| Author | Message | ||
     Chief_sitting_buell |
Bump to get some help following up to this archived thread http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/messages/142 838/607161.html?1305253206 | ||
| Etennuly |
What kind of help do you need? | ||
| Chief_sitting_buell |
Hey Vern I've intermittent issues with the bike going into spark/skip. It looks to me like its the same issue others have had - voltage fluctuations from the fan fooling the ECM. I wanted to fix that and I was wondering if it installed an "ON-OFF-ON" switch if it would fix it. Since I posted I went ahead and wired the switch in. The fan is still plugged into the OEM connection - but i cut the ground wire. I connected the ground from the fan to the middle post of the on-off-on switch. I ran a wire from one of the on positions of the switch right back to the ground leading to the ECM. A ran another wire to the other on position that goes right to the battery ground. My thinking was that with the switch selecting the first on position it would be essentially OEM. With the switch selecting the second on position the fan would be always on and would not send current back to the OEM. The second half works - in the always on position the fan runs continuously. Problem is I get a check engine light after about 3 seconds when the bike is running. When I turn the switch either to the off or the original OEM configuration the check engine light goes out. I don't know if going to the always on position ( and interrupting the OEM configuration) will eliminate the erroneous spark/skip because ( of course) the bike didn't do that today. Probably wasn't hot enough and it started to rain so I cut the test drive short. My overall question was if anyone thought the voltage fluctuations that caused the "not really needed" spark skip were caused by current flowing to the fan from the ECM or back into the ECM through the ground? I guess if it happens again I'll disconnect the fan from the OEM power supply and hard wire the power feed. Thanks | ||
| Etennuly |
My assumption for what is happening to the ECM/Fan relationship, is that the substantial power load through the ECM is making it get too hot, or over loading circuits, or consuming the ECM's internal grounding ability, as it turns the fan on and off. I have been hearing that most of us with the problem are on our second fan. My original never had the problem. It started the following warm season(above 70F). When you "hot wire" the fan's ground to a switch, the ECM will give you a constant red light seconds after start. I find it a minor inconvenience compared to the formidable "flashy light/run/skip" plague. That is an interesting idea about setting the switched ground up as "OEM" or manual. It seems to me the "OEM" setting would net you no better than it was though. I usually let the bike warm up about five minutes before riding, then ride about five minutes before turning the fan on in temps above 50F. I will leave it on the whole time I ride. If it is cooler than that I don't turn it on unless on a long hill or during hard running. | ||
| Andymnelson |
what about just driving the fan off of a relay, taking the load off of the ecm? | ||
| Chief_sitting_buell |
Vern I agree that setting the switched ground to OEM would be no better than usual. There were a few things that made me choose that option. First of all the problem is sporadic at best so I wanted to leave it OEM and take advantage of the fan's two speed option. I also wanted to avoid the constant on and hopefully get longer life out of the fan bearings. The last thing was to satisfy my inquisitive nature. If the bike goes into spark skip and that spark skip goes away when I switched it to the always on mode on the fly, I'd feel more confident that it was voltage flux causing the issue. Still haven't answered that question though because the issue hasn't happened since I installed the switch (only one short ride and the ambient temp was relatively cool and there was no sustained 75 mph speeds that preceded the issue in the past. plus if anyone could walk me through how to set up the relay i'd give it a shot. i used relays when i put in HIDs but i've long since forgot how i did it | ||
| Xcephasx |
fwiw if your fan sounds funny, try some tv control cleaner. i think that if the fan is gunked up it does indeed draw more amps to turn, playing hell with the ecm. |
