| Author | Message | ||
     Xb9er  |
I was putting on a plastic sleeve over the Idle Adjuster cable because of the warning given elsewhere about that cable rubbing and breaking. I found out it was fine but I was surprised to see that the front spark plug wire on the coil end was chafed quite a bit from rubbing against a wire harness. I'm glad I stumbled upon it now instead of on the road:   Just a head's up to all. Mike. | ||
| Rigga  |
thats not good!! thanks for the tip.........worth checking out before it breaks down | ||
| Dbird29 |
Mine chafed thru the outer layer of insulation but I found it doing PM. Also, the boot wasn't seated over the spark plug insulator. Guess it pays to do your preventative maintenance! DBird | ||
| Hogs |
xb9er Thanks for the heads up ,good to know all, at first I was looking at her behind to see the chafed right between her cheeks hmmm got side tracked there for a sec... Cheers | ||
| Heywoodjabuellme  |
My R chafes there and from both cables. The clutch cable at the bottom left lower fairing and the brake cable right at the frame were the vin is and were the cable goes under the triple tree. I think I'm gonna use some of the stick on carbon fiber sheets to repair it. | ||
| Lovematt  |
I used the fiberglass wrap sold at Napa for spark plugs wires around both wires...just cut it down, wrapped it around, and zip tied it at the ends/middle to keep it in place. Basically you need something that will abrade well and can take the heat. | ||
| Hkwan |
What the heck, I think in this case ALL XB would exhibit the same chafing since they should all be routed the same way (due to same installation procedure) from the factory, don't you think? No one has told the dealer so that the feedback (hopefully) can get back to the factory? Doesn't this mean I got to put my out to check as well - this includes checking the clutch and brake cables?!! Where is the workmanship standard?! | ||
| Xb9er |
At least three possibilities come to mind in my particular situation: 1. Bad factory routing of the wire harness and spark plug wire. 2. Slightly different wire harness and plug wire routing resulting from replacement of my frame. 3. Do-it-myself work on the bike, i.e. changing the spark plugs, may have resulted in moving the wire out of position. I still have no idea what caused it really. I was just lucky enough to catch it now instead of later. Where is the workmanship standard?! Don't you know Buells are Junk? There is no QC.!  Mike. | ||
| Dbird29 |
My replacement wire for the front cylinder had a "ribbed" boot and was molded with a different angle. On installation it did not appear to be touching any frame parts but of course when it's a shaking who knows. Bird | ||
| Buellman39 |
Its funny that this comes up. I just pulled my 2004 xb12r into the basement to do some mods to it. Airbox, exhaust and techlusion. When I took apart the airbox and looked around I seen the same thing. Also my idle adjustment was rubbing the fame. | ||
| Hkwan |
Oh crap. Does this mean I have to tear into that as well.... I want to ride the bike more than fixing the bike... Buellman39, how many miles do you have on the bike? My got 3700 miles, think it is time to pull airbox out? Just to confirm, all I'll need is to pull out the air box and I will see the above two issues (plug wire and idle wire/cable), correct? | ||
| Barkandbite  |
all I'll need is to pull out the air box and I will see the above two issues (plug wire and idle wire/cable), correct? Not Exactly. You'll need to remove the airbox outer cover then remove the airbox inner cover and THEN remove the filter and THEN remove the airbox base plate. When you remove the base plate, you may need to pull the breather hoses out and depending upon whether you're going to remove the base completely, you may need to disconnect the IAT sensor. No big deal, but since you don't have your service manual with you, I thought I'd save you the surprise. ...and rumors of your wiring harnesses death are highly exaggerated. This is NOT an endemic symptom so relax. If you want to check it for peace of mind, go for it. Otherwise, go ride your bike. When you've become proficient in taking the bike apart, it takes less than 2 minutes to check this stuff. Chris | ||
| Fireballsocal |
Would a few zip ties holding the plug wire to the wiring harness and the idle adjuster cable to the frame solve the chaffing issue? | ||
| Hkwan |
Barkandbite, thank you very much! So if I don't need to actually do the fix but just need to visually check for the issue, I will still have to do all that? Anything tricky or just trival but troublesome task? | ||
| Buellman39 |
Hkwan, I have 800 miles on mine | ||
| Barkandbite |
You'll still have to do all that to check -- it's buried under all the plastic. Chris | ||
| Hkwan |
800 freaking miles and this happens! I'm surprise there aren't more people having issues with this. I guess either they haven't look or the issue is there but has not cause a failure that would cause them to hunt this down. Boy... | ||
| Henrik  |
Spiral cut wire loom from say RadioShack works very well at guarding against chafing. It's a cinch to install and it stays put once it's on. Henrik | ||
| Hkwan |
Hey all, thanks to this post, I went home last night, pulled out the service manual and did a visual on the bike with the airbox cover off. Well, actually I have no airbox. The bike got the K&N with the race kit, heat shield cover and D&D. It makes it a little easier. Anyways, the idle adjustment cable is chafed a bit. The sparkplug cable isn't touching anywhere so is OK. Now, I've discovered couple of wire (smaller ones, don't know what they are for) that are running across the top of the cylinders are chafed. I put wire loop (as what Henrik has described) around them. It was a little bit of a tight space, but very doable. Thank you once again for the notification. Now if anyone who has not visually check ALL the cables or wires under the airbox, PLEASE DO SO NOW before something fails. I realize the failure might be cover by warranty but why even have to wait till it fails. |
