Kiwirider
Active Member
Yup, what a day. I have finally got the bike back together after new wheel bearings, polish rims, new drive pulley, new drive belt, clean brakes and di electric grease everywhere, 2 weeks on the lift. (I have an 08 Mastiff EFI)
So I got it all together and took her for a ride. Every thing seemed fine. I stopped at a set of lights and smelled smoke. I figured it was some old oil or cleaning spray burning off from when I had her in pieces. So I stopped again further down the road. When I restarted I saw a big puff of smoke from the front end again, hopped off and inspected, nothing found. So I rode home and litterally in the driveway she cut out. I rolled into the drive, cut the power, looked down and the wires behind the Voltage Regulator were on fire!!
So I patted them out, waited for it to cool down and started my inspection. I found the main culprit was the wire that goes back to the battery. The burning was right where the wires come out of the VR.
If its not one thing, its another.
I have an important ride coming up in 2 weeks, so this was starting to do my head in:angry::bang:
I later spoke to Mickeetwo. He told me that he had heard of this before. So that was kind of a relief. He told me about the circuit breaker that the VR connects to. I checked it and the button closer to the battery had tripped, but I suspect that was when it cut out in the driveway. After it had caught fire.
I'm hoping its just the VR that's kicked the bucket, that I can handle. So is it just a bad VR? Or is there something else more sinister that I need to fix that caused it? Are there after market VR's that will do a better/more reliable job that the BD one?
Help!!!:loony::bang:
The only positive I can think of is that I have found a few new connections that I can Di grease that were under the wire covers Ive had to remove.
So I got it all together and took her for a ride. Every thing seemed fine. I stopped at a set of lights and smelled smoke. I figured it was some old oil or cleaning spray burning off from when I had her in pieces. So I stopped again further down the road. When I restarted I saw a big puff of smoke from the front end again, hopped off and inspected, nothing found. So I rode home and litterally in the driveway she cut out. I rolled into the drive, cut the power, looked down and the wires behind the Voltage Regulator were on fire!!
So I patted them out, waited for it to cool down and started my inspection. I found the main culprit was the wire that goes back to the battery. The burning was right where the wires come out of the VR.
If its not one thing, its another.
I have an important ride coming up in 2 weeks, so this was starting to do my head in:angry::bang:
I later spoke to Mickeetwo. He told me that he had heard of this before. So that was kind of a relief. He told me about the circuit breaker that the VR connects to. I checked it and the button closer to the battery had tripped, but I suspect that was when it cut out in the driveway. After it had caught fire.
I'm hoping its just the VR that's kicked the bucket, that I can handle. So is it just a bad VR? Or is there something else more sinister that I need to fix that caused it? Are there after market VR's that will do a better/more reliable job that the BD one?
Help!!!:loony::bang:
The only positive I can think of is that I have found a few new connections that I can Di grease that were under the wire covers Ive had to remove.
