FJRF009.2: "Intermittent Ground Wire Connection"

[HotRodZilla]

Warren;

My post had nothing to with your text.

Someone had hit the little red button at the lower right side of each post - then after my post someone hit the green one, which offset the red one - it had nothing to do with anyone's textual posts and I realised that yours was in support of my position . . . so, I'm sorry if you felt offended. You needn't have.

The system of 'reputation' that this board maintains for each user's profile is often abused, hence my comments.

And, oif course two other people then went and pressed the red button again . . . . so you get an idea of the nature of the stupidity.

Not to hijack this thread, but dude...why would you even care about the stupid "reputation" buttons? If you have a low rep do you lose something? If you have a high one, do you win something?

There was a huge discussion on this a few months back, and I'm pretty sure the consensus was that the feature is stupid. Why would you let that bother you? No one cares.

 

[bramfrank]

Like I wrote . . . . it cracks me up. Unfortunately, someone took it the wrong way so I explained that it wasn't intended in any way as a comment on his post . . .

 

[beemerdons]

Warren;

My post had nothing to with your text.

Someone had hit the little red button at the lower right side of each post - then after my post someone hit the green one, which offset the red one - it had nothing to do with anyone's textual posts and I realised that yours was in support of my position . . . so, I'm sorry if you felt offended. You needn't have.

The system of 'reputation' that this board maintains for each user's profile is often abused, hence my comments.

And, oif course two other people then went and pressed the red button again . . . . so you get an idea of the nature of the stupidity.

Not to hijack this thread, but dude...why would you even care about the stupid "reputation" buttons? If you have a low rep do you lose something? If you have a high one, do you win something?

There was a huge discussion on this a few months back, and I'm pretty sure the consensus was that the feature is stupid. Why would you let that bother you? No one cares.

+1, Gunny; Guys those are true Words of Wisdom spoken here by HotRodZilla, nobody worth their salt and who is a standup person on our Fine FJR Forum gives a fat rat's patooie on those stupid "reputation" buttons.

The Straight Shooters, High Mileage Troopers and Real FJR Riders here never use them and honestly don't even care about them! Absolutely a worthless feature and I'm still baffled why they even exist on our forum.

 

[LAF]

Like I wrote . . . . it cracks me up. Unfortunately, someone took it the wrong way so I explained that it wasn't intended in any way as a comment on his post . . .

That Rep button is nothing but a easy way out for someone who can not support their reasoning in their post. No one cares! I have supported and referenced you many times.

Since I ride a 10 I was particularly pissed that this person would not report it! Yamaha played odds on the years of the recall when they should have went up to and including the newest production year.

You have done a lot to get this in the spot light and recalled and it needs to continue to be reported.

You can not fix stupid! I have tried many times in my life, stupid is, as stupid does!

You would think everyone would be concerned with others lives and want to step up to save a potential serious accident or death of a fellow rider.

 

[Lawrence]

just an update

I finally took my 2008 FJR in today to North County House of Motorcycles (Vista, CA) for tires, free oil change, and have the harness checked. I'm told mine is the first FJR they inspected that needed a whole new harness.

for anyone taking notes - this is a 49 state model initially ridden by a Yamaha sales rep in So Cal for 1 year (and just above the 7.k mi required to sell in CA). In the 2.5+ yrs I've had it, I've ridden 32k miles (just hit 40k). Wiring harness was in local stock (I presume Irvine area), so I'm told I should have the bike back by Fri

 

[PhilJet09]

It was almost 60 degrees and sunny today so I decided to stop in at my dealership to inquire about getting my recall done. I have RR's harnesses on my headlights and fans so I'm not worried about my spiders, but figure I might as well get this done anyway.

When I bought my bike new in 2010, I had to wait a few extra days before I could pick it up because it was shipped in from another dealership in Michigan and it came without a battery, so they had to order one. The day that I picked it up they pointed out a small scratch on the left mirror and one on the right saddlebag and told me that they already had new parts on order but it'd be a week or so to get those in. Pretty cool that I didn't have to find the scratches myself and then make them fix it. Honestly, the scratches were so small and fine I probably would have just buffed them out. Anyway, when these things finally arrived I took the bike back and they put the new pieces on.

Fast forward a couple weeks to the first oil change which I did myself. I gave the bike a good once over (I know, I should have done that the first day I owned it) and found one incorrect screw (not an FJR part) one screw installed in the wrong place (stainless instead of black installed in the textured panel covering the battery) and two missing plastic rivets. I found the missing fasteners under the seat in the convenient parts tray that also holds the tool pouch. So long story short, I really like the dealership but am unimpressed with their service department, but it didn't really matter to me because I wasn't planning on having anybody else work on my bike anyway, so I never complained.

Fast forward again to today. I stopped in and after buying a few miscellaneous parts (their parts department is awesome) went to the service counter to ask some questions about getting my recall done. After briefly explaining about the recall, the lady walked over to a filing cabinet and pulled out a folder that had the service instructions, including hi-res pictures, all printed out. I gave her the CliffsNotes version and she scanned the document and agreed with me. I then asked if she had the sub-harness in stock and she said that they wouldn't usually order any parts until they had a chance to look at the bike. I convinced her that my bike wouldn't need the full harness and she agreed to order a harness ahead of time for me. I then explained that I planned on stripping the bike down since I had other "things" to do to it (valve check, plug change and TBS, but I didn't say that) and trailer it there so they could do the recall, then trailer it home. That's when we hit an impasse. She told me that they had to test ride it after working on it. I told her that I'd prefer they skip the test ride and she went to talk to one of the technician, then came back and said that Yamaha requires a test ride. I politely said thanks and left.

I really don't want them removing or reinstalling any of my body work. They admitted they really don't work on any other FJRs and I don't trust them to put it back together right. I want to read the service instructions but the links on the first page of this thread don't seem to work for me. Does anybody know if Yamaha "requires" a test ride?

There is another dealership closer to me, but I don't know anything about their service department, only that their salesmen are idiots.

 

[chivvalry]

Dunno if they require a test ride... but you can strip her nekkid and ride her in there that way. They can work on her without any bodywork in the way and test drive her. Then you can reinstall her bra and panties when you get home.

 

[PhilJet09]

Yep, but that would require them to disassemble and reassemble to a limited extent...and they'd be riding my bike, which I'm not crazy about.

 

[majicmaker]

FINALLY!! Got the Recall done today. Got a pair of New PR2's put on while it was in the shop. Dropped it off at 10am and Picked it up at 2pm!

I Love the Feeling of a set of new tires on this bike!! There's nothing like it!! :yahoo:

 

[chivvalry]

Bloody hell. Finally decided to get the recall done... I had Art's harnesses in so wasn't worried about it... Since I needed a couple tires mounted and an inspection done. Called and asked if they had the harness, "yeah, I think we got one". Dropped off the bike last Saturday and guess what... No harness STILL.

They haven't done a damn thing in the six days she's been sitting there. :angry2:

 

[HAPPY JACK]

I'm a little concerned about this spider thing. Have 09. Have identified two apparent spider clusters. Neither show any signs of over heating or any heated related maladies. Do I proceed with the fix or leave well enough alone. Was going to do the fix but the thread with pics is now 404! Pleas contac direct Pdrysea @ charter.net

 

[BwanaDik]

Did the '09's have this problem? Have you confirmed you are on the recall list? Either get the recall done or get a Brodie/Roadrunner harness or both. DON'T just do nothing

 

[tuggy]

Checked with my local dealer & my bike had missed the recall. Was supposed to get fixed tomorrow under warranty but 3" of snow overnight have meant a delay for a bit.

 

[Donal]

I would strongly recommend that you take the time to open each of the spiders, inspect the spider itself and the connector for signs of overheating etc and then spray with ACF-50. With the weather like it is you aren't going to be needing the bike for a few days anyway! I would also recommend doing this to every connector on the bike, but that's just me.......................

 

[mcatrophy]

I'm a little concerned about this spider thing. Have 09. Have identified two apparent spider clusters. Neither show any signs of over heating or any heated related maladies. Do I proceed with the fix or leave well enough alone. Was going to do the fix but the thread with pics is now 404! Pleas contac direct Pdrysea @ charter.net

There are some of my pics here. The first shows the earth connector that's to the front left of the engine, this is the one that is most likely to cause a problem.

(I've e-mailed you a link to this post).

 

[tuggy]

I would strongly recommend that you take the time to open each of the spiders, inspect the spider itself and the connector for signs of overheating etc and then spray with ACF-50. With the weather like it is you aren't going to be needing the bike for a few days anyway! I would also recommend doing this to every connector on the bike, but that's just me.......................

Planing to Donal.

Spider's been done. Most of the bike's been ACF-50'd.

Snow's due back tomorrow, whoopee...

 

[snyderej]

2007 fjr .. I had this very problem. Back in 2014 or 2015 the bike would not start and the digital display was showing odd data. Then randomly after I towed it to the dealer, it started for them. They said after they disconnected the brake light fuse, then they replaced the brake light relay... I said you guys don't understand electricity, that is not the problem, they said no we got it, come pick it up. I showed up, bike wouldn't start. They were perplexed, I tried to explain DC voltage to them. They then (under a lucky extended warranty I had on the bike, girlfriend worked for Yamaha, I got it for nothing) started replacing everything electronic. Yamaha was calling the dealer saying please figure this out, we are loosing money. They had replaced almost everything they could, then the dealer said the battery was bad, I said no, it's 1 year old and cranked the bike for hours, they said their tester showed it bad. They had a cheap battery tester, I took it (literally) next door to battery plus and they load tested it, ran it on their tester, etc. It passed with flying colors. Dealer refused to do anything else unless I bought or brought them a new battery so I forked out the 85 dollars to battery plus who almost went next door to try and explain batteries to the dealer, I discouraged it based on the events to date,,, and I handed it to the service manager and warned him, when this doesn't fix it, and it won't, I will let you know in front of your people and the store owner you have no clue what you're doing. It didn't work, I let them all know. Then they were sent a new wiring harness from Yamaha. It started every time after that so I took the bike home assuming it was a bad connector somewhere. I put 5k more on it (daily rider ~30k a year on a bike) and moved the bike to Cali from Georgia. It's a grocery only bike these days. Within a month in Cali it did it again. A very good technician at a local bike repair place where I live in northern Cali who they call in to solve hard problems found the problem in 3 hours. The ground connecter in the cowling looked melted. All the ground wires come to it. He gave me the parts in a baggy. I am an electrical engineer (Purdue University) and as the engineering manager for a large fortune 100 company, decided I had to hear how he figured this out. It was an impressive explanation, so impressive I dug deeper and learned about his background (learning computer programming at local college, other dealers call him to solve tough sensor problems etc). I just finished the hiring process and he now works for me. He is employed at a fortune 100 company as an automation and controls technician learning Allen Bradley programming and keeping automation equipment at our manufacturing plant running, base pay is ~70k. So yeah, great story with great ending but if you have some weird electrical gremlins, check that connecter. After seeing it, I now know what the Yamaha dealer missed and why they missed it, until you remove the side that connects to the frame, just looking at the female connecter or the male frame side connector will not clearly show you the reason you get a high resistance ground which causes the other problems. I have the baggy somewhere with the part in it and should add the picture for you guys but it's late and I'm lazy. Check the connector. Good luck.

 

[Donal]

Suggest you start with Queensland Ken's post here to gain an insight into the whole GenII Ground Spider Issue.

Try Googling something like "Ground Spider site:fjrforum.com" without the quotation marks.........

 

[Diablo1]

My 2006 AE just displayed the S4 ground junction failure. Stop and go traffic caused the radiator fans to kick on, and that’s when the engine stalled, and the dash turn signal indicator lights started flashing, and the high beam indicator was lit on the dash. Turning off the ignition switch didn’t do anything, dash lights still flashed. Turned the ignition switch back on and the starter did nothing. Waited about 5 minutes, and bike returned to normal operations. Rode home on the wonderful Dan Ryan expressway about 25 miles without incident. Took off the tank and found a melted S4 ground junction spider. Rode the bike to my nearest Yamaha dealer to have the wiring loom replaced. Now the dealer is waiting for Yamaha to approve the repair under the NHTSA recall. According to Yamaha, the wiring loom was replaced in 2016, so they don’t want to approve the repair. I provided the dealer with pictures of the melted S4 junction and the original wiring loom with the yellow tag and part#. It’s obvious to me, that the wiring loom wasn’t replaced in 2016, as the part# matches the bad loom identified in the safety recall. It was a dealer in Wisconsin that got paid for not replacing the wiring loom. The bike now sits at my local dealer in Indiana, waiting for Yamaha to realize they can’t avoid paying for this safety recall.

 

[RossKean]

After this long, I wonder if they will even have parts available?  A "repair" of the S4 junction isn't a big deal.  Would be even easier if Yamaha hadn't been so stingy with wire!  Probably an afternoon's work if you are reasonably comfortable with electrical repairs and if the damage doesn't go beyond the S4.  Do some more reading on these failures and you might want to fix a couple of others while you are at it (S6 and S7, I think).  Yamaha's fix doesn't cover these anyway.

The following link is to a thread by rbentnail who did a detailed fix on his S4.  Worth a read if you don't have any luck with Yamaha.  Note:  The repair is better detailed in his two Dropbox links at the end of the thread.

My Spider Bite Story - Technical/Mechanical Problems - FJRForum