[ghostrider314]

hey...you were kind enough to start helping me troubleshoot an electrical problem with my bike and then the whole board went down and the post is gone...or in the archives i suppose. anyway, the last thing you told me to check was for continuity between the pos and frame and the neg and frame. the positive and frame read infinite/open and the negative and frame read .2/short. what's next?

thanks

 

[Baldman]

It appears your charging/batt system are working properly. The next thing you want to do is check your grounds (they should be grouped together and mounted in possibly two locations on the frame/swingarm/subframe). If your grounds check good (<0.10 Ohms), then you want to take a look at the wiring diagram (in the Service Manual) and begin troubleshooting the wires that give both items their power and grounds (connectors would be my first choice, as they can melt when aftermarket parts are added).

Have you added aftermarket headlight bulbs, or signals?

 

[ghostrider314]

hey thanks for the reply. i did buy the bike used but the bulbs are all stock to the best of my knowledge. how do i check the resistance of the grounds?

thanks.

 

[Baldman]

:monstergr Stupid subscription is not letting me know when you reply.

Set your meter to Ohms, place the 'red' lead onto the ground wire to be tested and the 'black' lead onto 'earth ground' = the frame/engine. Read the resistance (Ohms) and it should be </0.1 Ohm.

 

[ghostrider314]

i havent had time to do that, but if it help the diagnosis, the other day when i went to go riding it was as dead as a doornail. i had to run-start it like ten times before it would stay running. then i went for a quick ride and that problem happened again where everything started fritzing and the bike was bogging really bad. but when i downshifted to pull over it went away, and was fine for the rest of my ride. go figure. i should be able to get to some further testing this week.

 

[Baldman]

i havent had time to do that, but if it help the diagnosis, the other day when i went to go riding it was as dead as a doornail. i had to run-start it like ten times before it would stay running. then i went for a quick ride and that problem happened again where everything started fritzing and the bike was bogging really bad. but when i downshifted to pull over it went away, and was fine for the rest of my ride. go figure. i should be able to get to some further testing this week.

I just had the same thing happen on my bike (25k miles). Turns out you should replace your battery every two years, regardless of whether you are having charging problems. The sulfites in the battery build up and cause a large current draw which makes the alternator work hard all the time. I pulled my alternator and it was cooked in some place and had completely dissenegrated the wires in another. Take a look at your alternator and you will probably find the problem. I should receive my new alternator ($150) this week from Electrex USA (built much better than the OEM version).

 

[Baldman]

p.s. I checked my charging system a week prior to all the problems happening with mine - yet everything checked out good. When I checked it this time, the alternator was completely gone (no charge being placed on the battery). If you are not measuring around 15VDC @ 5k RPM, check your alternator.

 

[ghostrider314]

p.s. I checked my charging system a week prior to all the problems happening with mine - yet everything checked out good. When I checked it this time, the alternator was completely gone (no charge being placed on the battery). If you are not measuring around 15VDC @ 5k RPM, check your alternator.

interesting coincidence that we had such a similar problem. i'll check it out and get back to you...thanks

and now that i think about, several times when i've been out riding i thought it smelled that electrical burning smell. i wonder if it was my alternator frying...

 

[ghostrider314]

so i finally got around to messing with the bike. oddly, even though i haven't ridden for a few weeks, it started right up. but the battery read around 10VDC before starting and it dropped into the 9's when i revved it to 5k. hmmm. so then i shut it off for a few minutes. i checked the battery again and it was at 11.3VDC. but when i tried to start it again it just make a ticking noise and wouldn't start again. i made a few run-starts and drove it up and down the street a few times but it just kept dying so i gave up. right before it dies my dash goes out totally. and today i noticed that it looks like whoever had the bike before me did some electrical work...must have had an alarm or something becasue there are some splices and such that i am sure did not come from the yamaha factory...unless yamaha uses black tape and twists the wires together :-/