So 97 M900, 3 month old battery. So bike has been starting and riding fine lately, ride it over to my buddies house to meet up with him, his wife, and my wife who was patiently waiting for me after work. Go to leave that night to go back home and the bike is dead. I get the dreaded buzzing relay under the seat. I thought it may have been a bad relay since the battery was fairly new and the bike has had no problems whatsoever starting. Go into my buddies garage and find a relay that matches, but same buzzing. Lift the tank up and check the battery and it showed 9 volts. [bang] Grab my buddies charger out of the garage and throw a quick charge on it. Starts up fine. Ride it home, bout 3 miles. Leave it running and grab my DVOM and check battery voltage while running; 11.5 volts at idle, 11.51 volts at 2-3000 rpm. [bang] Turn bike off and look to the voltage regulator. I cleaned the connectors and started the bike again. Checked voltage at the connectors and it was also around 11.5. [bang] Started investigating a little bit deeper and found the two yellow wires leading to the alternator were fried. (http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll161/porschaholic/smileys/wtf.gif) I guess this means that the alternator is charging just fine if its putting out enough to fry wires. Do y'all think my regulator took a dump, or are these two main charging wires just junk? I started it this morning before leaving for work and it was actually charging. 12 volts at idle, but 13+ at higher rpms. My two favorite yellow wires got hot very quick, the regulator started to get warm. Guess I'll be replacing those yellow wires. I'm gonna go back into the harness to see how far the wires got cooked. Any recomendations?
Jon
The connector for the yellow wires has been a source of trouble on the older bikes.
Many people either replace it or just solder the wires together.
Quote from: ducpainter on May 22, 2009, 05:51:43 AM
The connector for the yellow wires has been a source of trouble on the older bikes.
Many people either replace it or just solder the wires together.
It has two bullet connectors there. They appear to be original. I was planning on eliminating them when I replace the burned wires. Thanks Nate.
Jon
You will need to fix the wiring first, then check the regulator. Keep cutting the wires back until you get to nice, shiny copper. Sometimes you need to go almost to the stator. I prefer keeping a connector since future troubleshooting is easier.
Quote from: howie on May 22, 2009, 06:41:50 AM
You will need to fix the wiring first, then check the regulator. Keep cutting the wires back until you get to nice, shiny copper. Sometimes you need to go almost to the stator. I prefer keeping a connector since future troubleshooting is easier.
May just keep a connector then and heat shrink it. Thanks for the help guys. Drinks on me. [thumbsup]