FJRF009.2: "Intermittent Ground Wire Connection"

[Mohan]

I got my Recall Notice too today. I bought the 2009 FJR in CO. Any Yamaha Dealer Recommendations in DFW?

 

[escapefjrtist]

Received the recall notice for FJR #1 today. Since I have a Roadrunner harness installed, I'll go ahead and make an appointment and have the klowns install the new ground wire for S4. Have to decide if they're going to touch FJR #2 that has a Brodie harness already installed...

Will let the PNW crew know about the dealer and how it goes.

--G

 

[FJR-RemingtonRider]

I will be taking my 08' to the dealer in the morning-Friday: they already told me the small part won't be in till tuesday, but this will give them a couple days to pull apart and inspect. My concern is will they allow owners to help guide the tech through the additional wires for relays, and power strips and such. (Spare me the shop liability rhetoric). Perhaps it won't be an issue, however since my glove box 12volt outlet did not work, I wonder if it's a symptom of a spider bite. Will let ya know how they respond.

 

[Jim in Phoenix]

I just got a call from RideNow Powersports and they say the recall work is finished - on time and as promised. As to the quality, I guess I'll have to find out the hard way since I'm unlikely to remove the tank to check out the work. For sure, I'll be riding to Payson Saturday, and possibly to Prescott with Skooter and BeemerDon Friday (TBD). Just the facts as I know them.

ON TOPIC: Congratulations on RideNow taking good care of you and finishing your FJR recall work on time and as promised. They may now be a great Yamaha dealer!!

OFF TOPIC: Prescott Ride was today! Attended by Skooter, JetGrl, Enrique and myself. Didn't want to see you show up for this tomorrow. I did buy the BMW K1600GT!

Now I am jelous

BTW we here at the forum want a full ride report.

Dave

Dave, SkooterG shot a half dozen pics, I'll get them on a separate thread tomorrow; Thanks!

Don, Thanks for the heads up. For some reason, "Tomorrow" came through but the 14th did not. I would have probably figured it out by 8:30. I may just ride to shake down any possible problems.

 

[moto]

I got my Recall Notice too today. I bought the 2009 FJR in CO. Any Yamaha Dealer Recommendations in DFW?

Stadium Yamaha - simply, the best folks I have met in your area -- not fancy just the best.

Take care

Moto

 

[Speedygg]

Received the recall notice for FJR #1 today. Since I have a Roadrunner harness installed, I'll go ahead and make an appointment and have the klowns install the new ground wire for S4. Have to decide if they're going to touch FJR #2 that has a Brodie harness already installed...

Will let the PNW crew know about the dealer and how it goes.

--G

What I would really like is for you to take FJR #2 in. After all, you have another bike as a backup!

Thanks George, looking forward to hearing how it goes.

 

[VTFJR13]

Just got my recall done. I was pretty simple and straight forward. I have 20k miles on my 07 and the ground spider still looked great. Lets hope this takes care of any more ground spider issues.

 

[olsonm3915]

I was debating whether to start a new thread since my situation may be somewhat unique.

When the whole ground spider issue came up, I decided to be proactive and not wait for mine to fail. So I did something that in hindsight I probably should not have done- I cut off S4 completely and crimped all the wires together to a large gauge wire with a ring terminal on the other end which I connected to the battery negative post. My crimp job is good, covered with glue-filled heat shrink, and is a nice permanent repair. I am confident that it will never fail. I threw away the connector that I snipped off and probably don't have the spider anymore either.

However, if Yamaha sees it when (or if) I bring my bike in for the recall, they obviously cannot attach their harness to it, since S4 is no longer there. So the only way they can complete the recall is to replace the wiring harness.

My concern is, are they likely to say I have to pay for a new wiring harness or will they give me a new one? I'd be perfectly happy leaving it as is, but I doubt they will want to apply the punch mark and close out the recall without doing the repair one of their two approved methods. And I sure don't want my bike held hostage until I pay them, or have them void my Y.E.S. warranty over this. Yes, I know I should have just soldered a wire to the back of the spider or gotten one of the fix-it harnesses from one of the forum members, but that time has passed.

I could lie and claim S4 had overheated and this was my fix but I'd rather play it straight.

Opinions welcome.

 

[stevec677]

I received my recall letter last night. Now to schedule the repair.......

 

[tommd]

I also received my recall notice last night. I picked up my bike yesterday after they did the inspection (only the sub-harness is needed) and will return the bike to them after the part is received. So far the experience has been positive.

 

[JR'SFJR]

I received my recall yesterday, but in no hurry. S4 check out fine months ago at 50k, but I added a spider ground wire anyway.

 

[jetrep]

2007 FJR1300A - 54361 miles.

Haven't seen this posted. This is, I believe, the offending spider. If I have the wrong one, please let me know. Large black pipe is cyclinder head coolant rail. With a huge sigh of relief, mine was pristine.

Brodie harnesses are enroute and will be installed prior to having recall accomplished. I have three week long trips in the next six weeks and don't want to put the bike down.

Jet

 

[Fred W]

Probably not since this one is classified as an actual SAFETY issue that involves specific diagnosis and conditional steps depending on the outcome. I think the TPS was a driveability issue and was only a remove and replace of one component for all cases.

Fred, I totally disagree. The TPS was NOT a recall. It was an internal Yamaha Technical Service Bulletin. NOT safety based. Nothin to do with NHTSA. Completely different animal than this actual recall.

Not to get hung up on semantics, but you are both wrong. At least according to the customer letter boldly titled: "Safety Recall Notice". PDF Copy of TPS Recall Notice

More TPS recall info

It is (was) NHTSA campaign # 06V371000.

And I disagree with your assertion that Yamaha's fixes are poorly engineered. While their igntion switch fix is not as robust as you anal-retentive types might like, I have not seen ONE SINGLE report of a failed igntion switch on their re-design.

Time will tell on their current ground spyder fix, but I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt at this point.

Standard engineering practices are to build in a sizable margin of safety when specifying electrical components. Usually that margin will be very large on "mission critical" parts like a main (ignition) switch or grounding bus. Yeah, you could call that "anal retentive". It's what design engineers do (I'm not one of them), and most buyers/owners would prefer to have fewer failures than more...

We know that in the case of the ignition switch there was a large population of switch failures with the original design, which incorporated one contact. So that switch's contact was clearly something less than 100% of what was required. How much less we do not know. By doubling the switch contact area (that's what the new switch does) they now have something less than 200% of what is required. How much less, nobody knows.

So, yeah, we aren't seeing any switch failures reported on the new design switches (yet). It may be that the new switch is all that is needed. It was still a poorly engineered solution IMO, as it did not directly address why the switch was overheating (because of the heavy loads going through that switch). IMO, the Brodie relay does more to address the root cause than the Yamaha solution.

I also think Yamaha's fix will be pretty good at fixing the problem, because I think it is an overload issue, and not a corrosion issue.

Art,

I think this was directed at my prior post, so I will respond. I think it is both an overload issue and a corrosion issue. Here's why:

When the spider is new and fresh the contact resistance is low. Low enough so that there is not much heat generated in that resistance by the heavy loads that go through the spider connections. After some time, (as you mentioned) all exposed electrical contacts become somewhat corroded and build up additional resistance. The S4 spider is in a bad place and gets wet from rain, washing the bike, etc. Over time, that same identical current that was previously OK now begins to heat up the connectors contacts, eventually to the point of failure.

So there are several ways to skin this cat. Yamaha's solution was to individually ground the 5 lines coming into the S-4 bus through the same exact connector that had previously proven inadequate. If all 5 of those ground lines carried the same load, this might lead you to believe that their solution gives you an increase of 5 times greater overhead. But they don't. I don't have the exact info at hand, but I recall that some of the grounds are just to electronic equipment and one goes to the radiator fans. The latter will represent the majority of the total current going thru that spider, and that current will now be going through just one contact pin of the S4, with no metal spider to act as a heat sink.

They could have moved the heaviest loads out of these failure prone connectors (like your roadrunner harness does) and had a better improvement. I believe that Brodie's harness is pretty much the same as the Yamaha fix, except he also takes care of all the other spiders.

A clutch switch is a necessary component. It allows certain safety functions in interlocking the starter. Doing occasional maintenance on something like that is a necessary evil. For these ground buss connectors (aka spiders) there really is no need to have them in the harness at all. And they are buried in an inconvenient place, not conducive to regular maintenance. Why not eliminate the failure point entirely with a permanent, weatherproof connection appropriately over-rated well above the working current of the joint? That type of a solution would not have been any more expensive to deploy (quite possibly less expensive to Yamaha overall if it could also be used to repair moderately damaged harnesses) and it would have addressed the root causes of the failure, rather than slapping a band aid on it.

Being a 1st gen owner, I really have no dog in this hunt. I just hate to see people getting all excited about getting (what amounts to) a half-assed solution to a problem that never had to exist in the first place, if the product had been more thoughtfully designed.

I mean, it's not like this is the space shuttle or something, right? It's just a bike!

 

[nb_steve]

I everyone, saw this forum after getting my recall notice for the ground block (spider).

Thanks for all the great info.

I have one question, what happens on an AE model if you get a spider bite while moving?

Does the clutch disengage? Does the rear wheel lock up?

My bike was purchased new in March 2011 (leftover). How long does it take for this problem to start?

 

[jetrep]

At the risk of being cut off at the knees for being an ignorant FNG (LOL). Where are the "S" references coming from in this thread? I do not see components referenced in the official Yamaha Maintenance Manual schematics with the S2, S4 etc nomenclature?

Thank you.

Jet

 

[RadioHowie]

At the risk of being cut off at the knees for being an ignorant FNG (LOL). Where are the "S" references coming from in this thread? I do not see components referenced in the official Yamaha Maintenance Manual schematics with the S2, S4 etc nomenclature?

Thank you.

Jet

S = Spider, as in Spider #4, the main problem child.

It's an off-shoot of the forum calling the grounding busses "Spiders".

 

[ScottyUSN]

I was debating whether to start a new thread since my situation may be somewhat unique.

When the whole ground spider issue came up, I decided to be proactive and not wait for mine to fail. So I did something that in hindsight I probably should not have done- I cut off S4 completely and crimped all the wires together to a large gauge wire with a ring terminal on the other end which I connected to the battery negative post. My crimp job is good, covered with glue-filled heat shrink, and is a nice permanent repair. I am confident that it will never fail. I threw away the connector that I snipped off and probably don't have the spider anymore either.

However, if Yamaha sees it when (or if) I bring my bike in for the recall, they obviously cannot attach their harness to it, since S4 is no longer there. So the only way they can complete the recall is to replace the wiring harness.

My concern is, are they likely to say I have to pay for a new wiring harness or will they give me a new one? I'd be perfectly happy leaving it as is, but I doubt they will want to apply the punch mark and close out the recall without doing the repair one of their two approved methods. And I sure don't want my bike held hostage until I pay them, or have them void my Y.E.S. warranty over this. Yes, I know I should have just soldered a wire to the back of the spider or gotten one of the fix-it harnesses from one of the forum members, but that time has passed.

I could lie and claim S4 had overheated and this was my fix but I'd rather play it straight.

Opinions welcome.

Playing it straight could have also left you stranded or worse. Problem is the lack of complete harness replacements availalbe. You might want to wait until supply and demand is on your side.

 

[jetrep]

At the risk of being cut off at the knees for being an ignorant FNG (LOL). Where are the "S" references coming from in this thread? I do not see components referenced in the official Yamaha Maintenance Manual schematics with the S2, S4 etc nomenclature?

Thank you.

Jet

S = Spider, as in Spider #4, the main problem child.

It's an off-shoot of the forum calling the grounding busses "Spiders".

Thank you.

 

[Roadstar]

Well i went to the dealer & talked to the service guy & made an apointment to have my sub harness done on august 5th. I will still ride my bike just like i did before the letter & told him that & he kind of laughed & said he would too. I have towing so if it shows it`s ugly head i`ll just get it towed to them. They allready did a couple & he said the first one took 1 hour , but now there getting faster at it. He did say if i had any wires for acc coming out the bottom of tank, it would be safer for me to move them, so they can get this recall done easier. (i told him no problem)

 

[DennisJ]

Received the notice yesterday for my 2009. A little discouraging as the weather in the Seattle area has just started to be dry more often then it is wet and I am tired of riding in the rain. Encouraged a little by the few comments that the process is relatively quick.

Dennis