Electrical nightmare

Electrical issues
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Mark44
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Re: Electrical nightmare

#16

Post by Mark44 »

Pete808 wrote:
Andygears wrote:Pete, what voltage regulator are you using? And all authinticity besides, why don't you have some sort of fuse or circuit breaker? Now you've burned wires and the whole harness is suspect!
Respectfully.
My pan shorted to ground and popped my circuit breaker, I narrowed it to the mech. Regulator, probably old points and replaced it. Seems fine now. Did you find the cause of the burn up?

A flat fuse style wire on the battery will stop burn ups and a circuit breaker can be plugged in ' stead of a fuse.

My 2 cents
Andygears
I have the Generator/regulator combo thing from Cycle Electric. I was thinking about adding some fuses or breakers. I just don't understand the electrical stuff at all. I will have my friend give me a hand and wire it up properly.
It's simple to add a fuse. Simply cut the wire to the positive terminal on your battery, and splice in a fuse holder (with fuse in it) to the cut ends of the wire. It will also work if you splice into the negative (ground) side, instead.
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Re: Electrical nightmare

#17

Post by Frankenstein »

I might suggest using a circuit breaker instead of a fuse. It's been my experience that when you do have a problem, you use up all your spare fuses tracking down the problem, and don't find the answer till you've used your last fuse. They now make circuit breakers that fit in the blade fuse holders, making the change over easy.
You may have noticed that most houses now have circuit breakers, so I'm thinking the technology is here to stay :D
DD
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Re: Electrical nightmare

#18

Post by Scrap »

Was the battery defective? What brand was it? Is that what caused the smoke?
Pete808
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Re: Electrical nightmare

#19

Post by Pete808 »

Scrap wrote:Was the battery defective? What brand was it? Is that what caused the smoke?
I load tested the battery and it was completely dead. I can't remember the brand but it's one I have not seen before. It came with the bike when I got it last year.
Pete808
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Re: Electrical nightmare

#20

Post by Pete808 »

Spoke too soon. Went out to ride the bike and now have no lights on whatsoever. I put 60 trouble free miles on the bike yesterday and now I can't get anything. Battery was new and fully charged. I'm guessing that either I have something draining power or it's not recharging the battery. I have to get a meter and track down the issue. It was a good day though riding around town yesterday. 60 very happy miles.
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Re: Electrical nightmare

#21

Post by Scrap »

You said in an earlier post that you let the smoke out of your bike. You really need to see where that smoke came from and why.
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Re: Electrical nightmare

#22

Post by foundationapps »

I had something like this happen on and off my first year of owning the old Pan. Oil was leaking from the front head by the exhaust and it migrated into the generator (65A) and the CE end mounted regulator. Finally, I figured out it was the CE regulator that went down from oil that migrated into THAT unit. Oil sure migrates a lot. Anyways, Got a new CE DGV-2569 (copy of the 65A) and a Bosch mechanical regulator. Eventually added a Duracell 220 CCA AGM battery (12 volt). Since then, I've converted to an electric starter and enough high wattage headlights and tail lights to melt your eyes. That combination easily handles the power needs.

Something else I've recently done is using 550' parachute cord (real stuff, not knockoff crap sporting goods stores sell), I pull the core strands out of the cord, leaving the braided nylon exterior sheath. One by one, I removed the end connectors from all important wiring and slid a sheath of the gutted 550' cord over the wires. This stuff slides on the wire, prevents abrasion, and is designed to stand high friction environments. (Used to attach parachute canopies from the canopy to the release assemblies on parachute harnesses. Very tough stuff.

That would eliminate all but direct shearing forces on wires. Had a wire once that was trapped between the top left tank and the frame, nylon sheathed, it rode there for 550 miles. You could see where the nylon sheath was rubbed dark, but no damage or hard spot (a sign that too much heat got to the nylon sheath). Not original, but that's okay on wiring you don't see.

Source: https://paracordgalaxy.com/42-499-paracord

Wires I sheathed:

1. (+) hot wire from (+) on battery to key switch, end to end.
2. (+) hot wire on switch to the headlight switch (mine is remote from the key switch).
3. All remote wires (tail light, headlights, marker lights, oil light, generator light, generator arm and field poles to the volt regulator and all wires from the V/R to the battery, key switch, ground.

Next project is going to use color code correct sheathing on all wires on the bike.
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Re: Electrical nightmare

#23

Post by 58flh »

You may have fried the regulater if endmounted type//60 miles & then dead is about what you will travel with a good AGM battery & then nothing!//I suggest as others posted -to check all the wireing using a volt/ohm meter & also suggest that all connections be soldered!//just my 2---respectfully---Richie
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Re: Electrical nightmare

#24

Post by Pete808 »

I will take a look at it this week hopefully. It is doing weird things. I charged the batter and put it back in, when I turn the ignition on the GEN light lights up nice and bright. When I press down on the kicker pedal the light dims or goes out completely until I release the kicker pedal? I can sometimes get it started but only once in a while. Also, if I turn the ignition all the way to the right to turn on the lights the GEN light goes off and nothing, but if I get the thing to start I can turn the ignition all the way over and get the lights to turn and stay on???? The crazy thing is that it worked fine for a few days then back to this. I gotta get a meter and check everything.
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Re: Electrical nightmare

#25

Post by awander »

Get hold of the electrical wiring diagram, and go over you bike completely to see where/if it differs from the diagram.
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Re: Electrical nightmare

#26

Post by Excalibur »

Could be a poor connection. Possibly a wire holding on by a single strand or a loose terminal/connector. The ground wire/s are every bit as important as live wires because they form part of the same circuit.

Cheap Chinese crimp connector/terminals are a red alert. I'd weed them out before they cause trouble at some inconvenient time.
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Re: Electrical nightmare

#27

Post by nmaineron »

I'm not sure about this, but I think even with the CE stuff you need to polarise your generator and with the CE stuff I think it would be pos (+) from the battery to A on the generator.I'm taking this off the top of my head and it's early in the morning but my point is that the genny needs to know where to send its power and it sounds to me like you are sending it to ground.If pushing your bake is killing stuff then you have a short either in the switch or the wiring.Learning how to use a multi meter in this game can save you a lot of headaches.good luck,Ron
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Re: Electrical nightmare

#28

Post by FL54 »

+1 on the Chiwanese connectors. The vibration cause the cheap metal to fatigue and fail which could put you on the shoulder of the road. Ask me how I know this.
Pete808
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Re: Electrical nightmare

#29

Post by Pete808 »

I ripped put the whole wiring harness and everything else electrical related. I will start from scratch and get it done right.
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Re: Electrical nightmare

#30

Post by Buddhahoodvatoloco »

Really, often overlooked Petey
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