Spider problem ?

[mcatrophy]

That's the right result . And thanks for reporting back, always good to know the outcome of problems.

 

[Niehart]

That's the right result

. And thanks for reporting back, always good to know the outcome of problems.

+1

 

[rbentnail]

Looking forward to the summary. Purely selfish but reading of others' misfortunes adventures enhances my chances of success too.

 

[Glasgowmick63]

Here is the summary as promised hope it will help someone in or heading for the same predicament. Yes it turned out to be the dreaded "Ground spider issue". There are 8 different points on our bikes where a bunch of earth wires go into a square plastic connector about 1/2 inch x 1/2 inch and these wires are then connected to each other by the use of a six legged connector hence the "spider" For identification purposes these are then numbered from 1 to 8 starting from the rear of the bike to the front. (However on my 2008 bike there were only 7 spiders and I have not yet established if this is the norm on these bikes or if it had already been isolated) Initial symptoms that there was something going on where whilst riding at least 2 or 3 times the engine cut out momentary and the dash lights came on eg flashers, main headlight, and fuel gauge flashing. The bike then re-started either before coming to a complete stop or started after a few minutes. This happened on all occasions while I was commuting to work in London's rush hour (average speed 10 miles per hour) I dread to think what could have happened had I been on a motorway or negotiating a mountain pass in the French Alps ! Doesn't bear thinking about really. So what did I do ? Well without the benefit of hindsight I Ignored it ! Had I know what was coming I would have taken immediate action. Arriving home one evening without incident I turned off the bike and about 10 minutes later attempted to start it again .. There was no power to the engine or anything else on the bike including lights, horn, windscreen, nothing except for the now classic symptoms of the ground spider fail.. Blue headlight indicator on, green flashers on and the fuel gauge flashing on and off. I had no idea what this could be until I went online and discovered this ground spider issue. I thought I can fix that just find the connector at fault and give it a clean.. I grudgingly took more and more panels and the tank off the bike to locate various spiders only to find each spider connection actually looked OK I checked and cleaned them .. But there was no change, nothing ! After many weeks of going into my garage only to leave feeling more and more disheartened I came to this forum. Everything I did from then on is documented in this post. To cut a long story short I cut off the spider connections off, soldered the wires together and on spiders 6,7 and 8 connected an extra earth wire and attached it to the frame of the bike.

 

[Queensland Ken]

To cut a long story short I cut off the spider connections off, soldered the wires together and on spiders 6,7 and 8 connected an extra earth wire and attached it to the frame of the bike

Glad you solved the problem.

It may have been better to join the wires and run them back to the battery -Ve, reduce the current on the spider circuit and electrolysis.