[pstelter]

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Went out to try and pull the stereo from the 85 GL1200A. To make a long story short, I ended up turning on the key and got a big fat NOTHING for my troubles. No lights - nothing.



My first thought is the battery - I inadvertantly left it in Park when I took it to work a few days ago. But, after charging up the battery at home, I have had no problems. Bike starts right up. I did notice yesterday that the headlight dims when I squeeze the brake.



Question 1: Is that cause for alalrm?



Anyways, battery measures 12.21 volts with and without the ignition. I pulled the battery so I could get at the main fuse better. When I got the cover pff, it appears that the main fuse is nothing more than a thin fusible link. Additionally, a couple other (spares?) fell out of the cover as well.



Question #2: Is the main fuse really that thin?

Question #3: Should there be only one of those links installed or did I inadvertantly pull the other two out of the system when I pulled the fuse cover off?

Question #4: The link is a little discolored (not brown, just dull). Should I replace it since it appears I have built in spares?



Since the battery is out of the system,I put it on my charger and it is charging. However, since the charger shows the state of charge is low, I'm thinking I really screwed the battery with the deep discharge.



Since the stator test looks pretty easy, I will do that tonight as well. If the alternator is fine, I think all I'll need is a new battery.



Any thoughts? Thanks in advance.



- Pete



P.S. 3-yellow wires are still connectorized and I do not have the poorboy modification.

 

[peterbilt]

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sounds like to me if your stator is good and your battery is good your headlight shouldnt dim when you hit the brakes sounds like you have a draw on the system sucking down the battery

 

[DaveO430]

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Replace the fuse, only one. Charge and test the battery.

 

[pstelter]

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So I think I found the problem...

Whatever the state of the alternator,I somehow think the battery wasnot being charged. Time to brush up on the soldering skills.



- Pete

 

[Goldwinger]

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Hi Pete. That looks like the 3 yellow wire connector from the stator. If so you should hard wire the connector out of it. You might want to look up in the search about other weak spots in the 1200s electrical system that are hidden and if you deal with them now will not cause you more problems. Good luck

 

[Shooter]

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Good find, by all means hard wire those stator leads, but first do the test for AC output,shorts-opens... :gunhead:

 

[plainmech]

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while your doing that don't forget plug at regulator, mine looked the same there:action::waving:

 

[Nightrider1]

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It Probably run off of the battery at first, without any charging at all.
Good Luck!
Nightrider1

 

[pstelter]

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Thanks everyone for your help.

I know I've read posts on this board on how to hardwire the connector out of the circuit (i.e. what size/type wire to use, soldering tips, etc.) but I can't seem to find any of the links. If someone has the links handy and could post them, that would be great.

Thanks again!

- Pete

 

[rgbeard]

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Uhhhh - cut the connectors off each end - get some similarly-size wire, and solder them together.

Doesn't matter if the same wire goes to the same wire on the other end - just get 'er done, do a clean job, don't do any "cold" solder joints, use heat shrink tubing for the cleanest job.

 

[Treetrans]

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Hey That was a nasty wire picture.. My bike had from a previous owner a four prong trailer plug soldered in place at the three yellow wire from the stator. He just clipped of the brown and used three. Cheap weatherproof and still can be disconnected.

 

[neoracer]

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dont use anything smaller than 12 guage to repalce the stator wire connector,solder and heatshrink

also replace the dogdone fuses with 30 amp ato fuseholders,check to see if you have a second dogbone back behind the starter solenoid and taillight sensor relay too

you probably need to hardwire around the regulator connectors too since if the stator wire is bad there so probably is that reg connector

pm me your # if ya want the blow by blow fix

 

[pstelter]

imported post

I got it fixed this morning. My plan was to run 12 AWG wire from the rotten connector all the way to the VR. When the people I work with (electricans and fellow electrical engineers) heard that they told me to use barrel splices. The reason is that the 12 AWG wire is too large to get hotenough for a good solder joint. (This made me happy becauseI did not want to solder).



When I checked the VR end, the connector was beautiful. Since that still looked good, I decided not to undo the enire harness running from the seat to the VR.



Long story short - I picked up some 14 AWG automotive wire and installed barrel splices in the wires from the alternator to the VR. Since the pigtail coming out of the alternator was not that long, I could not get a good stagger on the barrel splices and used a double layer of heat shrink for chafing protection.



I know - everyone says to solder. Well, if barrel splice are good enough for Navy ships, they are good enough for my scoot. Plus, Idid not use the Radio Shack POS crimp tool and barrels.



I only have two concerns:

1. I forgot to put the cable sheath over the alternator pigtail until after I had crimped on the first length of splice wire. It wouldn't fit so I have the three wires exposed (for now).

2. After heat shrinking the wires under the seat, I wrapped them with electrical tape. And I kind of forgot where the splice barrels were when I routed the harness assembly. Hopefully I didn't put a big bend in the splice ares. We'll see...



BTW, started the bike and measured 14.3-ish volts at the battery. Followed the test from Clymer and verified that the voltage stayed below 15.0 volts with increased engine RPM.



Thanks to all who offered their advice. If I have any more problems, I'll be into the external alternator- I don't have enough wire left from the alternator to make any more repairs.

 

[neoracer]

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if 12 gauge is to big for you to solder,you just need a better gun,and down the road when you get corrosion and oxidation on the barrell slices you'll be "poorboying" a problem that u could have avoided
would hate to see another old wing sitting idle in the summertime,a poorboy is not a "cheap" fix per se and is definitely not a first time diy repair

 

[pstelter]

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Ok, while the alternator connector was definitely bad, I still have a little electrical quirk.



Rode the bike to work today. Once I got home, the wife's car was in the way and I had to I had to park behind it. After about 20 mins, I move the car, put the key in the bike and NOTHING (again). Clock is dead.



Utttered some colorful words, turned the key off, turned the bars to the right to straighten the wheel, try the key again - now it works. Bike starts and I move it into the garage. Quick inspection of the alternator wires show no signs of overheating. Bike will not duplicate



After about 90 minutes later, battery reads 12.7 volts. Bike starts right up and VR holds the voltage at about 15.0 V with increased engine RPM.



Because I lost the clock, Iknow I lostpower from the battery, and I suspect that it was an open in the (+) sideof the battery.



Has this happened to anyone else? I'm not sure who the usual suspectswould be for this symptom.



Thanks in advance (again)for any suggestions.



- Pete

 

[DaveO430]

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When you turned the bars you moved something and it is again making contact. It does not have to be on the + side, ground is the most important and often overlooked electrical problem.

 

[garyft]

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Over the last few months I would occasionally get no reactions when I turned on the key. No lights, no radio, nothing. I could reach down and nudge the connector coming from the ignition switch into the connector block inside the right side of the fairing, below the dust cover.

This past weekend I went through every connector I could get to and cleaned them, then packed with di-electric grease. After that, my problem got worse. Twice I had the bike shut down while running, once at low speed in the parking lot at work (almost dumped it).

Last night I pulled that connector back out and took a closer look at it. The red wire looked a little burned. On closer inspection, the corner of the connector that contained the red wire was a little melted. I pulled one of my spare old wiring harnesses and found an identical connector, moved all the other wires over and replaced a section of the offending wire along with the spade, cleaned and re-greased the connector. Nudging/wiggling that connector no longer affects anything, everything stays on as it should. Hopefully it will correct the problem.

 

[pstelter]

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The GL1200 Electrical Troubleshooting manual has a really nice schematic of the main power distribution (see attached).



The good news:

I removed the battery and looked at the C103 connector (just downstream of the dog bone fuse). When I took the cover off to look at the fuse, I noticed that the top right corner was all melted and the entire fuse carriage looked a little worn / warped. Note: it may have been like that when I first started haing problems, but it is a black connector, it was at night, and I had really poor light. So I think I found my problem.



The bad news:

The melting had essentially fused the two pieces together. When I tried to take it apart, the whole fuse carriage disintegrated in my hands. So now I am broke - hard. Where do I go to get a new connector and fuse carriage?



Thanks.



- Pete

 

[oharaLTD]

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The GL1200 had an ignition switch recall. Mine LTD was not in the recall but the switch failed and moving the bars and hitting bumps would make things come and go. I had to repair the ign switch.









the

 

[DaveO430]

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Is the starter relay still usable? If so you can get a 30 amp blade fuse holder and wire the red and red/white wires to one end and connect the other end to the + battery terminal.