| Author | Message | ||
     Isham |
I noticed that my battery has a low charge and wouldn't start yesterday so I wasn't able to go on my weekend ride. I put the bike on the tender and cleaned and reseated all the connections. I found that it was fully charged this morning so I decided to take the bike to work. 1.5 miles from work i'm at a red light when I get the treaded red engine light. At that time I know i'm in trouble 1 minute later the engine dies and I have to push the bike to the nearest gas station. I've been fighting with my charging system for a long time now. I've already replaced the stator and volt regulator, but units are pretty new. Stator is about a year and a half old and the volt regulator is under a year. These POS items don't come with a warranty do they? I should have put a volt meter on the running bike before I took off but I thought it was fine.  | ||
| Aeholton |
Same symptoms I had when my stator went bad on my Uly. | ||
| Davy_boy |
Charge it back up and do a voltage check to see if it's charging ! Make sure the battery is charged and do a load test or have someone do it for you as well ! | ||
| Sloppy |
Pull the Volt. Reg. connector and run through resistivity and voltage checks. It will give you a quick indication if you have a stator, voltage reg., or a bad battery. What kind of tranny oil do you run? | ||
| Reepicheep |
(just as a point of clarification, the resistance and voltage checks are done on the stator, which has a connector that attaches between it and the voltage regulator. | ||
| Buellinachinashop |
The biggest issue I've had with the charging system is this.....the positive screw on the battery comes loose! Check your battery connections. I thought I had what was a voltage problem and turned out that's all it was. | ||
| Hughlysses |
There have also been posts here about pins and sockets in some of the electrical connectors being loose, not seated properly, or corroded. It may be that the root problem was something really simple which was never corrected. | ||
| Brent_crossbronkos |
Note the type of material of the battery bolts - they used to be a dark grey lead alloy that rarely worked loose. Most oems now use a stainless bolt/spacer assembly that works loose with vibration. Yuasa tech has told me to use a lockwasher/starwasher or a little blue loctite as it is becoming a common problem. Seen lots of bikes in my HD repair shop with loose terminals due to this new bolt material. | ||
| Gentleman_jon |
I was just wondering how old your battery is, and what the expected life on a Buell battery should be? I had 13,000 miles and three years on my 2003 XB 9, with no problems. With my 2004 XB12 I some times hear a momentary pause on starting. Last week, I left the key on for about an hour, and it wouldn't start. I charged the battery for a couple hours and it now starts better, a bit less of a pause. I am wondering if: a. the 12 is just harder to start - that makes sense. b. the battery is at the end of it's useful life? c. there is a minor charging problem? The Battery cables are really tight, and have blue loctite on them. Ideas, anyone? | ||
| Xb9 |
Most electrical problems I have run across over the years end up being simple and basic connection problems. Recently I have been battling a problem with my xb9 where the problem ended up being a loose bolt on the ground strap under the airbox base(engine to frame ground). The symptoms were multiple: AFV was going high.(sensing a lean condition because the O2 sensor didn't have a good ground)Once the AFV got a little over 110 it would run lean; as if it had a intake air leak. Related to above, the ECM would set a code 13 (O2 sensor curcuit)only after cruising on the freeway. Inconsistent batter voltage at fuse block, approx. 1 volt less than at the battery (again because of poor frame to engine ground) Intermittent stuttering noise (clicking) when you hit the starter. Didn't find the problem until I hit the starter when I had the airbox base off and saw the sparks at the loose connection. Of course this was after thinking the O2 sensor was bad and replacing it. Runs like a new bike now. (Message edited by xb9 on June 26, 2007) | ||
| Glitch |
Jon, make sure you have good grounding. I know I had a bit of trouble with the grounding when I swapped tail sections. | ||
| Bobup |
I just had the same thing over the winter months...had it in for service in february...it was the stator as posted earlier shop said they see alot of them gone bad | ||
| Fookinbueller |
Just wondering the average cost of a stator replacement at the dealer when not covered... diagnose through replacement...soup to nuts. | ||
| Kowpow225 |
Check your connections behind the front sprocket cover especially the stator connection. (Big red and black wires) | ||
| Rokoneer |
The stator went south in my bike at 5100 miles and a new one was installed. It lasted 60 (sixty) miles. A call to Buell CS got me the reply that 'there is no warranty or guarantee on electrical parts, sorry." I knew that, but hoped they might bend a little given the short life of the stator. They them told me to take it to a dealer so the dealer could do some diagnostics and try to prevent the problem from happening again. I made the assumption (I know, I know) that this was being offered as a complimentary exercise by Buell CS to help me feel good about my machine specifically, and Buell in general. I did take the bike to a dealer, and after 10 hours of diagnostics at $62 an hour have been informed by Buell CS that they will not cover the diagnostic expenses that thus far have resulted in NO answers. The dealer thinks they'll have some answers with another couple hours of diagnostics. I am starting to relate to Skyguy's mindset over all this. Pretty amazing how emotions can reverse over a machine or manufacturer.... | ||
| Hogs |
Rokoneer, 10 hours, you got to be pulling my leg???? | ||
| Reepicheep |
Ten hours sounds nuts to me as well. Especially if the have to replace the stator anyway, which means they already signed up to go through the primary. That's what, two hours max? Especially if you have all the right tools. I can't imagine spending more then another 2 hours diagnosing the rest of the system. I still can't quite explain why, but clearly there have been many documented cases where there were cascading failures of charging system components. I lost a stator, voltage regulator, and battery all within 5000 miles of each other (and all parts were absolutely dead, I know what I am doing and tested them 6 ways to sunday). Mishandling or misinstalling the replacement stator could also cause premature failure. A bad connector could masquerade as a bad stator if your testing is not careful. The connector under the sprocket cover (belt drive, not primary drive) has been historically a trouble area. | ||
| Prof_stack |
Sorry if I missed it (brain is still a little slow...) but what tranny fluid are you using? I recall many posts about the importance of not using gear oil as it eats at the stator somehow. Whatever, best of success in getting it solved! | ||
| Rokoneer |
Hogs, no leg pulling going on I'm afraid. Looks like the diagnostic bill could be close to $800. I'm really heartbroken and perturbed by the way this has been handled. I was a HUGE Buell 'mark' until this whole debacle, and right now I'm so down on Buell its unbelievable. It's very tempting to tell the dealer to just keep the bike forever... | ||
| Hogs |
Rokoneer, Sorry to hear about your Troubles with that so called Dealer, IF ya want to call IT a Dealer, All I can say Buddy, It would be a long day in Hell... Before I would ever pay that bill, Try talking, And talking to them sensible first... If that don`t work Tell them you will be back with a BiG AXE, No need to say what For...! Or something along them lines...( maybe ask to speak to the owner and tell him, No use wasting your time with some Jerked off So called Service manger ) GooD LucK |
