| Author | Message | ||
     Yohinan |
Ok. So just a bit of background, unless you work on Buells (more specific the XB series) you most likely have not come across this unless your one of the lucky (joke) few to experience this. From my past experiences I have only seen this on 03's and nothing newer. Issue: No electrical power. In the past when I have come across this it has always been an issue with the main wiring harness at the point of entry into the main fuse box. I have ended up taking the harness from the fuse box and re-crimping and soldering the faulty connections with a perfect success rate until this last problem child. This is an 03 XB9S. Upon diagnosing the no electrical power I determined the fault to be a loose wiring harness where it connects into the fuse box. Wiggle the harness and suddenly you have power and can start the bike. Wiggle some more and no power to anything when you turn the key. I narrowed it down and found the faulty wiring to specifically be the key switch. Removed this portion of the harness from the fuse box and did the old re-crimp and solder method on the terminals just as in the past. Buttoned everything back up and keyed on and off the bike several times and everything was working perfectly. After that I fired the bike on and off 4 or 5 times successfully. Here is where the issue comes up. Left work. Next time I get back I get word the issue is still there. I am like WTF? It was fine when I left. Go back to the bike and sure enough no power again. After troubleshooting with no success I am at a loss as to what the issue may be. Unfortunately I do not have a breakout box to further test the circuitry as I would like. I can only think that maybe within the harness where it connects into the fuse box there could be two adjacent terminals shorting out on each other causing this. Also the key switch fuse is blowing each time you turn the key now. At first I said maybe the ECM just on a guess but I swapped one out with a known working good ECM from another bike and the same issue was still there which tells me it is either a short or bad ground somewhere. I am basically trying to save some time in troubleshooting by sending out this post. Maybe someone else has come across this (doubt it but it's worth a shot). Thoughts, ideas, suggestions? Test light and MM have gotten me no where so far. TIA for the help. | ||
| Sparky |
Could be a bad battery. I've heard of batteries with an intermittent open cell that can cause the bike to appear to have voltage but when requiring current, the battery open-circuits and does a momentary sudden death routine. On my 03 XB9R, the ignition key lock has started becoming tempermental whereby turning the key to ignition everything seems normal except the fuel pump doesn't prime and it won't crank. But if I jiggle the key, it makes contact which primes the pump and allows the starter to crank. Guess I'm about due for a new key switch. This may not be your problem, but try jiggling the key anyway the next time nothing happens. | ||
| Al_lighton |
I've seen this behavior several times at the fuse block on the ignition relays. I've seen both bad relays, and faulty connections into the contacts that the relay plugs into. I also have had the red wire on MY 2003 XB9S do something VERY similar. Happened at homecoming 3 years ago, coming off the track after the parade laps. I could turn left, bike would go completely dead, turn right and it call came back. The red wire from the switch has two wires that become one in the harness, just before they go into the plastic clamp at the steering head. The folks building the Buell harness use a very cool wire splice technology where the take the two wires from one direction and one wire from the other and put them into some type of impulse heat die. The strands of the wire are fused together into a square block kinda like powdered metal, and then some sealign heat shrink is put over the whole splice Unfortunately, a small nick in the wire generated by the clamp that holds the wire next to the impulse die was the propagation point for a fatigue fracture, underneath the insulation. You couldn't see anything on the external insulation, but internally the wire was fractured the whole way across. Turning one way pushed the wire ends together, bike would work. Turning the other way pulled the wire ends apart, instant open circuit, bike died, HARD. Took a while to find it, had to poke and prod at the harness until I could make it run and die at will by pushing on a 1" section. Opened it up, found the broken wire, has worked fine since. Al | ||
| Yohinan |
Sparky, definitely not the battery. I am using a jumper box to provide power. I will give the key housing some wiggling but I dont believe that is it either. When using a test light unplugging/plugging in various connections, sensors, etc.. that never presented itself as an issue. I will be sure to triple check it though. Al, I think it may be something more along the lines of what your describing. As I mentioned in my first post I have only run across these issues on the 03 models. I know exactly which wires your speaking of as I have become very familiar with these wiring harnesses. I will give that a try to see if that becomes the issue. Odd that it would have been two problems with the exact same circuit (if that is the problem) but I guess I have seen things more odd than this. Thanks for all the suggestions. I will be sure to post back what exactly it turned out to be causing the issue when it is found. | ||
| Yohinan |
Well got it figured out. I stripped the wiring harness of all electrical tape from the front of the harness (flyscreen area) all the way to the fabric type material where it begins to enter the frame area of the bike. For some odd reason you could not see it when looking at the wiring harness and moving it around. Once I got it all stripped down and no electrical tape was in the way it was blatantly obvious what the issue was. One of the key switch wires chaffed through and was grounding against the frame. I find it very odd that the same bike at the exact same time has two electrical problems with the same circuit. One at the fuse box and then one more towards the key switch. Oh well it runs like a champ now. Thanks for all the suggestions. | ||
| Al_lighton |
Oh well, at least it was on the circuit that is about the easiest to diagnose. When that line goes dead, NOTHING works. Lots of other circuits are much harder to diagnose. Glad you found it. Al | ||
| Retired_cop |
That may be the reason the wire harness clamp that holds the harness where it passes the head tube and goes to the frame has been redesigned to prevent the wires from pulling/chaffing inside the harness. My 06 ULY had the same type of issues only with the lights and horn. Turn left and nothing, center Ok at times until they both gave up and stopped working. A broken ground wire inside the harness is the reason and a jumper to the ground and the new clamp under warranty have fixed it for now. I just wonder how many more wires in there are going to let go? The dealer says Buell will probably NOT authorize a harness replacement since things are working now, but is the bike going to suddenly stop while I am traveling? Do I have complete trust and confidence in the bike now? NO! | ||
| Red_chili |
Wiring harness issue: My wife bought my son's '03 XB9S, and we are having several issues. It would not engage the starter unless turning left. I tore into the wiring harness, could not identify the problem, fixed a black wire that had been previously fixed (poorly), and now it no longer has the problem. I am reasonably sure I did not fix anything, just shifted wires around. Now the clutch switch is behaving the same way, works when turned left and in-gear start is attempted, won't work straight. I can chase that, but I have the feeling pretty soon I will have hacked up most of the wires in the harness with these failures. Should I just replace the harness? What is the BadWeb cost? Is there a bulletin on this? How did the design change, if at all, and would a new harness inherit these changes? Or is the problem the same ground wire that had the prior problem? Cannot find the original issue now, just the clutch switch issue. The last thing I want is to be traveling with my wife and then she is stranded in the middle of nowhere. |
