FI light pulsing in time with Kisan Pathblazer???

The bike is a 5th gen VFR800FiY, a 2000, with approximately 20k miles. It has no electrical accessories except for a Kisan Pathblazer (headlight modulator) and a Garmin Zumo GPS, both of which I consider an absolute minimum amount of kit now that I've used them for a while. It's been a really good mount so far, has taken us on multi-thousand mile trips with absolutely no fuss until we were coming back home from Charleston in very high heat last year during the summer. I was riding on I-16 at a steady 80-85 mph, when I looked down and saw the FI warning light pulsing in time with the Kisan. There was no outward symptom that the FI was having problems (such as surging etc). I panicked (especially since we were hundreds of miles from home still) and pulled off at the next exit where we got something to eat while options were evaluated. I checked everything I could and all seemed fine, but I was able to remove the Kisan and also disconnect the GPS. After lunch, we rode a while farther with no problems, so I re-introduced the GPS. No issues. Thinking the problem was the Pathblazer, I rode the rest of the way home without it with no issues.

Fast forward a few months. I had ordered a VFRNess (great product, great company, highly recommended) and installed it with very little trouble. I then re-introduced the Kisan. I did not experience the FI light pulsing with the Kisan issue, and assumed my problem was cured. I also checked all wiring harness grounds and the main ground cluster in the harness on the left side of the bike...all nice, clean, and weatherproofed. All stock connections were nice and clean, no evidence of high impedance connections or "burning/toasting" of any connectors indicating high impedance.

Fast forward a few months further. About September, the wife and I took a trip to Cloudland Canyon...and sure enough, I saw the FI light pulsing again. I was beginning to get a little annoyed with this problem. However, I wanted to push it a little to see what exactly was happening, so I just rode with it this way for the rest of the trip, about 100 miles. It had the GPS and the Kisan both installed again. However, there were no outward symptoms other than a pulsing FI light.

Question: What is the pulsing FI light a symptom of?

Potential solutions: I am considering replacing the stator and the regulator/rectifier with a FH012 MOS-FET unit from a Yamaha, along with hard-wiring and soldering-in to eliminate the usual points of failure. I also intend to use the "Eastern Beaver" connectors for the regulator, since they appear to be better quality. The output wires from the regulator would then be attached directly to the battery, thus bypassing the wiring harness and a potential fault. The VFRNess would be retained, and hard-wired in also.

Additional questions: Am I looking in the wrong area to repair? Is there something that I am overlooking that would be a far simpler fix, rather than "re-building" the bike's charging system?

I will be obtaining a digital VOM and some PG clips to do some testing of the electrical system later this weekend, using the Honda manual and some other tips I've gleaned from this and other forums. I'll report back my findings...thanks for any help you could provide in helping me solve this problem.

 

I missed the connector immediately out of the stator, on the right side of the bike. I'm replacing the heater core in the wife's Taurus right now so I will check on that later. That might be the source of the issue...

 

Tested the battery first...12.99V at rest, 11.84V low load test (switch on, high beams on), 10.49V high load test (starting the bike). Battery seems fine.

I have an over twice the recommended rate amperage draw from the charging system with the switch off. Manual recommends 1.2mA, I show 2.45mA with 12 volts across the 30A fuses for turn signals and FI system. I've never really had any dead battery problems with this bike, so I'm not really sure I want to rip the electrical system apart searching for a phantom 1.25mA current draw...?

Third test...stator shows 0.000 resistance on all three legs at all tested temperatures (50, 75, 130, 150) and at all tested ranges (including the very small resistance ranges on the meter - in the thousandths). All three legs also have continuity with each other. None of the three legs have continuity with engine/system ground at any point tested. The bike shows rock solid charging efficiency at idle and at 5000 RPM, at 14.71V. It does not vary dependent on any load placed on the system at any time.

Next test will be the stator output voltage.

 

OK, I lied. The next test will be pulling off all the fairings and disconnecting everything hanging off the frame stay, attempting to find the phantom current drain.

I connected the positive lead to the battery, then put the multimeter between the disconnected negative post on the battery and pg clipped the negative lead. I was now measuring a current draw, with the switch off, at 2.1mA. Then I pulled all the fuses in the fuse block...and still had the current draw. The only remaining fuse to pull was the clock. I pulled that and the meter went to zero.

I'm going to treat the 1.2mA number in the factory manual as a transposed misprint. There are no other connectors mated on the bike except for the clock, and it's pulling 2.1mA.

???

On an unrelated note, I'm getting ready to set a personal record with the number of replies to my own posts in a thread I personally started, with no replies from other people...