Electrical Problems

[BULLCBX]

After several days of nasty weather here in Atlanta we finally had a nice day on Friday. Being my birthday, I had decided to take the day off and enjoy just taking it easy. Well, I decided to go for a quick ride and lets when things went to $hit. I got about 2 miles down the road and had stopped at a traffic light. When I pulled away, the bike stumbled like it was low on gas. I check the petcock to make sure I had turned it on then checked the trip meter and was only 40 miles into a fresh tank. I continued for a short while and noticed the volt meter was showing a charge rate higher than normal, near 16 volts. I also noticed the charging rate fell and rose dramatically with the engine RPM. Well needless to say, I got about 4 blocks and everything went dead. No lights, spark, nothing. Luckily I was able to get back to the house and retrieve the truck and get it home.



I was wondering if any of our seasoned members might offer some ideas of where to start in my diagnosis. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm hoping to get some time this Saturday to try and get things back to working order.



Thanks in advance,



BULL

[sr71cbx]

BULLCBX,

Sounds like your battery went tango uniform and/or the main fuse/connections/ and/or ignition switch connections may be at fault,or reg/rectifier may have tanked.

The reason I say battery first is that,if it drops a cell,it will do weird stuff like that,and that has been known to trash a reg/rectifier unit in a short time.Make sure it has a fully charged,good battery in it before proceeding further.

Check the main fuse(the stock unit is a P.O.S.)and see if it has broken or if there is corrosion present on the screws that hold the metal strip in.Next,look at the condition of the plastic connectors from the alternator to the reg/rectifier,the rectifier to the harness/fuseholder,and the red 2-lead plug to the fuseholder & battery hot lead to the ignition switch.These are all trouble sources for the CBX and should be repaired or replaced outright with decent weatherproof plugs and the main fuse replaced with an automotive quality blade-style HD fuseholder with 10 gauge wire to the battery hot terminal on the starter solenoid.I eliminated two of those pesky plastic plugs on my turbo bike and rewired it with 10 gauge to the hot terminal from the red/white&red wires.The red/wht is from the reg/rectifier,the red one goes to the "batt"terminal on the ignition switch,and both of these are on the other(fused)side of the fuse.Any bad connections here will result in resistance & heat buildup and subsequent failure of connectors.

The white & black wires are to & from the alternator brushes and the black wire is the 12V supply to the rotor field windings.Any resistance here or open circuits will usually show a discharge.

Are you confused yet? Like I say,check that battery first and check you rate of charge with a good VOM such as a Fluke or equivalent.Good luck with it,let's hear some more from the rest of you out there! :)

[BULLCBX]

Mark,



Thanks for the information. I'll put it to good use this weekend.



BULL

[Guest]

Whatever it ends up being, to keep from being stranded/walking again you better check your reg/rectifier per the manual before going far. Whatever happened it sounds like you just spike tested and load-dumped your reg/recti.

[BULLCBX]

Just wanted to give an update with my electrical situation. After finally having a chance to look into the problem, I was able to get it fixed last night, although it was not without some grief. After studying the wire diagrams, I had determined a plan of action to begin my trouble shooting. Checked the battery (OK), check the grounding (OK), checked both sides of the main 30AMP fuse (OK). After this I was puzzled. I had really thought the trouble was in the fuse. I checked the clock and it was running . Decided to get the keys and what do you know, it fired right over. Now I was pissed because I was wondering when this might happen again. I shut it down and called a friend and we agreed to let it run until warm and check it over again. Went back to the bike and put the key in and nothing. It was dead again. This time I left the key in the ON position and started my check again. After checking the fuse, I found the downstream side was dead. After getting a flashlight and closer inspection, I found the fuse itself had cracked, and depending on it's position, would make contact. When I touched it, I could see a small arc and the lights would come on. So following the advise given, I went to the autoparts store and replaced with a blade type fuse, and everything seems to be working . Now if the weather would cooperate, I take it for a run and see if there are any other gremlins left in there.



My thanks to you Mark for the good advise and those who responded with help.



BULL

[busaboy]

The same subtlely cracked fuse problem happened to me years ago - simultaneously, I had let the fuel run quite low on reserve, making the bike hard to start after I had thought I had fixed it by replacing the fuse.



Made for an interesting afternoon of diagnosis, frustration, and learning!

[sr71cbx]

BULLCBX,

Glad to hear you got your X fixed,I figured it was something along those lines as I've been there & done that.......bad connections will make a person go bald quickly!!

[BadCBX]

This link has a charging system fault finding flow chart. Looks good.



http://www.cyclemallusa.com/mall/?AID=20257&PID=208518



then click the electrical button on the left side of the page