ChiTownEngineer
Active member
- Joined
- Nov 17, 2015
- Messages
- 36
So Gents (and ladies), I thought I'd share an experience for your reading pleasure and hopefully it helps someone down the line.
I've been dealing with a series of electrical (related) problems lately. I took the Uly to Sturgis and before I left I had the voltage regulator quit. No big deal, swap in a new one and be grateful it didn't happen in Sturgis. While in Sturgis my turn signals stopped working. Again, not a big deal, I just figured I'd swap the flasher when I got home. Then when I got back (like, the next day) the fuel pump died. I barely made it back home. So, long story short, I swapped in a new pump and she's running like a champ again. I then swapped in the new turn signal flasher unit assuming that was the quick easy fix. No go.
After consulting the wiring diagram and poking around with my meter, I determined the ground for the flasher had failed. Look for a broken wire, everything looks good. Finally found the problem:
This is the ground bolt behind the headlight assembly. I know a broken ground repair seems pretty mundane but I thought I'd bring it to everyone's attention for two reasons:
1 - It wasn't visually obvious. Even tugging on the wire at first didn't knock it loose. The conductors had broken inside the insulation which made the failure difficult to isolate.
2 - This connection flexes when the bars are turned. With normal road riding this may never be a problem. However, if you turn the bars lock to lock on a regular basis as when doing slow off road stuff, this ground may become a problem for you too.
I didn't identify all the circuits that ground at this location but if you've got a pesky electrical problem in the front end of your Uly (and probably other models) you might want to start by checking for a broken wire at this spot.
Hope this helps someone down the road.
I've been dealing with a series of electrical (related) problems lately. I took the Uly to Sturgis and before I left I had the voltage regulator quit. No big deal, swap in a new one and be grateful it didn't happen in Sturgis. While in Sturgis my turn signals stopped working. Again, not a big deal, I just figured I'd swap the flasher when I got home. Then when I got back (like, the next day) the fuel pump died. I barely made it back home. So, long story short, I swapped in a new pump and she's running like a champ again. I then swapped in the new turn signal flasher unit assuming that was the quick easy fix. No go.
After consulting the wiring diagram and poking around with my meter, I determined the ground for the flasher had failed. Look for a broken wire, everything looks good. Finally found the problem:
This is the ground bolt behind the headlight assembly. I know a broken ground repair seems pretty mundane but I thought I'd bring it to everyone's attention for two reasons:
1 - It wasn't visually obvious. Even tugging on the wire at first didn't knock it loose. The conductors had broken inside the insulation which made the failure difficult to isolate.
2 - This connection flexes when the bars are turned. With normal road riding this may never be a problem. However, if you turn the bars lock to lock on a regular basis as when doing slow off road stuff, this ground may become a problem for you too.
I didn't identify all the circuits that ground at this location but if you've got a pesky electrical problem in the front end of your Uly (and probably other models) you might want to start by checking for a broken wire at this spot.
Hope this helps someone down the road.
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