Anyone seen this electrical anomaly?

[FrankD]

Update as of 8 PM....

Checked with Yamaha and confirmed that the S4 recall had been performed. Also verified that the windscreen, horn & glove box solenoids were nonfunctional. Followed the wiring diagram linked above to the S6 spider as the likely culprit. I pulled of enough of the bodywork to give me access to the S6 spider and took a looksy. Wasn't as horrible as I expected. The terminal for the main ground wire (thickest of the bunch) was corroded and the shunt was corroded as well. I decided not to take the path of soldering the wires together, primarily because I haven't grown the avocados yet to perform an irreversible "repair". Instead, I opted for a thorough cleaning of the terminals and the shunt and then a liberal application of contact grease to the terminals, the shunt and the inside of the terminal cap. I gave it a handful of starts and a 30 minute ride and the problem seems to be gone. Will confirm over the next few days - it's my daily transportation.

At the next major tear-down, I plan on doing the same with the rest of the spiders. If the problem recurs after that, I'll consider more drastic harness modifications (dikes & solder type).

Thx to all & cheers.

 

[SLK50]

FrankD, speaking from personal experience, you may have

"fixed" the problem but you haven't eliminated it.

Soldering is the only permanent solution.

Don't put off the inevitable.

 

[Fred W]

Maybe a better final "solution" would be a preventive one with improved weather protection of the original spiders? If one were to somehow (reversibly) fully encapsulate those spiders in a waterproof compound of some kind they should not be a problem in the future. The problem isn't that the contacts can't handle the current they carry when new, it is that they get wet and corrode and the contact resistance increases and then they can't carry that current.

Not sure what product exactly could be used, maybe some sort of compound that you could dip the entire spider block into? Though many of them are buried so deeply that dipping would be impossible.

Thoughts?

 

[ionbeam]

It would have been nice if Yamaha had spent a few dollah mo' and used something like Weather Pack connectors. I'd pay $15 more for a FJR that came with this kind of connector. With the existing spiders, once a tiny amount of corrosion starts on the shorting bar it begins to self perpetuate the problem.

--or--

But, to retrofit the existing connectors break out your high capacity caulk guns loaded with dielectric grease or break out your solder iron if you have the skill.

You could do something like slipping a small balloon over the connector then fill just the neck of the un inflated balloon with a little silicon compound and then put a small zip tie around the neck of the balloon to seal the silicon around the wires and hold everything in place until the silicon sets up. It is reversible and creates a weatherproof seal. Perhaps a balloon wouldn't be durable enough but this is the general idea for a fix.

 

[RossKean]

I hope that servicing the spider is a long term fix but I suspect that it is not. I had an intermittent grounding fault. Spider (S6) had some corrosion and some indication of heat induced tarnishing. Cleaned it up and put it back together and it was flawless for a time. Within a month, I was back to cut off the spider and solder everything after yet another failure of the same connector. Perhaps you will have better luck.

 

[Brodie]

I've installed several of my Grounding Harneses on member' bikes. The one that stands out was an '06 that was 4 years old, had roughly 4,000 miles on it, and had never been out in any kind of rain. The engine bay was factory fresh spotless - you could eat off the damn thing. It's S4 spider nest was clearly in the process of failing. The surface of the connector pins had a layer of oxidation that was clearly causing resistance and heating up.

It doesn't need exposure to inclement weather to start the process, just exposure to the oxygen in the air. If I recall, I extracted the pins from that connector shell, brightened them up with a pencil eraser, fitted up a fresh shell, injected some dielectric tuneup grease and finished installing my Grounding Harness. The owner never had an issue after that

Brodie

 

[FrankD]

Yeah, I don't know how permanent of a fix it will be. I did throw every bit of goodness I could think of into it. I wire brushed and sanded the terminals and the shunt to make sure I removed all the surface rust. Both parts seem to be made of some low grade carbon steel without any sort of corrosion inhibiting surface treatment. So I decided to dip them in a warm citric acid bath to passivate the surfaces. Blow dry and IPA rinse. Then proceeded to pack both sides of the terminal and coat the shunt with contact grease. Finally, I packed the cap with contact grease before I put it on, making sure that some grease oozed out when I installed it. It should be fairly well protected from water and oxygen. We'll see.

Ideally, I'd like to find a seven wire terminal like the one ionbeam pointed to. Seventh wire would be a local ground. I'll be thumbing through the Mouser and MSC catalogs at lunchtime....

 

[mcatrophy]

I wouldn't advise trying to pot the whole spider in silicone or similar. I've experienced where this has been done (not on a bike, but similarly indirectly exposed to weather), after a couple of years water has crept in between the wire insulation and the silicone and caused severe corrosion. It's significantly worse than being left open because moisture that does get there can't evaporate away, so remains there indefinitely.

 

[Intech]

Update on LCB's bike. Got it apart and found this:

I cut the destroyed connector off and soldered the wires together. For the record, this bike had the recall done on it. Lot of good it did.

 

[RossKean]

Was that "S6"? The S4 recall wouldn't help that one a bit! My S6 failure didn't look nearly that bad but still caused a very similar series of symptoms.

 

[FrankD]

Mine wasn't nearly that bad. Had it been, I'd have done the same.

 

[Intech]

Was that "S6"? The S4 recall wouldn't help that one a bit! My S6 failure didn't look nearly that bad but still caused a very similar series of symptoms.

Yes. That is the S6.

 

[Viper Pilot]

Oh I love my Gen 1 more and more!!!!

 

[Intech]

Oh I love my Gen 1 more and more!!!!

And it will last forever with only a 2 month riding window where you live!

 

[FrankD]

Roughy 3 weeks since the repair. No signs of recurrence yet. Everything is behaving as it should. Bugging off to NAFO in a couple of days that will result in 3000+ miles round trip. May have some wetness along the way. We'll take a looksie once we're back home to see if there's any noticeable difference in appearance.

 

[RaYzerman19]

Yeah, I don't know how permanent of a fix it will be. I did throw every bit of goodness I could think of into it. I wire brushed and sanded the terminals and the shunt to make sure I removed all the surface rust. Both parts seem to be made of some low grade carbon steel without any sort of corrosion inhibiting surface treatment. So I decided to dip them in a warm citric acid bath to passivate the surfaces. Blow dry and IPA rinse. Then proceeded to pack both sides of the terminal and coat the shunt with contact grease. Finally, I packed the cap with contact grease before I put it on, making sure that some grease oozed out when I installed it. It should be fairly well protected from water and oxygen. We'll see.
Ideally, I'd like to find a seven wire terminal like the one ionbeam pointed to. Seventh wire would be a local ground. I'll be thumbing through the Mouser and MSC catalogs at lunchtime....

I like this refurb the best. I wouldn't seal it up in the event you have to get in there again (odds are?). IMHO, the real fix is a Brodie harness. You might have better luck with using 6-ways and making your own harness.

 

[DiggerDr.]

I also like the Weatherpack idea. I did 6 winters with a local county highway department. Lighting on salt spreaders demanded quality connectors such as Weatherpack. The only thing I found that also worked was solder, dielectric grease and heat shrink tubing. But that had to be cut to remove the salt spreader. Typical butt connectors rarely lasted a 12 hour shift.

 

[FrankD]

In case anyone's wondering, my fix worked for seven months.

 

[SLK50]

Good to know.

Mine worked for about a year or so.

Right up until it didn't.

About 250 miles from home.