Gen 1 electric issue

[NorthWestern]

Hey All,


Just wondered if anyone has had this issue and solved it.


I have found that occasionally my clock on the dash resets to 1:00 (which means it has had the power disconnected).  I noticed recently that if I stick an indicator on it is that that causes the indicators to flick left/right and the power cut happens, it is only momentary and comes back working fine within a second while riding and the indicator works correctly so no real problems.


Flicking the main beam on can also cause this (needles drop to zero, time/trip resets) but everything flicks back straight away with no real interruption to the bike running or lights etc.  Oddly once this has happened, any further use of indicator doesn't cause the issue within a few mins (ie if I put indicators on I get the volt drop, but if I cancel, put them back on etc its fine).


I took my clocks/panels etc off last night to check earth etc but unfortunately my volt meter battery was flat so all I could really do was clean up connections on whatever I could get quick access to - battery ordered so should be able to pinpoint it when it arrives... 


I suspect that it will be a dodgy connection and maybe the extra load adding indicator/main beam causes an issue.


Interestingly if I try to replicate the indicator problem with the engine not running it never happens, it seems that I only see the issue with it running.  I also seem to be going through a fair amount of dash bulbs, I have had to replace 5 bulbs in the last few months, which may/may not be related. 

[nickodemon]

I had an issue with the clock lights that illuminate the clock faces. I cleaned the connections on the block connector at the back of the clocks and the main connector going into the harness and used dielectric grease on both. I made sure they were plugged in tight and have had no issues since then....

[NorthWestern]

hmmm not quite sure what the problem is now.  Cleaned my connectors last night but none of them looked bad to begin with.


Voltages at the battery are fine with/without engine running but did notice that the ground between the engine and frame is ~1.8ohm


Is there a ground wire from engine to frame or does it rely on the mount bolts?


I ran a wire from the engine/battery ground bolt on the starter to the frame and got some interesting results.  I bolted the wire to the ground bolt on the starter and measure the resistance along the wire from bolt to tip and its ~0 ohm as expected however if I touch that to the frame and measure it is still around 1.6 to 1.8 ohm.  Leaking somewhere?


The bike has no alarm or additional things on it. 

[NorthWestern]

Think I have found the problem.  It seems there is a broken wire around the connectors under the left fairing infill.  My clocks went off as I was parking the bike at work, a quick fiddle with the connector blocks and they came back on.  I got a digi meter to the block pins either side and when the clocks are off the connector is fine but no power going to the clocks, if I twist the wires gently they come on.  I am hoping that it is the extra load going through the fault is causing the issue.  Should be a simple matter of finding the wire and soldering it up at the break...

[AyJay]

Good work. Electrical issues take a long time to track down.


I'm going to have to do something with my wiring. The clock lights are so dim I can hardly see the mileometer or the time at the moment. I presume it's corroded wiring and I know it's going to cause a complete failure before long.

[nickodemon]

The main connector is where i was having a problem. It looked fine and clean, but when moved it caused the lights to go out. Thats why i said to make sure it's a tight connection with loads of dielectric grease. I pushed as tight as i could then taped the connector , so it wouldn't free over time. Still working

[NorthWestern]

It ended up being the -ve (black) wire on the headlight side of the main connector.  It had broken about half an inch from the block.  All seems good this morning.

[nickodemon]

That pesky main connector

[Falcon 269]

It ended up being the -ve (black) wire on the headlight side of the main connector.  It had broken about half an inch from the block.  All seems good this morning.

Good find, glad it's sorted.  Thanks for letting us know what it was ... always useful for future reference.