Spyder Bite?

[Jack D]

Symptoms are similar to other's experiences, turn signal indicators and lights on, high beam indicator on. But mine does not happen until I start the bike. A few seconds after starting I hear a relay from the headlight area click and everything is normal. Before I had the dealer put in the grounding harness "fix" from Yamaha I went over all the spyders and put conductive grease on them. That was December 2013. In February of 2014 I replaced the battery at 56K miles. I now have 93K miles on the bike. The battery is at 13.2 volts when charged from the Battery Tender. After 6 or 8 starts in a row the battery is at 12.9 volts. I guess I have gotten my money's worth from this battery but I question if it is the issue. Opinions? I am about to pull the plastic and check connectors.

 

[RossKean]

Doesn't sound like the battery is terribly unhealthy - nothing wrong with 12.9V; especially after more than a half dozen starts/restarts. Spider symptoms don't usually go away with a "click" up front and usually appear as soon as the key is turned on. I think you have something else going on here. Bad relay?? (no idea what it could be doing) Don't know what else could make a click and immediately restore normal function. After starting but before the click, do the headlights come on?

 

[Jack D]

"After starting but before the click, do the headlights come on? "

Good question and the answer is no. There are no lights until the click, the lights come on and the problem goes away. At first I thought the lights were on but it was my LED auxiliary lights which were on even though the switch/dimmer was off. I will now dig out the wiring diagrams and check what all connects to the light relay and what activates it.

 

[RossKean]

I think the fan relay and the headlight relay are identical. If you want to check out the relay, you could swap them.

 

[rbentnail]

IMHO, you may very well have a spider or two going south on you. At first the goofy stuff then it's ok for a while. This thread may be helpful to you. I know what you're saying about the harness (doesn't help!) and the grease but I gooped all my spiders every year. There's no rhyme or reason to it. And check #3 connector.

 

[Jack D]

Checked every spyder, no burning. Measured every spyder resistance to battery, .7 ohms. I tried to measure every wire but Yamaha's stinginess with wire made that almost impossible. I removed each spyder from the connector and reseated it. I also removed and reseated the relays for lights, fans and dimmer. The problem APPEARS to be gone so I am now putting the plastic back on. I really hoped to find something that I could verify was the source of the problem but did not.