Spider bite on a 2012

Yamaha FJR Motorcycle Forum

Help Support Yamaha FJR Motorcycle Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

redzgrider

Well-known member
FJR Supporter
Joined
Mar 9, 2013
Messages
184
Reaction score
67
Location
Orlando
Took the bike on a work road trip last week -- nothing quite like riding a couple of long days on the time card! A couple of times during the week, the motor seemed to stumble just the least little bit. So short I thought perhaps I had fumbled the throttle (I can be ham fisted at times). Also during the week, a couple of times the fuel gauge is flashing a low fuel warning when I first start the bike in the morning, even though I have plenty of fuel. Gauge goes up as I ride to work.

On Thursday, headed to a hotel mid-way toward home, the motor stumbled much harder, and was off for a full second or two, then recovered. Weirdly, I thought, it seemed as though the stumble may have occurred just as I was signaling a lane change. A little search on the forum finds that was a known ground spider symptom back in the 2009 time frame. Oh oh!

Head out Friday morning for home. Make it a hundred miles or so of the 350 I have to go, and the motor stumbles hard again, but recovers and continues on. Stopped for fuel in Tallahassee, and the bike doesn't want to start, and now the entire fuel gauge is flashing. Turn the key off and on several times, and the gauge recovers and the motor starts. Not intelligent enough to know when I'm well off, I continue toward home, just not on the freeway, sticking to smaller roads. Managed to get almost 5 more miles!

After wasting a couple of hours for AAA not to be able to tow the bike (I have 'Motorcycle Plus' coverage, they just can't actually do so...) I end up getting a tow from a local Tallahassee dealership. It's before noon on Friday, but Tuesday of this week is the first they can get to it. They called today, and had done a very good job of diagnosis, finding a real issue and not throwing parts at the problem. Yeah!

But what they found is not so 'yeah'. Sure enough, one of the ground spider ends of the wiring harness is burned. Not sure exactly how bad, but too far gone for continued operation. They are going to see if Mother Yamaha will cover any of the cost, since this is not exactly a unheard of issue, but it doesn't sound terribly promising. Harness is around $700, labor about the same. $1400 to $1500 to be back on the road. Bike is in pieces 350 miles away. To bring it home, I'd have to have them put it back together, then spend a full day to just to bring it home. Once home, who knows how many days to fix the problem. Depression begins to set in. O.K., not really. There is still a Speed Triple in the garage, but it's just not the same.

 
Sorry to hear about your woes.

I share some of your pain. Mine was S7, a rare occurrence.

https://www.fjrforum....woes/?p=1183449

Perhaps you wont have to replace the complete harness. There are many solutions documented here.

-Steve

 
Ridiculous to replace the harness, just cut the ends of all six wires and solder them together. Someone's looking to bend you over. I know they don't want to do anything that would seem unprofessional, but hell, if nothing else, buy a harness off Ebay, cut the six wires leading to that spider off of it, cut six wires leading to the damaged spider off yours and then splice each of those six wires together. Sheesh

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Ridiculous to replace the harness, just cut the ends of all six wires and solder them together. Someone's looking to bend you over. I know they don't want to do anything that would seem unprofessional, but hell, if nothing else, buy a harness off Ebay, cut that spider off of it cut the damaged spider off yours and splice the six wires together. Sheesh
^This^. I replaced 2 different spiders in less than a day.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/y31ev4sb9kpoekt/Ground%20Spider%20Thread%20FJRFORUM%20pg%201.pdf?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/rg91hx829rpvd9q/Ground%20Spider%20Thread%20pg%202.pdf?dl=0

 
Last edited by a moderator:
^^^^^ yup and while you're at it solder in a 12 gauge wire to # four spider and ground it on the frame.. takes some of the load off the single ground wire from the spider...

 
I think my biggest take-a-way here is the dealer was competent! Identified the actual problem -- and on the first try! After an Orlando dealer lost the cam timing adjusting valves that didn't need adjusting, I was pretty wary of what the diagnosis would be.

My problem is the bike is 350 miles from home. Have to hear what the dealer gives me as options and do the math on what's the best option. I like the fix it myself idea best, by far. But if he can make me whole for anything less than three days pay it might work out better that way.

 
Can you tell us which "spider" got toasted?

There haven't been a lot of reports on the latter years of the Gen II. There are no recalls on Gen II beyond the 2007 model year. If this is going to be a potential issue, I will want to keep a close eye on the most probable locations for my 2011. I would also service the spiders and try to reduce the electrical loads on these spots, if possible. (i.e. LED lights or a relay-driven direct powering of a device rather than full power through the spider.)

Please make sure a report of the specific problem is made through NHTSA.gov

Good luck with it.

 
No new word from the dealer today, doubt I'll hear more until next week. Regardless of how this works out, I will update on what exactly has gone wrong, and where on the harness the problem occurred.

 
Called the dealer yesterday, and they were remarkably less affable than last week. Bothered me greatly. Service manager bruskly informed me his warranty guy was out yesterday, but he would check on status first thing this morning and give me a call. He did not, of course. While the thinking part of me knows I should just call them and tell them to repair it on my dime, my gut reaction is to have them put it back together and trailer it home, even at the cost of a day. I can't go get it until Saturday at the earliest, so I'll let them ponder for now. Sucks to break 350 miles from home...

 
Before I gave them the green light, I would definitely want to know more. If they tried to tell me the whole wiring harness needed replacement, that would end the conversation unless it was going to be done entirely on Yamaha's dime (by someone who REALLY knows the FJR). I wouldn't even consider a free replacement if it was being done by someone who was figuring it out as he went along.

Keep in mind, there have been other grounding-related issues reported that were NOT spiders. A couple in the following thread although my issue did not adversely affect engine operation - just a host of other electrical oddities.

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

 
Yamaha Canada refused to cover my failure. I went pretty high up the ladder. Their out was pointing to any one of the installed electrical farkles, as non OEM and therefore suspect/the cause.

- Steve

 
That sucks all around. Hope Mamma Yamma does right by you.

As an aside, what is the lastest model year that has had a reported spider bite?

 
That sucks all around. Hope Mamma Yamma does right by you.
As an aside, what is the lastest model year that has had a reported spider bite?
All Gen II from '06 to '12. Haven't heard of a similar issue for Gen III and up. The vast majority were in the first two years but we are seeing more of the later years recently. Likely a matter of age and oxidation initiating the runaway meltdown that constitutes a spider bite. Yamaha dealt with the S4 which plagued '06 and '07 especially, but I don't know if they did anything about the others. There have been enough documented cases relating to "bites" in other locations (and years) that I am surprised that they haven't been forced to do a recall on these. Maybe nobody is reporting them or maybe the NHTSA isn't doing their homework with respect to correlating various reports. I would encourage anyone with a grounding issue to report it. Things like engine quitting while riding or loss of headlights should get their attention.

For my new-to-me 2011, I will be going over all of the connectors this year when I delve into some electrical modifications. I think I may try to lighten some loads while I am at it - LED headlights, possible relay for fans and some other stuff.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Thanks for the info.
I pulled Brodie's grounding harness off of my '06 before I got rid of it, just in case I might need it on the '16.
Don't think it will be any value for the '16. Wiring is very different and doesn't have the same sort of grounds. You might as well sell it to some Gen II owner. As far as I know, nobody has reported a grounding failure on anything beyond the Gen II which finished in 2012.

 
Eventually managed to get word from the dealer -- 254 miles (I mapped it...) -- does not help anything. Mother Yamaha has declined to pony up anything, which surprises me not at all. Will probably still have the dealer do the repair, which will mean an entirely new harness and the 6.5 to 7 hours of labor. To do it myself will just take too much time, time I just do not have right now. I'd rather be riding sooner. However, since it's entirely on my dime, I will demand the parts pulled all get saved and handed over at the conclusion, so I'll have (and share) what happened where on the harness.

Should have had the part in and installed by now. Not happy with myself. Lured into waiting for the hope of less outlay.

 
Is the dealer willing to make a repair by cutting off the offending connector and soldering wires together? Even if not as elegant, i would rather spend $200 than $1500! I would also be concerned about complete replacement of a wiring harness. LOTS to go wrong with that operation unless the person working on your bike REALLY knows what he is doing. Not something I would want to try!

 
Yes, what Ross said. Also whether you get new harnesses or repair the old you should still and more grounds to lighten load so it doesn't happen again.

If you T into each headlight ground and each fan ground and run them to ground that will do it. That will take the high loads away and at same time abb 4 more grounds to harness, verses the 1 ground in the S4 spider.

 
Top