grip warmer woe's

[wilbur-j]

:angry: Hi my first post and it has to be about a problem. I just bought an 05 last Wednesday and so far it is the best bike I own or have ever owned for street riding that is. here is my question---the grip warmers worked well up till a couple of days ago. I installed bar risers and it quit working. I checked all fuses including the inline fuse also no connections pulled apart. Could the controller just have gone bad?? any ideas?? It's still cold here and I need em. Thanks wilbur-j

 

[ionbeam]

And, would these grip heaters be Yamaha or something else like Heat Troller?

I'm pretty sure something has come unplugged. If the heaters are Yamaha, check at the front brake switch on the handlebar, there is an electrical Tee there to pick up power. If that Tee is intact, follow the other wires, they are mostly connected by bullet style connectors which can separate. There is an outside chance that the wires that go into the grips may have gotten broken right at the grip junction, volt/ohmmeter time.

 

[wilbur-j]

And, would these grip heaters be Yamaha or something else like Heat Troller?
I'm pretty sure something has come unplugged. If the heaters are Yamaha, check at the front brake switch on the handlebar, there is an electrical Tee there to pick up power. If that Tee is intact, follow the other wires, they are mostly connected by bullet style connectors which can separate. There is an outside chance that the wires that go into the grips may have gotten broken right at the grip junction, volt/ohmmeter time.

Well I found the problem. The warmers will not work if my battery is not up to snuff and sure nuff it was a junker replaced the battery this morning and grip warmers work well. thanks for your reply. wilburj

 

[ionbeam]

The warmers will not work if my battery is not up to snuff

I believe that makes your setup a Yamaha kit. The Yamaha heat controller won't supply power to the grips if it sees less than 12.8 volts. This is done for a couple of reasons. This is the poor man's way of ensuring that the grips will only work if the engine is running, thereby eliminating an ignition switched relay and that protects your battery. The other reason is to shut off the power drain should your electrical system drop below 12.8 volts when you are riding. Your charging system only puts out a fraction of the power it is capable of at idle. In fact, the charging system does not put out full power until 5,000 rpm. If you are idling at a traffic light with the grip heaters on and the cooling fan switches on, the main voltage will drop below 12.8 and the heated grip power controller will switch off to conserve power.

Glad you have your grip heaters working!

Edit to add: If you heat controller is a Heat Troller, it should work even with you battery voltage down to near 6 volts. Without a relay it will not shut off with the key.