Electrical mystery / brake lights '06 FJR

[Gene Weygandt]

Looking back on the original reason for Gene taking the bike to a "dealer" was for brake lights that were inop after a battery replacement. We'd have to guess but, since the "tech" was looking at electrical stuff, removal/disconnection of the Skene and any other accessories would be a logical place to start but, if that didn't bring back the brake lights, tracking the 12V starting at the sockets would make sense. Who knows what the "tech" did or did not do? This is one that will likely end up being what should have been a simple repair and got missed by a "tech" that didn't start with the simple stuff and now it has snowballed into a hot mess and a bike that has sustained damage. It'll be interesting to "see" what the next dealer finds. I just feel bad for Gene.

Well you're kind, and the sympathy is appreciated. I'm not gonna lose my temper over it, but I'll bet I lose a few more bucks before this is right again.

 

[Gene Weygandt]

I agree, but steam in the empty headspace of an incompletely filled cooling system can cause the temperature to register as hot.
Disconnected fans could be an issue although I find that mine rarely come on unless ambient temperatures are warm and the bike hasn't been moving at all for at least several minutes. Don't know what conditions the OP was experiencing in terms of temperature and duration. He mentioned that the temperature soared "almost immediately" at a stop so that sounds less likely to be fans. At least the root cause for that behavior should be easy to troubleshoot - radiator fill level and/or fan disconnected/blown fuse etc.
Still, they really messed up and I agree that there is nothing they could do that would take as much as 18 hours! Perfectly reasonable to change bulbs and disconnect brake flasher and auxiliary lights when troubleshooting something like this although they should have been put back the way they were.

Yes and even if 18 hours was an exaggeration, I'm sure he put in some significant time and was genuinely unhappy that he couldn't fix it, but as others have said, when it's done, this is likely something soooooo basic as to be a "how in the actual pforque did he manage to miss THAT!?"