Talk about annoying...

**aff-man** · 30th May 2006, 18:06

Well on wednesday last week as I was riding home in the pissing rain my instruments decided to go haywire. They kept going off and on and jumping all over the place.

Then on thursday the bike didn't start in the morning.

Got it going on friday and went to work with said instruments still going nutsoid while riding. The ride home that evening was moderatly interesting with the headlight behaving in much the same manor as the instruments.

Was to busy on the weekend to even look at the bike but come monday I decide to fix the bugger. So i realise that it's a short somewhere that is making the thing turn off all the time but couldn't figure out why both headlight and instuments were affected. Anywho went over all the wiring retaping and checking for shorts.

Couldn't find anything. So I start thinking the worst i.e. computer/reg rec has gone poof.

Bike wouldn't start today. So I decide to take the battery out and see if it's leaking or something. adn bingo bongo i found the problem.

The battery wasn't leaking but the srew holding the terminal had worked loose and so the positive clip was about 3-4mm proud over the battery terminal so it was making some contact but when bumped was arcing, and hence drawing heaps of current and basically turing everthing else on the bike off.

a lucky save as I was about to give up on the thing. Tightened one screw and she runs all sweet again.

**Macktheknife** · 30th May 2006, 18:09

Good save, it pays to check the simple stuff every couple of months just to be sure.

**paturoa** · 30th May 2006, 18:17

Sounds like a similar story with my mrs car. High beam stopped working. Well I worked my way thru right thru the lot starting at the fuses and relays, wiring, loom etc. After about an hour of frogging around I finaly got as far as the bulbs. Duh - both had blown high beam. So thinking to myself as you do, what caused that? So I rechecked the voltages, reved the motor, fiddled with the stalk thingie and all fine.

Shot off and got 2 new bulbs, installed them and has been fine ever since. So about 3 hours of mucking around for no good.

**oldguy** · 30th May 2006, 18:29

With it arcing like that, suprised it didn't fry the computer,

lucky save

**aff-man** · 30th May 2006, 18:36

Originally Posted by oldguy

With it arcing like that, suprised it didn't fry the computer,

lucky save

yeh.. the battery terminal was pretty frikking hot. Surprised it didn't melt the terminal. The real kicker was because of the battery position at first glance you would never notice it.