Faulty neutral indicator and windshield

I'm looking to purchase a very clean 2007 FJR located in Spain but it has two small issues.

The neutral gear indicator doesn't work and the electric screen mechanism doesn't work either. The bike is being offered on consignment from a BMW dealership but the mechanics there have not yet looked to see what are the causes of the faults are. I have read on the forums that it could be the accessory fuse or more likely a spider problem based on a brown wire that I believe is located under the headlight. I'm just trying to give the BMW mechanic some pointers so any help is greatly appreciated as letting someone loose to trace a fault like this can take hours and cost mucho dinero!

It could also be a bad gear position switch on the shifter and the windshield could be jammed on the rubber molding. The Forumites will be right along with many other things to check

My limited experience with spiders is that a fault takes down all the attached equipment. The windscreen shares a spider with the right headlight and the gear indicator doesn't seem to be on a spider. I don't think you're looking at a spider problem.

There's a spider schematic here --> https://www.fjrforum.com/forum//index.php/topic/158418-itsy-bitsy-spider/?hl=itsy

With the windshield not working, you would need to have the headlight main beam indicator constantly on with one or both of the headlights working improperly. Same with the turn indicators. Those diagnose S6 or S7 failures. If the starter doesn't work or is intermittent, the glove box can't be opened with the key on and the horn isn't working properly, all combined with the previously mentioned, that would diagnose an S6 failure.

The gear position indicator? No idea.

Worth checking the 10 amp "backup" fuse that supplies power to the windshield mechanism, at least some of the instruments and the neutral light, but this would be a rare occurrence.

But, as stated above, most likely a spider failure.

I am definitely interested to see how this plays out. A couple months ago, for a very short time, I had an intermittent neutral light, and at the same time the windshield would not move. I looked into the wiring diagrams in the manual, and it wasn't obvious (I'm no electrical wizard) where they interconnected in the system. It went away, but I'd like to know what the heck was going on.

The problem may well be in the windshield drive assembly or the wiring to the windshield drive assembly.

Tracing wires, starting at the gear position switch at the shifter:

the neutral indicator voltage is on a solid light blue wire; ground = LED on; 11 volts (or so) = LED OFF, the solid lt blue wire
goes to
8 pin connector
goes to
starter cutoff relay on solid lt blue wire
leaving starter cutoff relay on Lt blue/white wire
goes to
meter assembly, ground side of LED
power side of LED leaving meter assembly, solid lt blue wire
goes to
6 pin connector attached to the windshield drive assembly

the solid lt blue wire supplies power to the neutral LED in the meter assembly

[Edit to add: with the side stand down, gear shift in neutral, try to start the bike; if it starts the gear indicator switch is working because the ECU saw the neutral signal; if it didn't start it doesn't mean the switch is bad, more troubleshooting is needed]

verify windshield drive motor has:

• key on, +12 volts on the solid brown wire
• ground on solid black wire
• 0 volts on solid green wire when windshield position is switched to UP
• 0 volts on lt blue/white wire when windshield position is switched to DOWN

With the key on and the shifter in neutral you can jump 12 volts to the solid lt blue wire on the motor drive assembly and see if the neutral light comes on

• if the neutral light comes on the wiring harness is good, the neutral light and meter assembly is good, the starter cutoff relay is good and the neutral switch is good; the problem is the windshield drive assembly or power to the assembly on the solid brown wire
• if the neutral light did not come on, measure the voltage on the lt blue/white wire on the starter cutoff relay it should be 0 volts, if it is more than zero either the starter cutoff relay or gear position switch is bad
• measure the solid lt blue wire on the starter cutoff relay, it should be zero volts, if it is zero volts the starter cutoff relay is bad; if it is more than zero volts the gear position switch is bad or there is a problem with the 8 pin connector that goes between the gear position switch and the starter cutoff relay

Wow! That's not a connection I would have expected to light a dash LED. Good luck with the fix.

My goodness, where do you guys learn all this stuff?! Thank you all so much for your replies and suggestions. . . . . I am full of admiration.

audioman said:

My goodness, where do you guys learn all this stuff?! Thank you all so much for your replies and suggestions. . . . . I am full of admiration.

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I should wait until the problem is resolved before getting too excited. But please let us know what was wrong when it is, that's one way that we "learn all this stuff" .

audioman said:

My goodness, where do you guys learn all this stuff?! Thank you all so much for your replies and suggestions. . . . . I am full of admiration.

Click to expand...

We cheat. We have shop manuals, which have wiring diagrams.

Backup fuse is the first thing that came to my mind when reading the description, because the neutral light gets 12V from the windshield drive assembly. Ionbeam's checklist is spot on, as always.

This isn't a ground spider issue, as the two items (windshield drive and neutral light) do not share a ground point. They do, however, share a fuse and the associated 12V supply, via some devices Ionbeam listed out. It's a matter of finding where the connection chain breaks down.

If the backup fuse is open the clock and trip-meters would quickly go away at key off.

If they are working OK, retaining data, look somewhere else.

For the neutral light, with the ignition turned on (in neutral), simply ground out the switch wire(to the block), the light should illuminate.

If it does, it's a faulty neutral switch

Part #10:

https://www.partzilla.com/parts/search/Yamaha/Motorcycle/2007/FJR1300A+-+FJR13AW/ELECTRICAL+1/parts.html

Haven't seen any updates on this, lately. My situation has me perplexed. Neutral light is no longer an issue. I always have Trip 1 up on the display. But when I now turn the key on, there is a slight delay of the needle sweeps and the LCD to come up and then main odometer is showing. Also the time is incorrect. Started out being just a few minutes off, now its way off, hours. Windshield still does not autoretract.

My next move will be to pull the tank and look at the left control harness connector. Had a nasty calf muscle pull last night at taekwondo, can still ride, but pulling the tank me be put off a couple days.

Any thoughts from the tron experts?

How is your battery? Also battery terminal connections.

Battery is good. Everything else works normally. Commute every day to work. Changed out the ignition switch for the second time in March.

FJR Flyer said:

...Also the time is incorrect. Started out being just a few minutes off, now its way off, hours. Windshield still does not autoretrac...

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The clock can be off by a few minutes but not off by hours. If the clock is this far off it means that main power has dipped too low or has been interrupted causing the clock to reset.

You need to check Coupler 2 -- Front Cowling Harness. It is an 8 pin, rectangular connector which is fully populated. The Red/Green wire in Coupler 2 that goes to the Meter Assembly and the Auto Retract could be your problem. If that looks good then you need to go to the 6 pin coupler on the windshield drive and verify that you have 12 volts on the Red/Green wire. A Red/Green wire problem between the Backup Fuse, Coupler 2 and the Meter Assembly would explain all your the motorcycle's problems.

I can't believe no one has mentioned it yet, but there for a while, it was popular to disable the auto-auto-retract function from the windshield. If your windshield retracts when you push the button, but does not auto-retract when you turn the bike off, the previous owner could have modified the bike to do that on purpose.

Just a thought.

HotRodZilla said:

I can't believe no one has mentioned it yet, but there for a while, it was popular to disable the auto-auto-retract function from the windshield. If your windshield retracts when you push the button, but does not auto-retract when you turn the bike off, the previous owner could have modified the bike to do that on purpose.
Just a thought.

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AJ, if understood the OP correctly, he said the windshield don't work at all, if the auto return was eliminated/modified pushing/holding the switch would still move the screen up or down.