Okay I resign. I need help. I accidentally killed my 03 Buell XB9s

Okay let's get right into it:

About a month ago my bike stopped working and I figured out it was a wire that split (IDK how it split) and I soldered it back together. In the process of trying to figure out what was wrong I unplugged and plugged in a lot of stuff. (all back into their respective components though) When I went to start the bike up, it ran for a second choked a bit, and would die in idle. After making the wrong assumption that it was the fuel pump and replacing the whole apparatus, I did some research and found out that when you unplug an ECM you need to do a TPS reset. After doing the TPS reset with buelltooth and ecm droid about 5-10 times, (a LOT of turning the idol screw) I came to the conclusion that this was not the cause of the issue and did more research. In the process of all the TPS resets I killed the battery so I decided to jump start it with my van. (Nissan NV200). This is where I kill my bike.

I had the bike connected to the van's battery with jumper cables (van not running) for around 20 minutes when this happened. Key on, run button on. Buelltooth connected. Multimeter said volts were normal around 12.4v. I saw a video by doctor motorcycle that showed a corrupted fuel map so I assumed this is the only thing it could have been and was in the process of trying to upload a stock fuel map I found from BuellMods. To do this I tried a TPS reset one more time just to rule that out (I know I'm anal). As I was doing what should have been the last TPS reset I noticed the throttle wouldn't snap back, but instead would move back slowly. As I was playing with it trying to get it to snap back just by blipping the throttle I smelled burnt plastic and saw smoke come up from where my idle screw was turning and where I was watching the throttle pull open and close the butterfly valve.

I immediately turned the bike off and switched the run switch to off. I saw a little more smoke so I took off the jumper cables. Now the neutral light still works, lights work, horn works, but the fuel pump won't even prime and the ignition won't turn over. Please help. I love this bike and being a self taught mechanic is rough.

I Check free stuff first.
Is it burnoff from a repair i just did?
Is the stator and voltage regulator.charging the battery?
Is their connector ok?
Is the wiri ng harness around the cylinder head and exhaust in good condition? They can easily touch and melt if not properly routed and fastened. Use a flashlight for the rear cylinder head.
Did thebthrottle cable rubber touchthe exhaust?
Is there fuel? Etc etc hope you figure it out, especially the map thing.

So bike was cold and only had electrical power running through it. So unless I somehow created friction with the amount I was turning the idol screw it was definitely an electrical fire of some sort. I’m thinking the car battery somehow overpowered the wires, or it came from somewhere right next to the idol screw.

Remove your fuse box cover and check the entire area carefully. Sounds like you possibly burned out the IGNITION relay. That relay controls the ignition circuit and fuel pump.

Barrett said:

Remove your fuse box cover and check the entire area carefully. Sounds like you possibly burned out the IGNITION relay. That relay controls the ignition circuit and fuel pump.

Click to expand...

Good idea Barrett

That seems very likely. I pulled a couple fuses when it initially happened, but I’ll have to do a more through inspection and keep updating eveyone.

What baffles me is why the smoke was coming from the idle screw, but hopefully we’ll find out soon

The electrical smoke you mentioned could have come from one or both of the battery terminals/cable ends or the fuse box and wafted forward from under the seat out front towards the left side of engine. The 3 relays for pre-2008 models are IGNITION...STARTER...ACCESSORY....all located inside fuse box and clearly marked on fuse box lid. All 3 are identical. Readily available at any Harley Davidson dealer or quality auto parts store. They are the same as Ford and Chrysler A/C relays.

Great info. Thanks Barret from the peanut gallery.

So it was the Ignition fuse that was burnt out. Sometimes it is the simple things and good to double check those first before jumping to conclusions. I was convinced the smoke was from the Idle screw somehow! I think the Van battery definitely overpowered the system so now I know not to do that. I was being lazy, but the motorcycle battery is on a tender now.

Anyway now we're back to solving the fuel map problem that I'm assuming is the same problem that Dr. Motorcycle experiences with his Buell XB12s. My bike runs exactly like that. Link to video --->

I will report back if I can get Buelltooth to upload a stock xb9s fuel EEPROM from BuellMods after I pickup a fuse this afternoon. Thank you everyone.

I was trying to burn the stock EEPROM I got from BuellMods onto the ECM when the car battery blew the fuse, but I'll try again. Originally it wasn't working, but it might have been the name of the file. The BuellMods files are .epr and the ones I saw on Buelltooth were .xpr. I don't know a lot about computers, but I know file type matters for some things.

Update:

I burnt the stock xb9s EEPROM into the ECM from BuellMods and it still ran pretty close to the same. It does have an open airbox and custom exhaust. Also unfortunately as I was trying to keep the bike running (increasing throttle so it didn't die in idle) the fuse blew again. I noticed that there was electricity arcing across the metal screwdowns for the battery tray. I don't know if that was because the fuse blew or the fuse blew as a result of what was causing the battery to ARC.

Also, to put together a picture of what may have happened:

When I originally was re-soldering wires, that may have corrupted the old fuel map which is why the bike immediately started running funny. This would also explain that the bike is running lean with too much air with the stock EEPROM's. So my options are try to put it back to stock, or richen the tune. However, this still doesn't explain the fuses blowing. The journey continues.

clagsBuell said:

So it was the Ignition fuse that was burnt out. Sometimes it is the simple things and good to double check those first before jumping to conclusions. I was convinced the smoke was from the Idle screw somehow! I think the Van battery definitely overpowered the system so now I know not to do that. I was being lazy, but the motorcycle battery is on a tender now.

Anyway now we're back to solving the fuel map problem that I'm assuming is the same problem that Dr. Motorcycle experiences with his Buell XB12s. My bike runs exactly like that. Link to video --->

I will report back if I can get Buelltooth to upload a stock xb9s fuel EEPROM from BuellMods after I pickup a fuse this afternoon. Thank you everyone.

Click to expand...

Quite sure it wasn't the car battery blowing the fuse. You have another issue or sloppy jumper cable hook up.

If the van was not running with just the batteries hooked up, it did not blow the fuse. 12V is 12V. Pumping more current from the alternator is bad.
Something else is causing the arcing and the arcing is causing the fuse to blow. Arcs cause high current sparks (think really short term welder) and fuses protect against high current.

Did anyone else notice the anomaly with this bike? Its an early model engine with the late model crank fitted to it. So, someone at sometime had this bike completely taken apart.

I'm not going to go into the "what not to do" parts in the video.