| Author | Message | ||
     Stealthxb  |
Last Thursday I was down in Atlanta for our weekly bike night; when I went to leave neither my headlights or fuel injection came on. Luckily Glitch and Shred were by my side to help with troubleshooting. We pulled all the fuses and they were all Ok. We checked for chaffing and checked the battery connections and everything seemed fine. By this time the broke down Buell had attracted some attention and a few guys came over to offer some help. One of them jumped right in and went to work. He ended up switching the ignition and starter relays and was able to get the lights to come on and the FI to boot up. He gave me a shove, I popped the clutch in 3rd and I was on my way into the cold night. I made it about halfway home and had to get gas. I found the station on the biggest hill I could find and figured I would be good to go. I was wrong! After cursing and pushing the bike around for about an hour I gave up and checked into a hotel. I got a ride to the dealer in the morning, bought a few relays and headed back to the bike. After replacing the bad relay the bike acted like it wanted to start but would not turn over. I guess she was still pissed off at all the bad things I said to her the night before. Anyway Stone Mountain HD/Buell picked up my bike, replaced the battery under warranty and I was finally able to finish my journey. I just wanted to let you all know that there is an empty relay slot that can be used to keep a spare. You might want to pick one up (~5$) so you don't get stuck in a similar situation. And a shout out goes to Andre Cardenas at The Motorcycle Shop (http://www.themotorcycleshopga.com/) for getting me going! | ||
| Hkwan |
which model Buell is this on again? | ||
| Stealthxb |
2004 XB12S | ||
| Fullpower  |
is it possible that the defective batttery was the only problem, and that diddling around with the relay box just caused an inadvertent shift in the loose/corroded battery lead, thus allowing the bike to be push started? what i mean is that it is quite possible that the exchanged relay was not defective at all. have you since replacing the battery, reinstalled the supposedly defective relay? still curious. | ||
| Stealthxb |
Fullpower... I don't think so. We checked the battery connections. And the only things that did not work were corrected with the relay swap. I think I drained the battery when I was pushing it around and trying to pop the clutch. | ||
| Opto |
There's been a few reports of relays giving up the ghost Dean, I have no idea why...unless it's just a poor batch of relays. (Message edited by opto on December 07, 2004) | ||
| New12r  |
I dont think it is the relays, I keep frying the power side of my relays in the ignition swtich circuit, the plastic is melted and inside the plastic is brown from the heat. I do believe there is way too much current draw or possibly a bad ground causing an increase in resistance. I dont really have much time to get into it and refuse to be without my bike while the dealer messes with it right now. As I learn more I Will post. Oh yeah this is my 5th relay to go out. | ||
| Opto |
The key switch relay supplies the ignition relay, so if there was too much current draw they would both be failing. More likely is a poorly crimped wire on the terminal that is melting. On the 04 XBS models the 12 volts is fed in through pin 5 and switched out through pin 4 on the ignition relay. | ||
| Hkwan |
When the relay goes, is there any light at all on the dash or the front? How do you tell if a relay is bad? My bike has no light (dash and headlight) whatsoever when I switched the key to "on". no sweeping of the gauge needles either. No sound of the pump. NOTHING, just it is is dead. But two seconds after I switch it "off", still not a thing, but the needles would sweep once (and then nothing). Now this is after I've switched the key to "off" that the needles sweep. I have no idea where to look. The battery is all OK and checked out. Connections are all secure. I have the manual, BTW. Oh, how do you pull the relay's out again? |
