| Author | Message | ||
     Akbuell |
World of weird electrical issues. This one not related to finding out that a shorted speed sensor will cause the ign fuse to blow. Cruised over to Asheville yesterday on a recon trip to prepare for the upcoming Bikesafe NC class. Got back home, and stopped at the neighborhood gas station. At time to leave, hit the button and the eng turned over 1-2 times but didn't start. No biggie, hit the button again. Nothing. Ign off, stop/run switch off, back on, no CEL light. Aargh! No blown fuses, swapped relays, nothing. Try again, and it would work, until the start button was pushed. Dead again. O.K. 5 mins from home, the wife is there, trailer is there. No cell service. Where there usually is. Aargh again! Customer getting gas stopped to chat; he was a motorcycle guy. Ended up talking about Honda Elsinors and Pentons. He was not only kind enough to offer a ride home, he did that. Wonderful. Many thanks. Get the mighty Astro van and trailer, get the bike into the basement. Open the service manual and start. Get my digital multimeter, and its battery is low. Find another, put it in, the meter starts going wonky. Drat, off to the $5 analog one. Book says no ECM power, check for 12V at pin 1, ground at pin 2. 2 is good, 1 is 9ish volts. Diagnostic tree says replace ECM. Extra Aargh!! Take the known good ECM out of the other tuber, after spending 20 mins fighting the connectors out. 20 doing the same to the '02 X-1. Install the good ECM, nothing. So much for the diagnostic tree. Next step in the tree is check for 12V at the grey wire at the back of the ign relay. Pull the tray under the seat, remove and disassemble the fuse block. Yep, 12V. Since the original ECM had been put back in, I tried to start it. Everything worked, fired right up. What!!! I have no idea what the problem is/was, or what I did to change things. If I knew how to turn off the bank angle sensor, I would do that, just to feel like I had done something. It does run now. Dave | ||
| Cupcake_mike |
All I can offer is clean all the connections and load them with dielectric...my buell seems to have the most moody electrical of any bike I have ever had. | ||
| Sparky |
Sounds like the ole elusive phantom high resistive grounding problem that Al Lighton of American Sport Bike fame expounds when trying to resolve unexplainable problems. This may be one of those situations where removing and reinstalling all of the fuses and relays sort of "Fixes" everything? | ||
| Fahren |
Sounds as if Halloween came early to your place! All I can add to Cupcake_mike's advice is to check the battery and its ground connections, too. | ||
| Kalali |
..and the ignition switch... | ||
| Buellistic |
IMHO, if "i" had a model with a SPEEDO SENSOR it would have a toggle switch so that "i" could disconnect it for a quick check !!! On my 1997 S3T "i" put a toggle switch on my HEAD LITE and also my TAIL LITE so if "i" hit the starter switch and the starter just clicks, "SO" with the "LITES" off the engine will start ... | ||
| Akbuell |
Thanks for listening to my Boo Hoo Not Having A Good Day story. Enough of that. Good point about the ign switch. Wired around that early on in the troubleshooting process. Looked for, but didn't see, any corrosion during the plug/unplug process. Doesn't mean there wasn't any. My final best guess is a poor connection and/or corrosion on the ign relay, leading to the low volt reading at the ECM. Or, using the John Lucas theory of electricity, a wire was kinked somewhere, preventing the smoke from traveling down the wire. In any case, the bike is running fine now. Served me well during the Bikesafe N.C. class. |
