Kansas to Prince Rupert, BC, Canada or Bust!

Dam VFR's

Can I ask why you replaced the battery? Last week it held a charge even after leaving the lights on for 5-10 minutes? Does Yuasa have any warranty? Did it seem to work, replacing the battery? Just curious. You may need to get a new gasket, for the alternator cover and check out the stator. Something funny is going on, still.

 

That small harness contains a 30 amp fuse, if I remember correctly. When things get hot, it is due to either resistance due to corrosion or a direct short somewhere to ground. Your symptoms indicate a direct short to ground. If it were corrosion, the point of corrosion would get hot, slowly. But you say the harness got hot in a hurry. So for now the short has disappeared, which is good until it happens again. I contend that the simple act of removing the battery, moving the harness around and re-installing the battery disturbed the point of contact of the elusive short. Since there is a short (in length) section of wire that is between the fuse and the battery, I would start there, looking for any evidence of arcing or worn insulation, from there you will have to trace all the red wire after the fuse. Use a LED flash light and look carefully. The fuse holder and connector close by do not look discolored, so they are probable making good contact. Could have been a pinched wire or a point where the harness rubbed metal and the insulation wore through.

 

When we had the bike apart at Randy's, we checked the wire as much as we could where it was visible but were unable to find any area that looked pinched, compressed or discolored where the wire was visible. The wire from the connector on routes down into a channel formed into the bottom of the battery box and enters the factory harness, and becomes fully wrapped inside the factory harness. After that the entire harness loom disappears inside the frame and routes up around the front of the bike. The main wiring diagram showed that the wire connects to a couple of other circuits within the harness, including a relay and the R/R harness. The connectors for the R/R showed no discoloration, nor could we find any discoloration along the visible length of the wire where it entered the harness loom from the R/R connector.

After discussing the situation with the service tech at the Honda dealer in Chilliwack he had asked about the condition of the battery. AM mentioned that it wasn't that old (less than 3 months) but it had been fully discharged and per a previous post she mentioned it had presented a reading of 3.8V at one point. We tested the stator resistance pin to pin and all read 0.01 ohms with the exception of one at 0.06 The tests of each stator lead to ground were all nil readings (or infinity readings on the meter). We discussed the readings with the tech and his thoughts were the same as yours Allyance. Either a pinched wire or a separation or break in the wire somewhere along the wire possibly behind the wiring cover.

The techs other thought was that they had experienced some failures with a few of the cheaper batteries. Without the battery in hand they couldn't load test it or check its condition but he suggested that there could be a possibility of an internal short on part of the battery itself. To that end, he suggested replacing the battery. After replacing the battery the difference was immediately apparent and the wire that AM had burnt her fingers on was no longer burning to the touch but just lightly warm and similar to Randy's bike.

The other thing that seemed curious was that AM only seemed to experience the charging issues in the rain, but on the ride with Randy on Friday and again on the ride Saturday, she had no problems.

Ya gotta hate intermittent problems that just don't seem to read their ugly heads when you are trying to test them.

 

You guys are awesome, Zoom-Zoom & Randy.

Can't wait to meet you both!

AM - so glad to hear that you are enjoying your trip and some better weather finally. Ride safe and let me know if you're still coming this way. Lots of space at Wolf Camp (Keystone)

Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk

 

Perhaps get a hold of a short detector and run that along the wiring.

 

Going to take some digging, strange gremlins. Did guys do any further testing on her original battery? Could be the output of the R/R try to charge an intermittently shorted cell. Keep us posted. Still alot of amps to heat up a #12 wire.

I used to have an old Chrysler AWD van, on a trip to Philadelphia from upstate NY, the van just quit doing 70 in the rain. Pulled over, shut off ignition, turned it back on, started and off we went. Did it several more time, made it to Scranton, put it in a shop to be checked out, rented a car and went to wedding. When we picked up van, they couldn't find anything. Couple of months later we went to GA, fine all the way down, but a week later it did it again. Chrysler dealer put in a new ECU under the extended warranty. Week later it did it again. While waiting for tow truck driver to show up, I opened the hood and started poking around. Every time I move a black bundle of wires from the engine over to the ECU, it would quit! Ah, now we are getting somewhere. Told the dealer what I found, and they traced it to the bottom of the bundle that was rubbing a support bracket (which it was supposed to be attached to). The bundle would sway back and forth and wore through the insulation and would kill the ECU as passed by. A little tape and it was fixed and re-attached to bracket. Got a new ECU out of it.

 

A fair amount of what we discussed was the "what ifs". What if we don't do this fix or what if we don't do that. I am not technically savvy and a lot of what I do is through reasoning, which I do fairly well at.

So one thing we were considering, was that none of us were actually trained technicians or even what you might consider well versed. I think zoom-zoom may have been the most knowledgeable but we were still just guessing at things to a large degree.

So, presently we were in Chilliwack, a fair sized community with businesses to support bike repairs. Further along AM's ride, that may not be the case. So we had to decide do we check in at the shop tomorrow, Saturday morning, or chance it and just move on. Most bike shops in BC, for what ever reason, are not only closed on Sunday's but Monday's as well. If AM were to break down somewhere where she did not have the support of friends, then what? Thus the decision to go to the shop in the morning, and even though not having a definitive answer to the problem, made and best educated guess with the information we had at hand, and replaced the battery with a quality battery. Once that was done, and for the several minutes running the bike while apart, the heat problem in that connector area was absent.

We were next to pack up and I was going to ride part way with AM and zoom-zoom on their way east. The natural spot to stop for fuel and lunch was in Merrit. That would be after a 1 1/2 hour long and fairly constant climb on a 7% grade give or take. So the bike was going to be worked. We would check the area for heat when we stopped for lunch. Forgetting we would be unloading her bike to do this.

We talked over DQ lunch (thank you BTW Zoom-zoom again) and seeing as AM would not be running alone the majority of the rest of the trip, those two would just continue on. They stopped in Kelowna and AM continued onward east. It appears the problem in if not gone, at least significantly reduced.

Here's hoping she has no other issues that are not positive ones. Thank you for breakfast AM. Viennese and I really enjoyed your and Bill's company.

 

I agree. Once she gets home where she isn't under the pressure of being on the road, that is something to do. A short to ground can be happening in the very smallest of a break in the wire. Very hard to see. Especially for old fuggers wearing gummed up contact lenses.

 

I lost my tail lights a while back and that is what happened. The wires beneath the seat wore through. A piece of electrical tape fixed the problem. Don't know why it didn't blow fuses but at this point don't care.

Those wires certainly did not look to be 12 ga. Then again, I will bow to who ever is more in the know. just comparing it to house wiring which of course is solid and mostly 14 ga, this wire seems a higher ga than that. But what ever.

I still have the battery we took out and I can do some testing with it. But like I alluded to earlier, I am no techy so will need guidance on this. I can wire an apartment building complete with elevators and everything that goes in such a building but automotive wiring I ma just the shits with.

 

Here is another picture of the wire we are talking about taken from a further distance. Photo quality is poor because I lightened up the original quite a bit to see what is in the darker areas.

 

As far as AM's visit here. She made contact with me and was to catch the 0700 ferry out of Swartz Bay near Victoria and arrive here roughly 1h 45m later. I would meet here there in Tsawwassen where the ferry slip is at a roadside pull out. The meeting went without a hitch. There she was, with a smile that lit up the cloudy skies.

We knew our time in Vancouver was going to be on a tight budget. You can spend months there, and still not come close to seeing even the higher priority stuff. But she wanted to see some of Stanley Park, which is a forested park in the middle of a built up area, tucked right next to down town Vancouver on the Burrard Inlet. She camped just across the inlet on her way over to the Island.

These photos were taken at Prospect Point which is on the south side, or across the inlet from that photo AM posted a few days back of the lit up suspension bridge. Where she stayed that night was just over her right shoulder across the water.





Stanley Park is actually a peninsula that juts out into the Burrard Inlet from Vancouver. Basically three sides are tidal waters while the south side is down town Vancouver. It is almost an island save for about a 300 m piece of land connecting it to Vancouver. I was watching for some totem poles to stop and do a photo op but I guess I missed them. We did stop a few times but that park had quite a few homeless people who live in the forests of the park. I was not to comfortable leaving AM's loaded bike too far out of our presence. There was the high risk of some of her gear getting stolen by the homeless. I don't want to come across being hard towards the homeless, but it is a matter of fact. Most will steal to survive. And a bike loaded with gear is a prime target. So we did stop a couple times and got off the bikes for a look see. We got a good look at the city of Vancouver, and on the other side of the inlet, North Vancouver and West Vancouver. But we had to stop at this old cedar tree. I think it was over 1,000 years old when it died. Many fires have been lit in that tree. A short few years ago, that tree was in danger of falling over, so what you may not see, is the iron and steel infrastructure inside that cavity holding it together.



Of course, we needed some attitude while here.


We could have spent at least 3 or 4 more hours exploring Stanly park but this was not going to be the case. You don't want to get stuck in the freeway rush hour traffic trying to get to the eastern Fraser Valley from Vancouver.

So. That road that circled the outside of the park leads right into down town Vancouver along False Creek. That is a small inlet in the down town. This is where Expo '86 was held. It used to be heavy industry but was cleaned up for the World;s Fair and is now mostly developed into higher end condo towers. A very short distance along that road after leaving the park, and just entering the city is the culturally rich area of Denman and Davie Streets, Vancouver's west end. Rainbow flags and crosswalks everywhere. Stopped for lunch there. I thought I saw Derstuka there. Everyone there seemed to know him so I guess he is there often and meets many people while there. Hmmmmm......

After lunch we were on the road to Chilliwack. I had a heads up from zoom-zoom that he was taking Friday off work and was going to meet us in the Wack. Made plans for him to wait just off the freeway and watch for us at a given time. Turns out he arrived in the Wack just about 1/2 hour before we go back so that is pretty good timing on his part seeing as he was coming in from Kelowna. AM was not aware he was coming to meet her in Chilliwack. So, about a mile from my home, he just tucked in behind us and followed us to my house where he was to meet a surprised AM.

Some chat and refreshments, a few wobbly pops and the chowed down for dinner. The three of us spent pretty much the who evening hunkered down in the garage brainstorming the bike issue, and a couple more wobbly pops, and a whole lot of great chatting in between. Baxter was there to keep us in line.



The it was a late night and off to bed. The wife was long gone to bed before we retired. Up early in the morning, out for breakfast at Cookie's Grill then to the bike shop and the purchase of a new battery. Back to my place, Battery uninstalled as it was sold charged, and packed of AM and zoom-zoom then off we went to Merritt and those two, beyond.

Nice visit from both of you.

 

Aww, you guys get to go on the "Good" roads! I said that voltage drop testing wasn't necessary! Well, I bet that maybe it is. I hate not knowing my electrical better. I took it in school fairly recently, at N.A.I.T. in Edmonton, as I am an Apprentice Heavy Eq. Tech. I haven't used it enough though, and this kind of situation is very frustrating. We were taught to test the starting circuit for a loose connection or corrosion, etc., by doing a voltage drop test. Shouldn't lose more than .5 of a volt on any one cable, and no more than 1V on the whole system. Just a way to isolate the problem. I also was yanking on any wire/or bundle of wires to recreate a problem without luck. It is kinda nice you found hot wires, though. A clue! Maybe you could check for continuity while doing a wire wiggle on that circuit? Is anyone an H.E.T. on here?

 

Seems my photos did not load. When I get back to my computer I will have to fix that.

 

TA! DA!Fixed.

 

This just total spit balling here about the electrical issue BUT, here goes nothing. Does anyone here with a 6th gen have any idea if a heavy load could cause enough compression of the suspension to cause part of it to rub against the main harness loom where it runs around the main frame spar and or under tank area and shock mounting location?? AM's bike is pretty loaded down with gear and to the point where when it is put on the side stand it stands nearly upright.

 

Wow, Randy you gotta nice view from your backyard, as evidenced from those first two pictures.

 

Not quite "my" back yard but I get your drift. You gotta get out of Aadmuntun and come on over. There really are roads that go through those mountains. May be traveling through your fine city near the middle of July but are likely pushing though to Hinton where we have old friends from my Campbell River days. Now there is a beautiful area!

 

That's a good thought. But if you were to compare her size and my fat ass, and how we were packed, I don't think her suspension would have been as compressed as mine back in 2012. Then again, I had ohlins by then so maybe.