FJR No Start, No Power, No Nothing

[Brodie]

" I found and tapped on the relay that the switch heavy lead plugs into. The lights came on, meters swept, and it could start. It worked for several attempts and the died. I tapped on the relay again and it all worked again. I am now thinking the relay is intermittent."

Larry

It sounds like you have an aftermarket relay harness installed on your bike. Are you the original owner? Yamaha does not use these automotive style relays in their OEM wiring harnesses. My Ignition Relay Harness uses a 70 amp relay with a matching socket which is shaped a bit differently than the one that would fit the typical 40 amp relay (RY-255) that you referred to above. If possible, could you post a picture of that relay installed in your bike?

As for the ignition switch that you purchased before the recall, it was the old style. The heavy white connector on it's pigtail only has a red and tan wire leading to it. The new style recall ignition switch has an extra white wire attached to the same terminal as the red wire. Click here to see it. Internally the circuit board where the contacts are has been changed too. This recall ignition switch also has a yellow band on the pigtail near the connectors. If you bought your latest switch from the dealer it should have these features. Beware if you got it from an E-Bay, or a non Yamaha source.

Brodie

 

[Larry33319]

Brodie, I am the original owner and the only aftermarket wiring harness is the spider fix you created. I went back down to my lower garage and took pics of the relay and where it is attached. I do not have a website to host the pics so if someone would send me a message with an email address and put them up for me it would be greatly appreciated. The ignition switch is the newer style with the yellow band as you described, purchased from Partszilla and was in a factory Yamaha bag. Buying electronics off ebay is not my idea of fun, too hard to get the smoke back in if it does not work. The wiring of the switch goes as follows. The white plug off the ignition switch goes into the harness into a 4" lead going to a female plug with a relay attached. This is the relay in question. Red plug goes elsewhere. The relay in question has 4 blades, 2 of which are copper and 2 are silver. When I am able, with help, to post pics, it will become clearer I hope.

 

[Brodie]

I thought I recognized your screen name.

You have the right Ignition switch, and I too share your apprehension when buying electrical items off e-Bay.


It's the old give me a fish / teach me to fish argument

. As far as a hosting site for pictures, I am quite happy with PhotoBucket. They don't seem to be going anywhere any time soon, and processing your pictures through them for posting here is easy enough once you do it a couple of times.

PM sent.

Brodie

 

[Larry33319]

Thanks, PM replied to. Guess it is time to check out photobucket.

 

[Brodie]

Picture Assist:

Brodie

 

[Brodie]

Larry

You have the correct Recall Ignition Switch, the yellow flag on the pigtail is a dead giveaway.

But...

That relay harness looks surprisingly familiar.

< sheepish grin > I made that back in late June, 2009. Check out it's tag... Ersatz Electric. Check out my tag line below. < / sheepish grin >

The bad news is the relay that you ordered will not fit the socket. Your relay is a 40 amp, the relay I used is a 70 amp. The sockets are intentionally made different to keep from installing the wrong amperage rated relay - kind of like the old screw in house fuses, the higher amperage ones had a smaller socket.

The good news is that you really don't need that relay harness any more. I built it to re-direct the high amperage away from a switch that just wasn't up to the task. The engineers at Yamaha did their job, the recall ignition switch is much more robust; I am not aware of any of them that have failed.

Just disconnect the harness and plug the ignition switch pigtail directly into the receptacle on the main wire harness to restore it back to how Yamaha shipped it.

If you want to keep it in the bike, the correct relay isn't that expensive, just a bit harder to find. Google ' CB1 aH-12V ' to find a vendor that carries it. I got them from Mouser, but I think they stopped carrying them. Several people have had this Panasonic relay go bad, it's even happened to me.

*** SURPRISE ***

Don Carver was the first - again!

Go ride the beast - Wear out some tires this year!!!

Brodie

 

[Larry33319]

Thanks, I seriously had forgotten I had purchased that as well as the ground spider harness. I will disable it and head for Daytona very soon. I appreciate all the things you do for the site, you are a valuable resource indeed.

EDIT

I just walked down to the garage and removed the relay harness. Bike started right up and after 25 cycles of the key, it worked every time. Life is good once again. I am just a bit upset with myself for not remembering a purchase I made 8 years ago. I guess turning 62 had more bad effects than I first thought. LOL

 

[Brodie]

Hudson

Pay attention... is this your bike's problem too?

Brodie

 

[Hudson]

Bingo! I also forgot that I had added the ignition relay harness (too many farkles).

Audiowise came by today and he diagnosed the problem to the relay in the ignition harness. Popped in a 30amp relay and viola, problem solved!!

Brodie, do I need to be running a 70 amp relay or will the 30 amp one do? It fits fine, powers the bike ok. BTW Mouser has them back in stock.

 

[Brodie]

Get the 70 amp if you plan on keeping the Ignition Relay Harness in place. Get 2, they're cheap. Just keep in mind, I think that the Recall ignition switch is up to the task.

Don't run with that 30 amp capacity relay in there, the bike has a 50 amp main fuse for a reason.

Brodie

 

[audiowize]

Get the 70 amp if you plan on keeping the Ignition Relay Harness in place. Get 2, they're cheap. Just keep in mind, I think that the Recall ignition switch is up to the task.

Is there a Denso P/N that will fit the harness?

 

[Brodie]

Get the 70 amp if you plan on keeping the Ignition Relay Harness in place. Get 2, they're cheap. Just keep in mind, I think that the Recall ignition switch is up to the task.

Is there a Denso P/N that will fit the harness?

I don't know, but I have my doubts.

You could research it out and let us know

Brodie

 

[Panman]

Pan, I don't have Brodie's ignition harness (sigh). I was referring to his ground spider harness.
I might need to have a Hudson tech day. Picking at this thing an hour here and there hasn't helped since last May when it quit. I'll try some of Brodie's suggestions, but this one has me stumped.

Audiowize, still learning my way around a volt meter. I've verified the battery is good, and used it to verify the main 50 amp fuse was still good. Bike is near Fall City.

DG getting old too, EH?

 

[Hudson]

I will say how nice it is to have someone of AudioWize's skill around. He had the relay thing diagnosed quickly, and for good measure, solved my Husqvarna electric start issue in like 20 min. Dude works on vacuum tube and hi fi circuits, a total whiz with mad skills.

Thanks Paul!

 

[escapefjrtist]

Great news Hudson...I figured Paul would get you going quickly since this is right up his alley!

Now the question, which bike are you going to ride? ;-)

--G

 

[Hudson]

I actually miss the FJR, haven't ridden it since May, Plus I can ride it in the wet with no worries.

 

[Niehart]

I will say how nice it is to have someone of AudioWize's skill around. He had the relay thing diagnosed quickly, and for good measure, solved my Husqvarna electric start issue in like 20 min. Dude works on vacuum tube and hi fi circuits, a total whiz with mad skills.
Thanks Paul!

LIKE!

 

[HotRodZilla]

Awesome!! Good job guys!!

 

[audiowize]

It was cool to finally see some of those bikes that I've heard about. Another FJR running and on the road is a good weekend accomplishment! (And I got the 77 Honda running yesterday to boot)

 

[Hudson]

Mouser delivered a bag of spare 70a fuses (got 4 just in case they go bad again).

The good news is that I spent five hours today and cleaned up the wiring and got the FJR back together. Had too much stuff cluttering the battery area, and with the nose off, it was easy to relocate wires and make it clean. Got it buttoned up, fired it up, and voilà - she runs! Wait... the left turn signal is out..crap... forgot to plug the wire in, so off comes the front fairing again. Garr..

Bad news was that I broke the tabs off of the "W" windshield cover. I also lost one of the plastic windshield screws. Yikes, that was an expensive $80 mistake, but thanks to Partzilla, she should be back on the road by the end of the week. Hard to believe I haven't ridden her since May of 2015, all due to a relay.