Fun ride to RT but Dog Dead now and see long troubleshooting

[Fibersnake]

Well I finally started to dig into my grimlin that poped up in middle of downtown DC Sunday.

So far ignition switch checks out, changed to the stand by EHC with no luck, check battery and even ran another one. Still no power at all.

Nothing, no lights, no LED, deader than a road kill deer.

Have to start chasing the connectors and tracing out electrical circuits and find the culprit. First thing will be to check the power harness connectors since it seems when I hook up the power harnes ground that my battery goes to shit, like there may be a short.

Will try tomorrow and see if there is a broken wire in the connector and go from them.

More to come as I go hunting for grimlins

Any ideas are appreciated, just keep in mind that there is nothing for power at all and I did check and the ignition switch and even cut it out and jump them together and confirmed continuity back to the back bone harness pins. Also changed out to my old EHC that had worked with exception of oil pressure power and still dead.

Thanks up front!

Oh part of the love of two wheeling is the fun of wrenching and the occasional chase of grimlins!!!!!

 

[Fibersnake]

Oh a just for those that are thinking, it went dead while riding. No warning at all, just died mid stroke like someone reached over and turned off the key.

Damn I love looking at wiring diagrams-NOT

 

[Raywood]

FB, if you are sure the battery has juice in it and that the ignition switch tests positive then the issue is in between the two. I would pull both of the battery cables and check them for breaks or grounds and ensure they have tight connections.

:2thumbs:

 

[1BADK9]

Look in your right side throttle housing where your on/off run circuit card is. I had a little fricken aluminum shaving that fucked me to tears. May be, may not be, but it's a quick look to be sure there is nothing shorted there. Mine would shut off like a switch, sometimes restart, sometimes not. It was an aluminum shaving from the installation of my cruise mate rattleling around in the housing causing a ground to the off circuit on the card.

 

[Fibersnake]

Ray all ready have done that, the cable are fine from battery to ground with the exception of the one going to power harness connector. Seems suspecious, but will pull the connector apart tomorrow and check it further.

More than likely a broken wire, but will just have to chase it out. Thanks though and I will double check the cable again. Biggest PITA is trying to check all the little connectors that could cause such but based on the schematic there is few that would be in the area with no power what so ever if the ignition switch completes the ground circuit back to EHC which it does.

Actuall there is only one wire for positive and one for ground that go to Power Harness into EHC that should give power to circuits if the ignition inputs the ground should get something, at least a power up light on LED.

Has to be something simple, just a PITA to chase down and since it went down suddenly figure loose or broken connector to powerharness would be most likely culprit.

We will see-thank though and I will keep everyone informed

 

[Fibersnake]

Look in your right side throttle housing where your on/off run circuit card is. I had a little fricken aluminum shaving that fucked me to tears. May be, may not be, but it's a quick look to be sure there is nothing shorted there. Mine would shut off like a switch, sometimes restart, sometimes not. It was an aluminum shaving from the installation of my cruise mate rattleling around in the housing causing a ground to the off circuit on the card.

Thanks but when yours did that, was there no power whatsoever. Nothing to EHC, lights or anything, like some disconnected the battery??

From the best I can figure, if it was that switch, it should shut it off, but the EHC would still have power to it as well as some of the other items like lights, etc.

In your case was it totatlly dead or just killed the engine??

Either way, if it not along the power to EHC in power harness, then will be checking every damn pin and wire.

Fun Fun

 

[Fibersnake]

Well I have found the culprit and on the way to getting it fixed. The ground wire and positive wire running from battery to EHC on the power harness had worn through the insulation and shorted one another. This was inside the connector and must have been from the vibrations over the year or a fluke.

Anyway, after I fixed that, then I found that the EHC was crapped, most likely from the short. Changed it out to my old one and now I have power.

Have not started it up for I am going to do some other stuff since I have it apart including changing the ignition switch since the key is getting loose anyway.

Once I get that done, then will put it back together and start her up and check the VR to make short nothing went south on that.

So other than having to order another EHC sometime, hopefully that is it and I will be back and running soon.

Suggest that everyone check out the power wires to the Power Harness connectors when they are doing maintenace to make sure they have not chaffed like mine did. It is easy to remove the cover off the connector plug so that you can check the inside well, which is where I found the short on mine (where the wires went into the connector plug).

 

[pisssed]

Sounds like a great diagnosis to Me good job!

 

[Fibersnake]

I hope that is all it was and nothing else went shit from the short. Took awhile to figure it out and some good use of the fluke meter as well as a few hours going over the electrical schematic and trying to fully understand how it all works.

What sucked is that when first check the connectors for the wire at the pins (A-3 and A-4) they showed no short and good continuity. It was only after I pulled the cover off the harnness connectors that I found the chaffing and it only seemed to short if it moved to certain positions.

No telling how long it had been chaffed and finally got in the right postion to short to each other.

All I know is that I had to cut the wires, slip some heavy duty shrink tube over them, do a very fine solder job then shrink the tubing and then added protection over the wires where they went into the harness connector.

Somewhat a PITA but after I did that and changed over to old EHC, everything cycle through.

Got the fingers crossed that nothing else got screwed up.

 

[BigDogBro1]

That type of short, an upstream power feed TO the EHC normally should not cause an EHC failure. It would normally only cause damage to the device supplying power to the EHC i.e. the battery, fuse, breaker or wiring. The only way EHC damage could occur is from an electrical voltage spike that is higher than the normal operating voltage in the wire which was unlikely to happen in this case.

Make sure all battery terminal wire crimps are crimped tight - tug on the wires the connect to the battery posts. A loose EHC main feed wire crimp would cause a symptom like turning off the keyswitch while riding. Mine did just that.

 

[Fibersnake]

That type of short, an upstream power feed TO the EHC normally should not cause an EHC failure. It would normally only cause damage to the device supplying power to the EHC i.e. the battery, fuse, breaker or wiring. The only way EHC damage could occur is from an electrical voltage spike that is higher than the normal operating voltage in the wire which was unlikely to happen in this case.

Good point and will make sure that once I get the other stuff done that I check out for other problems like maybe a shit Voltage Regulator.

All I know is that I am happy to have power back and found something that was wrong instead of scratching my head.

Battery is fine, same with fuse and find no other wire that is bad. Nothing else seem bad that I can find and went through allot of visual inspections and continuity checks. These wire that were shorted are the main feed from the battery to the EHC and all the crimps were fine and connectors were tight.

I'll let you know if I find anything else wrong and thanks for the info and thanks to all for input.

 

[Raywood]

Good point and will make sure that once I get the other stuff done that I check out for other problems like maybe a shit Voltage Regulator.

All I know is that I am happy to have power back and found something that was wrong instead of scratching my head.

Battery is fine, same with fuse and find no other wire that is bad. Nothing else seem bad that I can find and went through allot of visual inspections and continuity checks. These wire that were shorted are the main feed from the battery to the EHC and all the crimps were fine and connectors were tight.

I'll let you know if I find anything else wrong and thanks for the info and thanks to all for input.

You would think that there would be a fusible link between the battery and EHC!

 

[chacha]

Good trouble shoot and what a PITA! Consider epoxy in the EHC harness connector to prevent any more vibration issues --- (then again another answer is to take the time to replace the whole dang thing, just say'n )

Good luck and holler when you're back on the road and ready for a ride out your way

 

[Fibersnake]

You would think that there would be a fusible link between the battery and EHC!

Unfortunately not. It is just one wire (of three) from the positive terminal to EHC and the same (of two) for the ground wire. Every since they did the TSB for the VR, the only fuse (other than some internal self-reset type on the EHC itself), is the big 40 amp that was put in when they took the circuit breaker out. That fuse is between VR and battery.

What is funny is that the EHC is supposed to have internal fuses that reset (at least according to manual) and evindently they do not work worth a shit for the EHC is crapped, either due to the short of possibly surge in voltage if there was a high voltage surge for some reason.

 

[Fibersnake]

Good trouble shoot and what a PITA! Consider epoxy in the EHC harness connector to prevent any more vibration issues --- (then again another answer is to take the time to replace the whole dang thing, just say'n )

Good luck and holler when you're back on the road and ready for a ride out your way

Thanks Chacha, it is tempting to go to the Wire Plus for sure. May use the old EHC that I put on for a while and then change over to EHC during the winter, barring nothing else is bad.

Still can go for a ride, even if the Dog is down, got the Buell and it needs some work out over than the frigging Interstate going from here to Aberdeen and back.

Later