2008 XB12X Speedo/Trip Problem

[Feequess]

Hi there. Recently acquired a Buell and am wondering why it took so long to combine my love of American V-Twins, speed, and decent handling. Anywho... Not totally mechanically or electrically ignorant, but new to Buells. I tried a search and might be showing some disinclination on the 'puter, but found nothing. So, here goes: The clock and trip resets reset every time the bike is shut off. The total mileage readout works fine and clicks off the miles properly (indicating the speed sensor is fine?). It's like those old LED clocks that went back to 12:00 when the power went out if the backup battery died. When the low fuel light comes on, it starts counting just fine, until I shut the bike down. Also, there is an occasional speedo failure, which corrects itself after the bike is shut down and restarted. Last time this happened, the CEL came on and the speedo came back to life, and the CEL went off and all was working correctly. I got the ECM spy cable to check the code, but discovered the disc that came with it won't work with my garage MacBook, so I'm hunting up an old Windows machine. So, not data yet. Meanwhile, the bike starts and runs perfectly. Bike is stock and has 15k miles on it. Gauges do the full sweep every time. No other electrical gremlins. Any input would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[UMDterp13]

Before we go further, the early 08 had cluster issues. I have seen this on sever bikes & my personal 08 9sx had to be tapped once key was on to "wake it up".

BUT! Yours sounds more like a wire harness issue at the steering neck. Wire is shorting out or the 4 wire bundle is coming apart.

I've not had to fix any of these steering neck issues so other members should jump in

 

[thrstrmech]

clock resetting...weak/bad battery is the usual suspect

 

[Feequess]

Thanks for the feedback. The battery is over 12 volts after a week of sitting. But, I'll pull it out and have it load-tested. I'm gonna search four wire bundle and start there. Thanks again.

 

[Feequess]

Continuing the saga: The battery has checked out fine. I looked at the schematic and it looks like there is supposed to be constant power, 12v, to the cluster even when the switch is off. It seems that the solid red wire to the cluster plug is always supposed to be hot. That pin is dead, thus it is not. This would explain why the trip and clock reset to when the ignition is off. All the other pins behave normally. It's fused to the Key Switch fuse, which is fine. If I'm on the right track, is there a place I can start looking for a broken wire where breaks happen frequently rather than just start running the whole length? Thanks for any input, folks.

 

[UMDterp13]

Steering neck or the 4 wire bundle in the front of the harness

 

[Feequess]

Thanks. On it. Film at 11:00.

 

[Feequess]

According to the skeematic, I'm supposed to have 12 v at pin #2 on the cluster plug. No voltage.

Since there is voltage at the ignition switch, I'm guessing the problem is in this mess:

The question is, rather than cutting into the bundle, what if i just ran a jumper from the ignition switch to the #2 pin? Any opinions appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Feequess]

When I started ripping into the harness, I got the feeling I was going to more damage than good. Remembering there's a broken wire in there, I resolved to dive in. But, I remembered in a conversation with the previous owner where he said that the trip meter and the clock never worked. Whoa. After I stopped wondering why he never brought it back when it was under warrantee, I though maybe rather than a faulty wire the damn thing was just never hooked up. So, I hooked up the cluster and ran power to the #2 terminal from the battery. Not being a total idiot, I did it with this in the circuit:

After everything worked correctly with my ghetto hookup, I soldiered in a proper jumper and took it our for a 50 mile ride. Works perfectly now. Clock has kept time for three days and all the trip meters work. Wahoo.