| Author | Message | ||
     Ulyscol |
My 2008 Ulysses started to have some electrical issues last fall. When making right hand turns I noticed my blinker would shut off. Now that the snow has melted I have been out riding and noticed now my blinker and headlight turn off when making a right hand turn, uh oh time to start wrenching. I opened up the front and started cutting all the wiring out.  Just kidding. I started moving wires around with the headlight on.  Bingo, found the general location of the problem.  Yep, you guessed it  The main wiring harness is routed through this conduit up under the fly screen. I started to dig in and 6 pounds of electrical tape later I was able to expose all the wiring under the conduit.  I quickly found the source of the problem. Coming out of the conduit into the fly screen area where the harness flexes as you turn there were several spliced wires. Just after the splices the wiring had fatigued and was making intermittent contact. Here you can see the culprits.   The red wiring caused the headlight failure and the brown the turn signal. Now that I had found the problem it was time to fix it. This is where things get complicated. If I just fix the splice it will just fail again. I believe the root cause of the problem is making the splice at the point where the harness has to flex. So I decided to cut and relocate the now two splices before and after the point where the harness flexes most. Not sure if this is the right move or not but I gave it a try anyway. I don't think I have seen the last of my electrical problems in the area as all of the wiring under the conduit was very stiff and brittle. Well hopefully it will last another 20000 miles.  | ||
| Yamafreak |
This Should all be Warranty work Right? | ||
| Ronmold |
If you can get to a hobby shop get some R/C car wire, silicon ultra flexible, and splice that in. A lot of work though but solves the problem for good! | ||
| Jphish |
Ulyscol - VERY helpful! Thanks for the pictorial. Now I'll know where to look if symptoms arise. What year is the Uly ? Also where do you live ?? Thought I saw reflection of sun rays off your forks !! | ||
| Ratbuell |
This Should all be Warranty work Right? Not once he opened up that harness. Electrical gremlins are the worst. If you don't have a vested interest (i.e. if it's not your bike), it gets frustrating fast and becomes easier to stamp it with NPF, and move to the next one. | ||
| Ulyscol |
Yamafreak- Yeah should be warranty, but who has time to wait for the dealer when the weather is this nice. I could wake up to 2ft of snow tomorrow. Ronmold- Silicone wire is an excellent idea! I wish Buell would have thought of that. Jphish- 2008 with 20000 miles. That is sun, here in Cleveland almost forgot what it looks like. | ||
| Ronmold |
Warranty would be replacing the entire harness I imagine. There goes three to four weeks bike-less. | ||
| Yamafreak |
I have the same problem.bike shuts off when I turn right.Dealer told me they would fix it,I was hoping for a new harness. We went riding yesterday and planned our ride with mostly left turns (it can be done) and had a great time! Dented the muffler going over a curb to avoid a right turn! I am going to call the dealer today to have her fixed. We should have got the X so we could jump curbs but the XT is GREAT. | ||
| Etennuly |
Those are exactly the repairs I have mentioned in the past and did a pictorial like you did a couple of years ago. I was following the lead of another BadWeB member who found and repaired his before me. The problem with warranty on this problem, as was the case on mine, it was intermittent. They could not find it. I'm not sure how they would fix it, or even if they could. Warranty might call for replacing the harness. That in itself does not "fix" the problem, it puts the same factory splices back in the same place to fail again. To repair mine I made the same repair you did. On the red power lead and the brown rt turn wires, I moved the splice back towards the fuel tank, and did both of the triple splices in the flyscreen area where they can cause less problems. This also changes the size of the bundle through the clamp by removing four of the wires where it passes through the clamp. | ||
| Tootal |
I had the same problem but mine was the ground wires on the gooseneck. I took my 2006 wiring holder off and just loosely wire tied them to the two bolts. No problem since. But if it happens again I'll know where to go! | ||
| Ulyscol |
Tootal- I agree, I think that plastic wire holder is causing more harm than good. Seems like it stresses the wires instead of letting them move with the turning of the bars. | ||
| Dio |
It makes a difference if you check the harness under the flyscreen on full lock turns when you are done. Mine had a zip tie holding the harness too tightly and would allow more binding when turned full lock. I installed a new tie, but left it a little looser to allow for some movement. | ||
| Motorbike |
I took a look at the wiring harness of my bike last night and turned the bars lock to lock. Since the bike is brand new yet, I am not having trouble but the wire harness holder on the steering head looks like a potential problem. When the bars are turned fully to the left, the harness seems to bend sharply around the corner of the plastic holder and the repeated sharp bending of the wires will no doubt break them after enough repetitions. I plan to remove the plastic holder, cut it back a ways on the front edge and reinstall it. I believe this will allow the wires to bend through a larger radius, and prolong their life. I will post pics when done. Any opinions before I begin this minor surgery? Thanks. |
