Need a little help, please!!

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MarkB

MarkB

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Dec 19, 2011
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Location
Redlands, CA
Hi Gang!

My ’83 finally came up with an issue and I haven’t had time to tear into it. Hindsight says it’s been coming on.

She’s been starting a little harder; it takes a few more spins of the starter to get her to fire. Then, when I push the starter button, it doesn’t always activate the starter right away. I just figured I needed to take it apart and clean contacts.

This morning, it started right up in the garage and I stopped to fuel it up. When I went to start it, the starter button did it’s hesitation thing, but it started right away. I rode on down the road, headed for work. After about ten miles, I heard a burst of fuzz through the radio (static) and simultaneously, the bike started running rough, like it was running out of fuel. My tank was just filled, but when I looked at my gas gauge, it showed ¾ of a tank. I pulled off the freeway and stopped and could hear that my radio was pure static, so I switched it off. My fuel gauge went back to full. The bike seemed to be running OK, but when I went to take off, it was hesitating and cutting out like it was out of fuel. I shut if off to take a look see and everything looked OK. When I went to try and start it, the whole thing was dead. No dash lights, no relay clicks of any kind…. Nothing.

I got the bike trailered home and haven’t had a chance to look at anything, but does this sound familiar to anybody? Any thoughts where I should dig in? I feel pretty certain the issue is electrical. It’s had the stator plug bypass thing done previously and I never smelled anything like electrical burning, FWIW. But the radio going fuzzy on me and the starter button being reluctant, of recent….. I think it’s all related. The starter, when it kicks in, turns at full speed ahead, so I don’t think it’s battery/stator related, but that could be just what I get for thinking!

Thanks,

Mark
 
id say its your start switch mark ....it could be one of three things in switches ...killl ignition ....and start button ....your bike needs the ignition relay mod ...theres a thread here going right now ...read it and jump in
 
Thanks for the quick replies! So, this dogbone fuse.... Hard to get and or expensive, I'm guessing the reason for the workaround? How hard is the workaround? I looked at the thread on it, but was a little unclear what I need to do.

Thanks again!

Mark
 
Here's the way I did my 86 1200A Mark. If you do it like this make sure your wire colors are the same as I will be refering to the color code on my bike. This is an alternate way of replacing the dogbone. I used this part from Oreiley's
IMG01001-20120529-1142.jpg
It's heavy duty weatherproof. Attach one side of fuse holder to Positive side of starter relay where the positive battery cable is attached to. Attach other end of fuse holder to the red and the red/white wires that come down from the fuse block under the faux tank cover. Solder this connection and heat shrink. If your connector that plugs into the other side of the relay is burnt up your can get this part at Oreileys
IMG01002-20120529-2137.jpg
on one of the flat sides of this connector is a lock tab you need to cut or brake off. It will slide right onto the two lugs closest to the middle of the relay. Solder the red wire from this connector to the grn/red wire and then solder the white wire to the yel/red wire that come down from the faux tank area, then heat shrink and tape. The other two lugs behind where you plugged the connector can be heat shrinked as I did to help against shorting out on something. Then test it, tape it up real good and your ready to go. Did mine this way 10,000 miles ago and still no problems with it. Both connectors, box of five fuses, heat shrink was $14.00
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I prefer the way you did it backlander rather than connecting the fuse holder to the dogbone fuse like most do. Doing things differently always interests me.
Nice post. I may clip it and put it in the visual tutorials forum.
 
I haven't yet had a chance to check out the dogbone, but assuming it is blown and I replace it with the bladed fuse... Then what?

Obviously, something caused the dogbone to blow. I'm assuming I need to start tracing wires and look for a short somewhere. Or, is it likely that like Joe said, maybe my start switch has gone bad? It has been reluctant recently.

Mark
 
The dogbone gets brittle with age and tends to crack, causing intermittent supply of power to the main fuse box which affects all the other systems powered from there. That's when all the crazy crap starts like you experienced with yours and then it eventually breaks into and you get the complete power shutdown. The connector on the back of the starter relay is bad about corroding and shorting out and like mine did, go into meltdown. If all that checks out okay, then it's on to the fuse box to check the fuses & fuse holders, then it's onward to the switches. That's the way I do it. I suggest making the switch from dogbone to blade fuse even if your dogbone is still good. Hope you find an easy fix Mark.
 
I encountered a similiar situation when I first bought my goldwing. PO made it clear batt was probaly bad. bought a batt at autozone, filled it, charged it...bike came to life. Rode it to work. that afternoon when I went to leave, starter drug and ran like junk all way home. charged batt overnight...ran good. volt gauge always showed losing voltage while driving. chased all options and finally figured out that the batt was no good.
 
Seems like dejavu== That is what I was experiencing. I changed the fuse holder as above-I figured the old blade fuse holder was old. Then I changed the coils. better pick up but still had problem.

Bought an ignition switch off flee bay and got the switch but no key.

You can just pop the bottom off the ignition switch and pop on a new one. I switched the whole thing as my key was very sloppy so I had a locksmith rekey to the original key.

Since I did this I have had no problem. very frustrating but I finally have gotten to ride a couple of hundred miles in the last week.

My bike would just die--lights engine everything. let it sit for 10 min and it would start- I could at least limp home.

Let us know what you find.
 
Well, alrighty then!!! :clapping: :clapping: I finally got the chance to tear into the Wing this evening. Got into the dogbone area and all looked well, but as I removed the screws, my heart leaped for joy! The darned thing fell apart into about three pieces. I saw what others were talking about as far as bolting the fuse holder to the existing screws and as cheesy as that seems, I decided I like the quick and dirty approach, for now. I may eventually do it the better way, but for now, I just bolted it in that way. Success!! The bike started right up and Mark is a happy camper!!

Thanks for all the great advice! I bought lunch for the guys at work for helping me get the bike home and the parts I needed were just over ten bucks. Pretty cheap fix.

Mark
 
Further update.... The Wing continues to run just fine. The only thing I've noticed different is, my radio will no longer hold it's presets. Not sure what the deal is on that, but I can live with it.

Thanks again for the help!

More good news...... I got my wife on the back for the first time this past weekend! :clapping: She wants her own helmet, now! :clapping: :clapping:

Mark
 

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