flapsup
Well-known member
And away we go!
"3B" (the Big Blue Beeyotch) let me down for the first time this morning, and once again, the forum gurus hit the nail right on the head. The grounding connector under the tank is fried. Sorry, but no pics. Symptoms are completely consistent with what have been previously reported.
She's an '06, 16K on the clock, primarily owner serviced, garage kept, moderately farkled, ridden regularly, battery tender used if she sits more than two weeks. The electrical farkles include motolights, man horns, GPS, radar detector and mix-it amplifier, all run through a blue sea fuse box wired to the battery with a relay activated by a tail light lead. Also added the 16 led flashing brake lights that are connected through the brake and tail lights. Didn't need the ECU recall, but I did have the ignition switch replaced last year.
The break down was typical of what others have described. A couple of weeks ago, after she sat for about three weeks, I tried to crank her up and instead got to see all the dash lights come on, and the turn indicators came on and stayed on and she wouldn't turn over. I thought maybe the battery was way down, so I hooked up the charger and let it charge for about an hour. Came back and she fired right up. Went for a short ride and about 10 minutes into the ride, the electrical system blinked and I lost all power for about a half second. Got back home and checked the battery connections thinking the main ground lead might have gone bad. Tight as a tick and no corrosion. Our January cold snap and my scheduling left her in the shed until this morning.
About 40 degrees when I left the house this morning. A half mile to the stop sign and all is good. Headed down a slight grade, 3rd gear, trailing throttle, 1/4 mile later, and thought I smelled the magic electrical smoke escaping. Downshifted to second for a traffic light, and she died. Dash lights all light up, tach and speedo danced to the pegs and stopped, turn indicator lights came on, so I coasted to a stop on a sidewalk and turned off the key. I'd had the windshield up about halfway and it failed to retract. Sat for about a minute and tried a restart - nothing - dash still all lit up. Waited about 5 minutes, turned on the key, the windshield retracted, the dash lit up, and then all went dark.
So I called the local bike tow guy, and she got a ride to the dealership. Described the problem, and advised the tech about the issues we have been collectively having and where the likely problem was. I did ask if Yammie had a bulletin out on this problem yet and he said they did not. About an hour later the tech called and said they had found the problem exactly where I suggested it would be, that he had called the regional service rep, and the suggested fix was to replace the entire wiring harness. So the question was, "Does Y.E.S. cover this?" And the answer was "Yes, Y.E.S. does cover this, including parts and labor, to the tune of $900 plus." That's the good news.
The bad news is that the only complete wiring harness in the country is somewhere in California and it should be the middle of next week before it gets here.
I will file the report with the NTSB as suggested and I'll keep you posted about "3B's" progress.
"3B" (the Big Blue Beeyotch) let me down for the first time this morning, and once again, the forum gurus hit the nail right on the head. The grounding connector under the tank is fried. Sorry, but no pics. Symptoms are completely consistent with what have been previously reported.
She's an '06, 16K on the clock, primarily owner serviced, garage kept, moderately farkled, ridden regularly, battery tender used if she sits more than two weeks. The electrical farkles include motolights, man horns, GPS, radar detector and mix-it amplifier, all run through a blue sea fuse box wired to the battery with a relay activated by a tail light lead. Also added the 16 led flashing brake lights that are connected through the brake and tail lights. Didn't need the ECU recall, but I did have the ignition switch replaced last year.
The break down was typical of what others have described. A couple of weeks ago, after she sat for about three weeks, I tried to crank her up and instead got to see all the dash lights come on, and the turn indicators came on and stayed on and she wouldn't turn over. I thought maybe the battery was way down, so I hooked up the charger and let it charge for about an hour. Came back and she fired right up. Went for a short ride and about 10 minutes into the ride, the electrical system blinked and I lost all power for about a half second. Got back home and checked the battery connections thinking the main ground lead might have gone bad. Tight as a tick and no corrosion. Our January cold snap and my scheduling left her in the shed until this morning.
About 40 degrees when I left the house this morning. A half mile to the stop sign and all is good. Headed down a slight grade, 3rd gear, trailing throttle, 1/4 mile later, and thought I smelled the magic electrical smoke escaping. Downshifted to second for a traffic light, and she died. Dash lights all light up, tach and speedo danced to the pegs and stopped, turn indicator lights came on, so I coasted to a stop on a sidewalk and turned off the key. I'd had the windshield up about halfway and it failed to retract. Sat for about a minute and tried a restart - nothing - dash still all lit up. Waited about 5 minutes, turned on the key, the windshield retracted, the dash lit up, and then all went dark.
So I called the local bike tow guy, and she got a ride to the dealership. Described the problem, and advised the tech about the issues we have been collectively having and where the likely problem was. I did ask if Yammie had a bulletin out on this problem yet and he said they did not. About an hour later the tech called and said they had found the problem exactly where I suggested it would be, that he had called the regional service rep, and the suggested fix was to replace the entire wiring harness. So the question was, "Does Y.E.S. cover this?" And the answer was "Yes, Y.E.S. does cover this, including parts and labor, to the tune of $900 plus." That's the good news.
The bad news is that the only complete wiring harness in the country is somewhere in California and it should be the middle of next week before it gets here.
I will file the report with the NTSB as suggested and I'll keep you posted about "3B's" progress.
