The damned thing is possessed!

[Fartnokker]

Okay, here's the story behind why I had to call the little lady to come pick me up on the side of the road & bring me to work this morning...

Last night, finished dealing with a minor wiring problem that involved replacing a bad circuit breaker on my 1988 FXR, and getting the indicator lights wired up properly in my new tank-mounted dashboard. Replaced my headlight bulb, and all was well. Fired up the bike, and rode home from work with no drama.

This morning, got ready for work, and fired 'er up again, no problems. After riding about 15 miles, the lights started flickering momentarily - very bright, then back to normal for awhile, then back to very bright again & back to normal. The engine coughed a couple of times, but I wrote that off to a chilly morning & cantankerous Evo motor.

All of a sudden, the motor backfired, the lights flared & went out completely, and the bike died while going about 40mph. I coasted to the side of the road, turned the key off, then tried to start it again - nothing. Not a thing.

After trying again, I noticed that when I turned the key on & didn't have the handlebar switch set to "on", the dash indicator lights came on, but as soon as I turned the switch to "on", everything died. It looks like my new headlight bulb blew out, and it took everything I have not to just kick the friggin' bike over & leave it on the side of the road.

I thought voltage regulator would explain the flickering lights, but not why I can't start it. If the charging system was bad, then why would it blow out the lights instead of just dying?

I'm really having a hard time wrapping my head around this one, and if it sounds familiar to anyone, I'd appreciate a clue to get me looking in the right direction.

Thanks in advance, all.

[Black Magic]

I would start by checking all the grounds and then checking for a short circuit in the new wiring, something pinched maybe. Good luck, I am sure it will be relativily simple.

Cheers!

[Fartnokker]

Man, I hope so. I've worked it out that between what I paid for this bike, and all the crap I've had to do to it (it was awfully neglected for a lot of years), it has cost me almost $10 a mile to ride this year.

I'll double-check the wiring...

[LADave]

I'd start by checking the last thing you messed with.

If this is a new problem with it, you could have messed something up while you were in the dash and not realized it...

Seems to me I had a similar issue a few years ago, I've got an 87 FXR, when I started checking things, I found that my connection at the positive side of the battery to the starter had loosened up. Snugged it up and everything was fine again. Hope you're as lucky as I was...

EDIT - Looking at your bike, the way you've mounted the seat, is it bolted down or is it hinged? I know that when I had mine bolted down, it was a PITA to check the stuff under the seat (Oil level, battery connections, etc.) that could be part of the issue...

[Fartnokker]

Got a PM from Road Warrior about his issue, and it prompted me to write a long update on mine. Here's the gist of it:

Originally Posted by Road Warrior

Hey Fartnokker, did you ever figure out what was wrong with your bike when you started that thread about maybe having an electrical short back in mid September? I am having the EXACT same problem as you it seems, my head light dims for a few seconds after turning the ignition on, every time the light dims one circuit breaker clicks, and my speedometer light went out and my turn signals don't work, and when I try to start it the starter just clicks. Any info you could give me would be greatly appreciated, I read the whole thread so anything you found out and didn't post would be very helpful. Thanks.

Man, I feel your pain. After a bunch of crap, I'm still dealing with electrical issues. I replaced all the circuit breakers, and it still did it. I searched around, and found that I had accidentally grounded the lead that goes to the headlight hi-beam indicatior light, which is supposed to be grounded AFTER the indicator light, and the bike started right up.

On my way home, on my very first ride after that, the lights started flickering bright, then dim, then bright again. When I got home, I turned the bike off, the turned it on & attempted to start it. No lights, no starter, just the starter relay click.

Got fed up & took it to my local indy shop, and got bad news. My voltage regulator was defective, sending 18+ volts thru the electrical system. My battery was fried, all my light bulbs were blown, my ignition was fried, and the voltage regulator was done. $600 later, I had a new regulator, new battery, and a new Dyna 2000i ignition in place.

Ran great for one day, then I noticed that my low beam headlight, spotlights (which are wired in to my low beam circuit), and taillight don't work when my handlebar switch is in the low beam position. In addition, I hear a relay clicking when it is like this. Motor still starts & runs, tho. When I switch to hi beam on the handlebar switch, everything works.

Go figure.

I'm fed up with this stupid thing, and haven't touched it in a week. I suppose I'll start looking for the problem soon, but I don't know if I'm shorted in the handlebar switch & wiring, somewhere in the headlight bucket, or at some other point in the wiring harness. I'm literally in for over $1000 on electrical-related issues since I bought this bike a year ago. I've replaced the solenoid, starter, ignition, voltage regulator, battery (TWICE!), all the circuit breakers, handlebar switches, lots of bulbs, and still having issues.

I love my bike, but I've been tempted to kick it over on the ground & leave the title there for whoever wants the P.O.S. several times. I've put so many hours of work & dollars into it that I feel cheated.

Guess I'll be riding into the garage at my office for the winter soon, & will start tearing into it. Love/Hate relationship, for sure.

Don't know if this rant helps you any, but maybe it'll start you in the right direction.

- does it react the same with the light switch in both positions?

- do you have adequate voltage at the battery? At the starter terminal?

- have you taken the headlight out & checked all the wiring & connections inside?

- have you popped open your handlebar control pods & checked the wiring & switches yet?

These are all small places to start. Good luck, and lemme know what YOU find - I'll do the same!

-Danny

[LADave]

This is an interesting issue...

Way too many things screwing up all at the same time. You've thrown a bunch of money at it and nothing sounds like it has really changed. You've still got the original problem. What's the common factor? Grounds maybe? Would explain the flickering lights, popping circuit breakers, etc. Bad grounds will do some strange things to an electrical system.

The voltage regulator should be grounded metal-to-metal where it mounts on the front crossmember and with a ground wire to the engine. Do both of those have solid grounds? And when it pumped out too much voltage, it would blow the lights like you described. Been there, done that...

Do you have a good solid ground between the battery and the starter? Battery and the frame? Or are they grounded in the same spot through the same wire? Are the connections clean and tight?

Have you gone back and checked the grounds for the various components? I know that there were a couple of pretty cheesy ground connections on mine from the head-light bucket to the top triple-tree. Just a couple of machine screws threaded into a hole. Mine were pretty corroded. Could it be as simple as something like that on yours?

Do you have a book for it? Or even just a wiring diagram to chase and see what's what? That may help. I've got an early (82-83) FXR wiring diagram online if you need it. That may or may not help.

Also, you've got to remember that bike is over 20 years old and the wiring is also over 20 years old. There are a whole lot of possible problems in it. Some from age, some from the previous owners and maybe you did something that wasn't quite right. (not criticizing you, I'm just sayin') Could even be an internal break in a wire and that will be a real PITA to locate. A new wiring harness might not be a bad idea. After all, you've dumped over a grand into it and its still doing the same thing...

[Fartnokker]

I'm hearin' ya, Dave. I did have to re-do the ground from the headlight bucket to the top triple tree a while back - new wire, connector, and screw - so I'm pretty sure that one isn't the culprit right now. I'm completely willing to say it might be something that I've done that is causing this, so no worries about my tender feelings there!!!

I've thought about a new wiring harness, & talked to my indy wrench guy about it as well, and while I think I'm capable of doing the work, it would be an industrial-sized PITA and take a lot of time. I've got the FM with the wiring diagram in it, which helped me figure out my mis-wiring of the hi-beam indicator light awhile back, but I'm just a little burnt out right now as far as messing with it.

Part of my frustration is that I'm currently living in an apartment, so it isn't like I can just grab a beer & wander out to the garage after work to mess with it. The only place I have to work on it is at the garage of my office, where I do have a full shop with all the needed tools, etc., but that means spending more than my normal 10 hours a day at work, which isn't a real appealing thing. I did that a ton over last winter, putting in an extra hour or two here & there, and probably spent a hundred hours replacing, cleaning, changing, painting, fabricating and repairing things, all told.

The thing looks great (IMNSHO!), but the electrical reliability is killing me. It has spent much more time with some damned problem or another than is has been running well.

I'm positive that there's a short, bad connection, or failed ground somewhere on this damned thing, but getting motivated to fire up the ol' Fluke 77 and really do a thorough job of going over it head-to-toe is proving hard to do. Yeah, I know the old girl is long past her youth, and age-related woes are to be expected. Some of the changes done by people before me were less than top-notch, and I've spent some time re-re-doing things that were done long ago. Since the original owner had the bike converted from a FXRP to basically an FXLR with lots of (tacky) custom touches, there were lots of hands in the cookie jar, so to speak. Some of the changes were good (headwork, CV carb, back-cut gears, cam, etc), and some not so good (bad front & rear marker lights, hideous custom paint, gold-plated everything) & needed to be changed, but the bike doesn't even resemble the machine I bought a year ago.

I guess I'm just bitching about it, and really wish I could just ride the damned thing more than once or twice without something else cropping up wrong with it.

Thanks for the helpful input, though, and I'm sure that with the weather getting crappy, I'll settle in to some serious troubleshooting soon. Till next time,

[LADave]

When you get burnt out, its time to take a break. Walk away for awhile before attacking the problem again. Move to a different problem even. Move to something that ain't a problem and you just want different. It works for me...

Previous owner on mine wired the turn-signals with speaker wire. So, I do understand your pain. I've also made my share of mistakes with it too.

In the process of working on one of them right now. Re-wiring the whole bike, again...LOL

Didn't have any plug-in connectors between the bars and the rest of the bike for the wiring. Did a real nice job of hiding all my wires inside the bars. (12-inch apes) Then, about 6 months ago, some guy decided to rearrange the front end of my bike by making an illegal left turn in front of me. In order to get the bars off, I had to cut the wire harness...

So, I'm re-wiring the whole thing (with plug-in connectors this time) Starting from a pair of 4-inch headlights and new hand-controls, I'm replacing everything from the neck forward. (Neck is nice and straight, new wide-glide, 16-inch tire/laced wheel with a Fatboy front fender, 16-inch apes, jockey-shift/suicide clutch, etc.)

As for your bike, the only one you have to make happy with the way it looks is you. No one else. Remember its your bike!

[Fartnokker]

LOL! I've had the encounter with the illegal turner once or twice over the years myself; hope you're okay, man.

When changing from the buckhorn bars with internal wiring that were on the bike when I bought it to a set of 10-inch mini apes, I cut the wires & put in a set of molex connectors on each side that hide behind the headlight. Subsequent bar changes will be a breeze!!!!

I'll probably do a cursory once-over on the wiring, then settle back into messing with something else first, as you suggested. I intend to replace the fork springs this winter with stiffer ones, so maybe I'll just do that, first. Then change out my tail lights, like I've been meaning to do for awhile.

Maybe I'll use speaker wire...

[kustom_flames]

Have you checked the wiring in your dash? Buddy of mine's bike had a similar issue, and one of the wires under the dash was shorting out...

Good luck man...keep with it, take a break if you need to!

At least it still looks good after painting it right!

[Fartnokker]

Hey, Pat!

I've popped the dash a couple of times to check it, but there's always a chance I missed something. Right now, I can ride it just fine, but only with the hi-beam on!

And believe it or not, after seeing the results I got with your tutelage, a buddy of mine has painted his Sportster with the same stuff! Passing along the good karma. People still think I've got a high-dollar custom textured black paint job!!!! I tell 'em what I did, and they're amazed. I still owe you for that, Pat.

[hbmc]

the light works---right? I mean you did throw a tester on it and check to see that there is juice to the low beam. Also Pep boys had sealed beams and replacements for 20 bucks instead of the 60 around town. FYI.
I just had my stator go and it killed my lowbeam and I still have high beam on it. Voltage reg is good... Right? Not fluctuating too bad..? That is the part that controls the rate of juice back into the bike. You probably knew that already.
Really sounds like a short and also a short can ruin your regulator. So retest even though is is new. May have fried it with the last short/surge.

[Fartnokker]

Thanks, HB. Yeah, Schucks carries the sealed beams for $8.99, so it is an easy replacement. The low-beam setting on the light switch causes the taillight & the spots to go out as well, so I'm pretty sure it ain't the bulb.

I'll be testing the voltage regulator, along with all the switchgear & multitudes of other stuff, once I get off my butt & get to work on it. No fluctuation on the high beam lighting, tho. I think it is a short, too.