| Author | Message | ||
     Skifastbadly |
I was going to go for a ride yesterday on my 08 Uly but after I started the bike, the ol' CE light went on. So I grabbed the laptop with Tunerpro on it and tried unsuccessfully to remember how to use it to read error codes. After about an hour of farting around with that, I gave up and pulled airbox cover because the last two times I got the CE light it was the exhaust actuator and maybe I'm not the sharpest knife in the draw even I can sense a pattern. Sure enough, the procedure to test the actuator (key off, throttle WFO, kill switch on, then turn on key) showed that the actuator wasn't actuating. Again. As I said, this is a recurrent issue. I have two(!) of the things so I swapped one out for the other and no dice, same thing. I took one apart to see if the cheesy plastic gears were broken, they were not, if there was grease in it (there was) if it spun freely (it did not). I took out the middle plastic gear, checking to see if the teeny tiny electric motor turned during the test and it did..... Anyway, I started thinking maybe it wasn't the actuator at all, maybe the problem was down under (no not Australia) and so I took off the chin fairing and sprayed the valve, uh, thingy, with WD 40 and guess what, works, light went out, went for a 2 hour ride and everything's fine. Except for that 'went for a ride' part, cause actually I skipped the part where there wasn't enough juice to start the bike. I jumped it and THEN it ran fine. And the battery charged, etc. So while I'm riding around I'm trying to use the 3% of my brain that's not engaged in staying alive on the bike to ponder the following questions: Does the valve rotation hinge require some sort of regular maintenance, like lubrication or something? Does the fact that I never ever wash the bike mean dirt's getting up in there and sticking? Given that the battery crapped out while I was doing the testing, does that indicate that I probably need a new battery? It is five years old and while I keep it on a tender (except for this week don't ask) it wouldn't surprise me. Is it conceivable that a weak battery wouldn't have the juice to make the actuator turn if it encountered some resistance, like the aforementioned dirt/mud? As always, thanks in advance. | ||
| Etennuly |
Weak battery will cause any manor of foulness from anything controlled by the ECM. The EV is an electric motor that takes a voltage shot to operate, so if your battery is barely powerful enough to keep the minimum required voltage available to keep it running, then you have a minor voltage use spike from the electric motor, it can make the ECM cause stupid stuff happen. Charge the battery and try again. | ||
| Ramman4x4 |
The battery had enough capacity to turn the actuator after you lubed the mechanism, but not before...I would say that is an indication that the battery wasn't the culprit for the initial CEL. It seems reasonable that regular maintenance would be necessary for the actuator at the muffler. If your battery is 5yo and it drained down after only a week not being on a tender, I think you probably need a new one. A lot of ECMs will actually try to shutdown if the battery voltage drops below 6 volts...which can easily happen while cranking the engine in the cold with a end of life battery. | ||
| Tootal |
Does the valve rotation hinge require some sort of regular maintenance, like lubrication or something? Does the fact that I never ever wash the bike mean dirt's getting up in there and sticking? NO! Never wash the Uly! It will remove any lubrication that is or is not there! Strange things always follow washing a Uly!  | ||
| Skifastbadly |
Right, that's been my philosophy....why wash a bike when I live in the Pacific Northwest, half the time I'm riding, it's raining anyway. I have thought about this a bit more and I wonder if maybe that cable should be lubricated....It's a long cable and a tiny motor. | ||
| Firemanjim |
And, gosh, there would be no corrosion from multiple heat cycles and rust down there!  | ||
| Uly_dude |
maybe that's why those little plastic gears strip out in the first place - resistance from below..... | ||
| Ourdee |
+1 Tootal | ||
| Uly_man |
Take the cable off the actuator, DO NOT spin the cam though as it will break/strip the plastic gears, and pull it in and out to see if the problem is in the can. Ensure that there are no stones trapped under the can cam wheel as this can happen and jam its movement. It is a known issue. On this bike the ECM will cut out at 11.1 volts. WD40 will not lube the valve much and will burn off. "I skipped the part where there wasn't enough juice to start the bike". You left it off the tender for one week and the charge went down to a level it could not start the bike? That means that the battery is self discharging IE It can no longer hold a full charge. A HD AGM battery should hold a charge of at LEAST 12.5 volts for two weeks on the bike. You could try and recondition the battery but you will need a AGM specific unit to do this and given that the battery is now five years old it may not work very well. Sounds like a new battery is needed but also check, using TunerPro, that the charge rate is right. It should be about 14.7 volts most of the time and do it on a logged run as well to check for any "down time" charge problems. | ||
| Skifastbadly |
I went for a ride today in the rain and after a bit, the bike wasn't feeling 'right'. It felt like it was stumbling a bit. I was about 30 miles from home so I made a bee line back and just as I was hitting the front drive the bike started missing badly. The signal dynamics aftermarket voltmeter remained green. Would that be consistent with a failing battery? | ||
| Griffmeister |
More consistent with excessive moisture on ignition wires, now a fouled plug. Might want to check the condition of your wires to be sure they're not damaged then change the plugs. Once they foul they rarely want to work well again. |
