| Author | Message | ||
     Dirt |
Had an interesting ride home from work today. I noticed whenever I came to a stop and pulled in the clutch, the headlight would go out. When I put it in gear and started moving, the headlight would come back on. During shifts, the light would blink off momentarily and then come back on. The cooling fan was operating erratically as well. Stopped to fill up with gas. After filling up, I turned the key and flicked on the engine on/off switch. When the check engine light went off the bike started up automatically without me ever touching the starter button. Good thing I had it in neutral. Then, the starter began engaging while the engine was running. When I got home, I looked but could not find any binding in any of the wiring harnesses. Looks like I need to find a good dealer. | ||
| Wademan |
Or that VooDoo bike I made of your Uly is working perfectly..... muahhhaaahaaaaahaa. | ||
| Dirt |
Oh, I forgot to mention that there was a strong burning smell coming from the right side of the bike. May be the starter. I didn't see any burnt wires though. Hey Wademan, do me a favor and pour some gas on that VooDoo bike and light it on fire. I believe it's time to put this Uly out of it's misery. | ||
| Dave |
Check you're ground wires. DAve | ||
| L_je |
I had the Starter Gremlin once; the behavior was pretty similar to what you described. It was in November, and pouring rain for the entire day; it was probably during the trailing edge of a tropical storm or hurricane. The fault never repeated after that day, and I've been in some pretty good rain, and done a couple of water crossings since. What I did find, was that the wiring to my heated vest had cracked open and was probably shorting out when the water ran down the wire, and then touched the exposed copper. Why didn't it trip the fuse in my vest circuit? I dunno. -How on earth does this type of short engage the starter? I don't know. But the problem has never repeated, so I haven't worried about it. -I may also have had enough water build up inside the throttle-side switch housing, that it was helping to connect the starter circuit, but like I said, I've been in a lot of water since without the problem repeating.  | ||
| Lorazepam |
Sounds like you have a direct short somewhere. It may be the ground, but I would expect the bike would be hard to start. Shorts will burn, and grounds will leave you with no juice. Pull the air cleaner assembly, and look along the frame for a problem, as well as at the steering head. If you have a fused accessory from the battery, check to see if the wire is shorting out prior to your fused link. | ||
| Lorazepam |
If your starter was running while the bike was going, then you may have a fried starter in your future. Could be what you smelled. I wish you luck in finding out what caused this. | ||
| Dirt |
I didn't ride it in to work today, but I did start it up when I got home. Everything is back to normal. I couldn't reproduce any of the problems I experienced yesterday. However, L's post above did get me thinking. I rode through a little rain yesterday on the way in. Mainly just spray flying up from the wet roads. Nothing I would consider extreme. The problem could have been due to the water and when the water dried up the problem went away. I'm going to ride it around this weekend and see what happens. If I can't get the problems to re-appear I'll try soaking the bike with the hose for a while. | ||
| Dragon_slayer |
Dirt, check your handlebar switches. Water and dirt can hang up your starter switch and could be causing a intermittent break in contact for your headlight. Btw, your Uly is not black is it?  | ||
| Dirt |
Black it is. I guess the orange ones never have problems.  | ||
| Fastfxrs |
Dirt, does the headlight go out every time you pull the clutch in? I Mistakenly put my diode in backward in the fuse panel when I was checking for blown power outlet fuse. It caused the neutral light to come on every time I pulled the clutch in. Worth a check. Tim |
