but some moron (probably me) has misplaced all of the tips that go to it. I will post up once I find the problem. | ||
| Motorbike |
I modified the plastic guard and changed the way that harness was done on my XT when it was almost new after reading about all the problems guys were having in this area. Just a little preventative maintenance. So far, no problems but I really don't have many miles on the bike yet, only 9300. The original setup causes a lot of strain on the wires because they are bent sharply where the wire harness exits the front of the plastic guard. I cut the guard back and rounded the edges so it was not sharp. I also wrapped the wiring in plastic wire loom and routed it so it nows only makes a very gentle bend in the harness when the bars are turned lock to lock. Here are some pics: (Man I love pics, don't I?) Before:   After: Notice how I cut the plastic back on the front edge.   | ||
| Mark_weiss |
I used a normal paint stripping heat gun, set to low. When heating the solder type splices, hold everything horizontal until the solder cools... Motorbike, I like your solution. I trimmed the guard a bit, but the wiring still pulled a lot and I left the guard off. I will look into trimming the guard back even further now. | ||
| Tootal |
I've had my guard off for years. Just two wire ties keeps it from floppin! | ||
| Glenn |
Do some searches on "directional" and you see see the cold fused wire connection that has failed. I've been there ... twice. I ended up buying some very flexible R/C car wire and have had no more problems. | ||
| Glenn |
also keep your soldered joints in the cowl and as far back toward the motor as you can get. Soldered wire is brittle and can't take lots of flex cycles. | ||
| Mark_weiss |
That's where the heat shrink splices are nice. They do a good job of minimizing flex at the soldered area. | ||
| Xbimmer |
I've had my guard off for years. Just two wire ties keeps it from floppin! +1. I bought the newer style guard (shown above) to replace the original '06 harness crusher but never used it. The whole harness is free to move gently with no focal point of pivot, and the throttle cables are out of the equation. The solution in Pic 4 above looks a lot better, but note that the ganged grounds to the steering head will probably still flex 1-2" from the bolted terminal. I fixed those suckers 3-4 times before eliminating that altogether. Zero problems since.  http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/messages/142838/486495.html | ||
| Motorbike |
Xbimmer, I have not had any trouble with the grounds to the steering head yet. The pic is a little deceiving as these wires did not flex much as I watched it turning lock to lock. I do agree though, that is probably the weak link on mine right now. Next time I'm in there, I might fix that using your solution. Great idea! What did you actually use for the coiled, flexible wire? Where can I get one? Thanks! | ||
| Xbimmer |
The wire is a piece of 10AWG coiled around a pencil, crimped then soldered into the smallest copper battery terminal I could find, and ratchet crimped into the shielded blade connector. Double heat-shrinked on the ends, and all four grounds for the harness are ratchet crimped into the other connector half. The S-curve and the coils allow most of the side to side movement to occur in the coiled section, there is virtually no flexing at the connector or terminal ends. Ridiculously cheap and reliable fix. | ||
| Treefrog |
We have a winner. Mark W hit the nail on the head. O/W wire broke right where the harness comes out of the plastic protector. Now I just have to go gather parts and fix it. I will use a combination of Mark W, Motorbike, and Xbimmer's solutions to fix it. Hopefully, it will be good after that. Thanks for the suggestions everyone. | ||
| Ronmold |
R/C car wire for the ground really worked for me. http://s678.photobucket.com/albums/vv141/ronmold/U ly%20flyscreen%20grounds/?albumview=slideshow | ||
| Motorbike |
Ronmold, that looks like a great solution also. I was wondering where I could get some of that really flexible wire, now I know. Thank you much! | ||
| Reepicheep |
Nice! Missed this thread the first time... good info here. Next time I'm in there, I'll do something proactive with that joint. How much is the upgraded cover? Anyone know the part number off hand? What year did it show up? When I saw the old cover on my 9sx, I thought it was asking for trouble. It never failed, but kept me nervous. |
