matson
Tuned and Synch'ed
Spent the afternoon resolving electrical gremlins on the Griso... Alternator earth and charge wiring was pinched between alternator belt cover and the bottom of the fuel tank. All this is hidden between the cylinder vee and under the fuel tank. It all started when the headlight mysteriously came on as we were sitting down to dinner one night, months ago. I popped out to investigate and saw trailing wisps of smoke coming from the gooseneck area by the fairing. It stopped ...& all appeared normal for a while. This should have been a warning to search until finding the culprit. Alas, I didn't lift the tank, only popped the side fairings, so nothing was revealed.
A couple of months later the main 30 Amp fuse blew, leaving me performing antics by the roadside in Mullumbimby. I checked All connections I could see, replaced the fuse and all appeared normal again. Rode the bike for the following months with no drama until the battery went flat, charged it & all was good for a bit until the battery needed a charge more frequently.
Bought a new battery thinking the old one was passed it's use by date. Good for a couple of weeks then it too started discharging as I rode it. If I ever wet washed the bike I occasionally heard faint buzzing from the same spot too. It only did this for a short time, never long or loud enough to determine exactly where it was coming from. I put it down to residual current at the coil earth or similar (I am not an electrically minded individual).
This time, I pulled the battery & charged it, inspected all the earths & used a digital multimeter to check parts of the charge circuit. I needed to get the tank off to check the connections at the alternator. When I did lift lt off... surprise ...the 3 alternator electrical leads were fused to the alternator earth lead and one of the power leads was completely severed while the other was embedded in the insulation of the earth lead. This situation has now been rectified as I cut out the fried spaghetti and renewed the cabling from where it enters the main loom back to the alternator. Tested & charging at 14.1volts. Resolved gremlins.
I'm not sure if the bike came from the factory like this or whether my service guys have ever had the tank off & pinched the leads at the workshop but definitely could have been much worse. No other component damage, just fried cables leading to the alternator charge not reaching the battery. Lucky. The learning curve was pretty steep regarding electrical fault finding, made all the easier given all the info available here at GuzziTech. Thanks Todd for maintaining the site and everyone else who contributes their expertise to the site admin and forum content. Saved a bundle by being hands-on and diy.
Note, I took the pics with the wiring tucked under a frame rail so I could best show the fried section, this is not its usual routing to the alternator...
A couple of months later the main 30 Amp fuse blew, leaving me performing antics by the roadside in Mullumbimby. I checked All connections I could see, replaced the fuse and all appeared normal again. Rode the bike for the following months with no drama until the battery went flat, charged it & all was good for a bit until the battery needed a charge more frequently.
Bought a new battery thinking the old one was passed it's use by date. Good for a couple of weeks then it too started discharging as I rode it. If I ever wet washed the bike I occasionally heard faint buzzing from the same spot too. It only did this for a short time, never long or loud enough to determine exactly where it was coming from. I put it down to residual current at the coil earth or similar (I am not an electrically minded individual).
This time, I pulled the battery & charged it, inspected all the earths & used a digital multimeter to check parts of the charge circuit. I needed to get the tank off to check the connections at the alternator. When I did lift lt off... surprise ...the 3 alternator electrical leads were fused to the alternator earth lead and one of the power leads was completely severed while the other was embedded in the insulation of the earth lead. This situation has now been rectified as I cut out the fried spaghetti and renewed the cabling from where it enters the main loom back to the alternator. Tested & charging at 14.1volts. Resolved gremlins.
I'm not sure if the bike came from the factory like this or whether my service guys have ever had the tank off & pinched the leads at the workshop but definitely could have been much worse. No other component damage, just fried cables leading to the alternator charge not reaching the battery. Lucky. The learning curve was pretty steep regarding electrical fault finding, made all the easier given all the info available here at GuzziTech. Thanks Todd for maintaining the site and everyone else who contributes their expertise to the site admin and forum content. Saved a bundle by being hands-on and diy.
Note, I took the pics with the wiring tucked under a frame rail so I could best show the fried section, this is not its usual routing to the alternator...
