FJRF009.3 "Spider failures other than S4" Research

[rbentnail]

I'm in the UK, 2010 fjr, had the S6 spider fail on me while in Ireland last week, symptoms were:-headlight dash light permanently on, all four indicators permanently on, no headlights, no screen motor. Fortunately it rains a lot in Ireland, because after riding for 5-10 minutes in the rain, everything came back. When I got home and started looking, found the S6 spider under glove box had been hot enough to melt the top of its plastic cover, removed the spider, cleaned everything up with contact cleaner and soldered a wire to the spider, refitted and connected the other end of the wire direct to the frame. Job's a good'un.

Please correct me if I'm wrong but did you mean to say you put the cleaned up, damaged metal spider back in with a wire soldered to it? IMHO you would have been better off simply cutting the plug off and soldering the wires together with an extra ground as you did. Did you use any sort of 'electrically conductive corrosion inhibiting' compound'? I use this product on all my ground spiders once per year. Works great, never a problem.

 

[Snudge]

Yes, you were right. My fix only lasted for about 6 weeks before problem recurred, this time I was in Scotland, why do things never go wrong when the bike is sitting on your driveway?

Have taken your advice and cropped the plug, and soldered the wires together with the extra ground. Bugger of a job working in such a confined space, but proves the old theory that going for a quick fix first time means you end up doing the job twice.

 

[rbentnail]

Glad you got it sorted out tho it is a PITA working in there. Now, have you gone through and pulled/inspected/gooped the other 7 ground spiders?

 

[Snudge]

Yes, when tracing the original failure, worked my way through them all and gave them a coating of dielectric grease. Will check them out every 6000 miles while doing throttle body synch., and the tank is off.

 

[rbentnail]

Yes, when tracing the original failure, worked my way through them all and gave them a coating of dielectric grease. Will check them out every 6000 miles while doing throttle body synch., and the tank is off.

Yep, that's the way to do it. Once per year a little electrical goop on all the ground spiders. Once per year I also just unplug and plug back in all the electrical connectors I find especially behind the side fairings by the front turn signal lights and once every couple years under the nose section. So far so good for me, no problems.

 

[user 89595]

Just read this entire string. I just had the same issue. Commute 12 miles daily. bike started in the afternoon, but had the following issues.

Headlights out

Signal light indicators on steady

High beam indicator on.

About half way home, the problem went away. Stripped all the plastic off the bike to check the spiders. As best I can tell, the S4 recall has been done. Large harness from S4 back to the battery neutral.

Found Terminal 1 of S6 is slightly discolored. Tomorrow, I will solder them together and run a new wire from the 4 spiders there to the battery.

Should I disconnect the wire from S6 to S4?? Don't like the idea of multiple paths to ground.

 

[Queensland Ken]

Try and keep the many neutral paths intact, the bypass is only a bypass, you would have to work out the possible neutral current loading and work out the appropriate AWG size as used in automotive wiring. The larger the diameter, the higher current it should draw off the the original single path circuit.

It is NOT EARTH it is a neutral circuit back to the battery, no difference between active and neutral technically speaking.

As in most electrical installations, there is only one point where neutral and earth are bonded, the one place under the RHS header pipe.

This ties 12V neutral to earth, only 1 point. That is also good to treat with carbon grease.

In 240 volt installations, really weird and dangerous faults will happen, a shock from 240 V neutral is far worse then an active.

If you have multiple bonding points funny things may happen in low voltage electronics, electrolysis, buzzing through the headsets, accessories, maybe even ECU faults.

I could provide he right size after a bit of research, have most of the figures.

Just treat the S6 connector, solder the spider bridge and run at least a separate 2.5 mm wire CSA to the battery -VE, not the frame.

If you cut the connector off, still solder in that additional bypass to the battery, if you solder the wiring bundle.

Good you checked the battery connection of the recall.

Mind you the 2 spiders under the headlights are somewhat bothersome as well.

Try and at treat all the connections one rainy day.

 

[user 89595]

Soldered the leads for all of the spiders up front. ran a separate ground wire from all of these to the battery. cleaned all the spiders under the tank. Bike runs great.

Hope I never have to take the front cowling off again. Easy enough to get off. A real bear to get back on solo.

 

[Queensland Ken]

Soldered the leads for all of the spiders up front. ran a separate ground wire from all of these to the battery. cleaned all the spiders under the tank. Bike runs great.
Hope I never have to take the front cowling off again. Easy enough to get off. A real bear to get back on solo.

Well done, good news !

It's a bugger to take the cowling off, I ask one of my mates to do it if there is a need, lol lol,

 

[Harald]

Another report of a S7 failure on a 2010/2011 FJR by WRXDRIVER2011 here:

https://www.fjrforum.com/forum//index.php/topic/170521-fjr-headlight-problem-possibly-dimmer-relay/?p=1348057

 

[Neil San Diego]

2012 with a spider bite, probably the S6:

Headlights out

Signal light indicators on steady

High beam indicator on

Windshield not working.

I'll tear into it later this week.

 

[Harald]

2012 with a spider bite, probably the S6:
Headlights out

Signal light indicators on steady

High beam indicator on

Windshield not working.

I'll tear into it later this week.

Thanks for the report! Please let us know what you find.

I'm thinking that we will see more spider bites on "unaffected" FJR's as the miles/time pile up on these newer bikes.

 

[Neil San Diego]

Found it. S7 at left headlight. Odd thing is it is over the headlight, not under.
I'll solder it up hard in the next day or two and run a wire back to the battery. Safety report to follow shortly.

Editted to add: 2012 with 54000 miles.

 

[Harald]

Thanks for the report. The S7 is a more rare failure (but one I'm intimately aware of) and you have a 2012 that has the spider "fix" factory installed. Consider yourself part of a "special" group.

 

[R1nstang]

Need some advice fellas. I have a 2007 with about 71k miles on it. Coming home one night the windscreen lowered itself, the glovebox wouldn't open, and the girls stopped working. Also the brake light stayed on, but from what I've heard that is probably a dirty brake switchi just need to clean.

But those 3 things are the only symptoms I've had. Lights all work gauges all work. I pulled the tank, s4 is fine s6 is fine and whatever is right to s4 is also fine. There was a total of 4 under the tank I checked, the s6 was strange as it wasn't an actual spider it connected to wires coming straight out of the harness but a guy on the Facebook page said that's the s6. I'll try to add pics. I also checked the spider that's hanging down on the left near the overflow tank. All are fine, no but marks no bad wires. What else do I need to check? I've also checked all the fuses by the battery.. All are good.

 

[R1nstang]

And this picture the one circled in the left I was told was the s6. The one on the right with the black cap..I have no idea what spider# it is but they are all fine with no burn marks

 

[RossKean]

The one circled on the left is S4 with the recall "fix" applied.

 

[R1nstang]

Thank you. Any idea what other ones I should check that could be causing the issues?

<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote'data-author="RossKean" data-cid="1381089" data-time="1508011894"><p>

The one circled on the left is S4 with the recall "fix" applied.</p></blockquote>

 

[RossKean]

Look here. I and at least one other had a non-spider grounding failure. Check them all.

https://www.fjrforum.com/forum//index.php/topic/158418-itsy-bitsy-spider/?hl=itsy

 

[R1nstang]

Thanks Ross. I checked on that site and seems the previous owner already did the wire fix you mentioned on it. But I'm still having issues.