Weird electrical problem

Harald said:

dcarver said:

Damn, you fellers ain't afraid of the plastic gods.. just sayin'.. I've been reluctant to take the nose piece off myself. Guess I'll have to summon the courage one of these days.
Good luck finding the bad spider..

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When you get around to summoning the courage, I'd suggest referencing Kaitsdad's well documented Nose Fairing Removal procedure. It's on my agenda for this extended weekend, so I'll see how easy it is. Hopefully it won't take 12 hours! :dribble:

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That is one way of doing it, but I don't think it's any easier and I can almost guaranty you will scratch or brake something. It wasn't meant to come apart that way so all the fasteners are hard to get to, and you have to bend/contort the pieces to get it apart. I think the Tech Bulletin may be a band-aid for techs who want to change the plastic without taking the time to take the fairing pod off and disassembling it. I suppose if you Just want to change the plastic it would be a time saver, but be carefully because it was meant to come off as an assemble.

Also I don't think you will be able to get to all the wiring connections, because they are still tucked away and hooked up. Do yourself a favor and have a dealer (if you don't already have one)copy the 2 or 3 pages from the FSM to remove the fairing assembly. It's easier then disassembling it on the bike.

-You still remove the lower fairing and the ABCD panels.

-I would remove the shield just so you don't scratch it ,also with it off you can lay the fairing on a padded bench upside down and get to all the insides. But you don't have to. You can leave the mirrors on.

-Then you unplug all the harness connectors, 7 of them I think (which you want to check anyway) and the 2 horns.

-Before you try to take it off make sure you undo or cut the few wire ties that will keep you from removing the fairing.

-Then remove the bolt that goes thew a bracket and into the battery box area.

-Then remove the 2 bolts going threw the main fairing bracket in front of the steering head, which holds the whole thing on. It's ready to come off now, but it should be hanging by the main bracket. The fairing bracket has a hole in the top and the steering head has a corresponding nipple on top so the Fairing will or should be hanging from that at this point. To remove the fairing assem you just lift up and forward. Then you can set the entire thing on a padded bench and check it. Putting it back on is the reverse and you take it from the bench and hang it from the nipple on the steering head, so you don't need someone to hold it for ya while you get the bolts in (just make sure it is on the steering head correctly) .

Like I said earlier you still have to R&R the lower , which is the worst part, so after that the fairing assembly is easy. Also with the assembly on the bench the fairing harness is wright in front of you instead of tucked up in the front of the bike behind the shield mechanism were you can't get to it easily.

I have done it this way ,and tried it the way the Tech bulletin says for removing plastic and I think taking it off as an assem is way easier.

Just My opinion;

A.C.

road runner said:

I think taking it off as an assem is way easier.
Just My opinion;

A.C.

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Thanks for your ideas. I've printed out your instructions and I have the FSM, so it should make the job easier when I get around to it this weekend.

I finally had an opportunity to check out the FJR on Friday.  Wife and kid out of town and no one to bother me so it was time to head for the garage. :yahoo:

For those that don’t like to read, here’s the short version: I fixed it. :clapping: :yahoo: :clapping: :yahoo:   If you want details, read on.

I really didn’t want to pull the whole front end off the bike because it seemed like it would be a huge pain in the butt.  So I first attempted good ole troubleshooting, hoping I’d find the problem somewhere else.  Lots of weird stuff happening at once, but I decided to pick one problem and trace it out, figuring that when I find that problem I’ll find the solution to all the wacky indications.  The high beam indicator is on but no headlights at all are on.  I disconnected the handlebar switch under the left lower fairing (below glovebox) and checked voltage on the wire going to the headlight relay.  Holy cow! There’s 12 volts there when I should be seeing nothing because that wire goes to ground through the relay coil.  Must be a bad relay or the pins are shorted together.  Because the relay is in the nose, it looks like I have to take it off anyway.

I was pleasantly surprised how easy the whole nose cowling assy comes off.   And having it on the bench makes it very easy to work on.  So I find the headlight relay and there’s no corrosion at all and the relay rings out good.  Here’s where I’m so grateful for this forum and so pissed at Yamaha.  If I hadn’t known about those damn ground spiders from this forum, I could have been pulling my hair out tracing wires. :angry2:  The FSM electrical schematic just shows wires going to ground but leaves out the fact that there’s connectors and other circuits involved in getting to ground.  :angry: I had already cleaned and greased the other 5 ground spiders earlier this year, so that’s what lead me to subtitle my thread believing I was free of corroded spiders.  Well the problem was the spider above the left headlight.  Even knowing there was one there, I still had trouble finding it.  That sucker is hidden!



I considered cleaning it up, greasing with dielectric grease and reassembling but wasn’t happy with the melting inside the connector and loose pin tension.  So I cut the pins off and soldered the wires together.  BTW, someone had asked what the spiders are made off.  I rubbed the corroded one on some sandpaper, which took off the plating.  Looks like they are copper.

While I had access I checked and grease all other connections.  Good thing to because the fuel pump relay had one pin corroded and there was evidence of overheating.  :dribble: :angry2: This is one you could probably access on the bike because it’s just clipped on between and below the headlights.



While I was in there I also replaced the stock headlamps with Osram Nightbreaker bulbs and greased up the boots to ease the process next time.  Those boots would have been a real pain to remove for the first time while the bike was assembled! I'm really impressed with the additional lighting they provide. Even with my very dirty headlight lenses and rain this morning, the extra light was very noticeable. :yahoo:

The rest of the weekend was spent with my FJR bride accomplishing valve clearance checks (all OK at 32328 miles), changing coolant, installing my Zumo, tidying up some wiring, removing the PAIR system and installing another powerlet.  Can’t think of anything I’d rather be doing other than maybe riding her! :lol:

So next on the agenda is to file a NHTSA report – is it dangerous when your headlights go out while riding your motorcycle at night?  Ha Ha.  Oh, and I need to add my input to the grounding spider poll.

Great job, write up and pictures. Thanks Harald!

Thanks for the post, and for the info on the fuel pump relay. I am in the process of searching out all the connectors to treat them so that is good to know.

So is this the first event of that particular spider overheating? I hadn't seen that one mentioned before. Maybe it had.

You just convinced me to cut all those freaking things off while I have the bike apart.

Again, thanks. I am always very appreciative of warnings of potential problems.

Oh, by the way take out your starter relay (by the battery) and inspect for corrosion. It is secured with a rubber band type of mount that holds water. I found mine messed up. It was still working though.

Harald,

Sooo glad you found the problem and appreciate your well written writeup.

Congrats and Have a Great Year!

Harald

Glad to hear you got it fixed. I'm going to tear into mine in a few weeks. I'm going to eliminate the connector like S76 did.

I'm not having any issues yet , but I don't want to either.

Thanks to all for reporting this problem.

A.C.

I, too, had some weird electrical issues lately and I was glad to find this post. Long story short for my experience - make sure the positive lead is securely attached to the battery. HA!

I took off the nose and fairings and found no bad connectors. Took off some of my farkles to rule them out, then tried to start the bike. Now that the battery was exposed as I tried to start it, I caught glimpse of some sparks flying. Hit that start button once more quickly to confirm where they were coming from and what do you know - right from the battery posts.

Just a reminder to check the simple stuff first.

cheers!