Gauges acting out in anarchy

Lickety-split · 10-29-2005, 04:18 PM

In an effort to give me a big "FU" for the work I've done on 'er, my bike has taken on a mind of it's own.

The bike is an '03 RC51 that I purchased salvaged and have been rebuilding in hopes of making it street worthy. Since then, I ended up fixing my wiring harness by replacing the front subharness (which, for the most part, goes from the main wiring harness to the gauges and signals).

Once I made that swap from the crap subhaness to the brand spankin' new one, I put a couple thousand miles on the bike with the gauges working wonderfully.

This August I decided to stop running the bike (had no in-state title or tags on it), and gave 'er an early winterization (cut the chain off so I wouldn't go riding it hooligan-style). Once a week or so, I flip 'er on and let 'er get up to temperature, making sure the battery hasn't drained and blowing the dust out of the exhaust (woo rock'n'motar buildings are a dusty hell).

Last weekend I threw a leg over 'er, started 'er up, and laid myself down on the tank, doing the pathetic nostalgic thing, running 'er around curves in my mind. Well, when I hit the ignition, there was a slight pop. My gouges came on and died. Fuse popped.

This weekend, I've thrown a new fuse into 'er and VIOLA the gauges are back.

The kicker: my speedo is running off of my tach. I mean, the speedo is showing digits congruent to the tach. It's sitting in neutral, idling with the choke off, and it shows that I'm going 6mph. I romp on the throttle and suddenly it'll rise to 45mph and drop as I let off of the throttle. I take my hand off of the go-clip on and turn the choke on, and it'll show 12mph.

(Note: The tach read-out still works as it should.)

I've looked through my months-old subharness and I have no exposed wires that are touching.

Has anyone had this issue? Are my gauges going haywire? Or is it a wiring problem leading from my gauges to the main harness? Why does my bike try to work against me so much?

Any help or suggestions would be very much appreciated.

Spike · 10-29-2005, 04:44 PM

Hahahaha that's really funny, I wish I had an answer for ya but I just had to comment

srleansalot · 10-31-2005, 08:43 AM

check to see if the sprocket is spining. I wouldn't be surpised even if in neutral with no load that it would spin from oil moving around or vibration.

firstcherokeekid · 11-01-2005, 04:46 PM

maybe your bike is just pissed at you for putting it away so early!!!!

try&keepup · 11-01-2005, 04:53 PM

it's probalbly because you cut the chain off, the front sprocket has no load and the oil is cold causing the sprocket is spin

Lickety-split · 11-01-2005, 09:02 PM

Yup, you guys were precisely right. I had posted this thread in a couple of forums and someone responded to me shortly afterward. A light bulb went off in my head and it was one of those "DUH" moments. With all of the electical problems I've had with that bike, I automatically assumed it was something with the wiring.

I had the boyfriend grab ahold of the counter-sprocket while I fired 'er up, and sure enough, the tach-to-speedo issue was solved.

Thanks guys!