| Author | Message | ||
     Isham |
Alright I need some help here. A few bike nights ago I got stranded because of a dead battery. Volts too low to turn the engine. So now I went out a bought a new battery and installed a new regulator. Today I took the bike out for a pretty long ride and on the way back home I get a check engine light gauges go blank on me and engine dies. I finally get it trailered home and start doing some tests. Mili amp draw test in FSM pg. 7-23 turns out to be 1.84-1.92. The test advises it to be up to 1. Then I did the Voltage regulator bleed test and got power on the leads and the FSM states thats a fail. The Stator is 5 months old. The Battery and Volt Reg are less than a week old. I wasn't able to test the stators AC volts because the battery was to low to start the bike. I have it on the tender and will try again tomorrow. | ||
| Sub65chris |
http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/messages/327 77/232600.html?1161968743 ok here you go !!! Long story short , 3 batterys , 2 voltage regulators , one melted connector and finally a main wireing harness, o problems for 1500 miles . Good luck get in touch with someone who has a service manual , and a dealer who has removed head from butt , and good luck. Also court helped me out verymuch . again good luck and let me know how things turn out . Keep a positive attitude and stay calm cool and collected it will help.  | ||
| Isham |
So you had the main wiring harness replaced??? I wonder what it was in the harness that cause the battery drain. | ||
| Fl_a1a |
Are you sure the battery is draining and not a bad connection? The leads to the battery should be very tight, if not it will seem like a week battery. If your batter is drainging you can do a simple light test. Turn everything off and then get a probe with a light bulb. Take out the fuses one by one and put the light probe on the fuse connections. Once it glows you found your voltage leak. I have more ideas you can try if this does not produce results. | ||
| Isham |
The connections are tight and solid. Aren't some of those fuses getting 12v constant, I don't understand that test. | ||
| Old_man |
If the circuit is complete to ground the bulb will light. If not, it should not light. | ||
| Tank_bueller |
Yes, the fuses are connected to battery+, but the other end of the circuit should be cut by the keyswitch/relays/etc. With the key off, you can pull the fuse and connect the "light test rig" where the fuse plugs in and there should be no light, unless you have a wire grounded/rubbed through somewhere, or a faulty component. Tank | ||
| Fl_a1a |
If some circuits are constant, that will be okay. The intensity of the light will show what is drawing the most current. When the bike is off, their should only be a trickle draw. Step one is do identify which fuses are drawing current when the bike is off and which ones draw no current. Now for the ones that draw current when the bike is off, which one lights the probe the brightest? Chances are that will be the problem item. Also, do not do this test if the fan is on or while the ignition is on, or your blow the probe bulb ( no biggy, have about 5 spare bulbs on hand ). | ||
| Diablobrian |
you could have a welded contact in a relay or in your ignition switch causing the voltage to drop. or even a bit of carbon in the start relay could do it. Not super common problems, but they do happen. | ||
| Old_man |
Tank_bueller, You have explained it more clearly than I did. If the bulb lights you have a ground connection you should not have.--draining the battery. | ||
| Fl_a1a |
Isham Any luck with the problem. By the way do you know any places in Orlando that have a physical store with electronic parts(resistors, relays, power supplies, project boxes)? I am searching for parts to build my integrated buell proximity alarm. I can find the stuff online but would rather see the stuff in person. (Message edited by Fl_a1a on December 18, 2006) | ||
| Rich |
Fl a1a- Ever try Skycraft? They have tons of that kind of stuff. I-4 and Fairbanks. | ||
| Isham |
ok. I dont have a test probe but i will try the same thing with my multimeter and let you know whats going on. | ||
| Justin_case |
Jump start the bike and test stator AC output. Plug the stator in and test DC volts at the battery. | ||
| Isham |
The stator puts out 15 ACV at 1k RPM and at 30 ACV at 2k RPM so the stator checks out fine. The volts on the battery with nothing on was 12.87 with the bike running it was less. A couple of times I held the RPMs up it spiked to 13v but came back down to 12v. I also checked the fuses with a probe and found that the ECM, FAN, and key switch have power. I dont know if thats normal or not. It looks like I got a bad 1 week old volt. regulator. | ||
| Justin_case |
I agree, but make sure the regulator body is well grounded. | ||
| Isham |
Its' bolted tight. I don't know if there is anything else I should do. | ||
| Fl_a1a |
Isham The key switch showing current draw when the unit is off sounds highly unusual. Next step would be to measure the current draw. If something is draining the bat. it will usually drawing alot of current vs. a little current. Rich Much thanks for the info. (Message edited by Fl_a1a on December 18, 2006) | ||
| Etennuly |
The volts on the battery with nothing on was 12.87 with the bike running it was less. A couple of times I held the RPMs up it spiked to 13v but came back down to 12v. The 12.8 V is good for the battery. It should NOT drop when running. A few seconds after starting it should be idling at about 14V. This would indicate a short or bad connection of some sort in the "run" circuit. | ||
| Fl_a1a |
Another test you can do is a short test. 1. Disconnect the pos battery terminal 2. Put the probe on continuity(it should beep when you touch the probes together) 3. one probe goes to the negative bat. cable. 4. Check each fuse, if it beeps you found your short. | ||
| Reepicheep |
I would have to dig through the schematic... but I would think the ignition switch would definitely have power with the ignition off. Its an open circuit with V+... so it has power but it is not consuming anything until you close the circuit. Same deal with the fan. Remember it runs after the bike is turned off and the key is in your hand, so it needs power even with the key out. It probably has another relay somewhere that closes the circuit, at which point it will actually flow current. Ditto the ECM, it needs power to know when the Fan should be kept running or not. Power is Voltage times Current. So the fact that you have voltage is not draining anything until a switch closes and current flows. Your tests seem reasonable for the voltage regulator, as unlikely as that sounds. If it were me, I would be going over connections and grounds with a fine toothed comb, and doing the resistance test for the stator (just because it is really easy) just for a "second datapoint peace of mind". When I was fussing with my Cyclone, I had parts come and go. I *know* I did a good stator test and saw the right voltage coming out of it at one point, but the stator was for sure toast and went back to hard fail shortly thereafter. Don't be afraid to retrace steps. | ||
| Bertman |
Take a good hard look at this connector to make sure it doesn't look like this. I cleaned mine up for the second time yesterday after a lack of charging this past week. Time for a new connector and terminals for me, to go with lots of insulating grease.  | ||
| Isham |
You have an 05 and it did that. I do have some connectors that look melted but the connections look ok. Whats the deal with these connectors melting. | ||
| Rsh |
My 03 XB9R did the same thing as Bertman's. I posted about it in the knowledge vault back in September. http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/messages/384 2/226390.html?1158209354 | ||
| Isham |
I cleaned the burnt connectors and the bike seems to work ok now. I went for a nice ride and when I got back I could see the ball bearings exposed and grouped to the bottom on my right rear. Looks like I need new bearings... |
