Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech Bike cutting out again

When I bought my Speedy a month ago the power completely cut off several times the day after I bought it. It finally cut off and it would not restart (no power at all) until I pushed it up a hill to my house. The dealer looked at it and said they checked all the wiring and could not find anything wrong. They suggested it was probably caused by a loose connection that was repaired when they checked all the wiring.

Here we are one month later and no problems until this morning. I rode about five blocks and all power cut off. It restarted and then a few blocks later cut off completely again. When it remained dead, I checked the fuses and discovered the 30 Amp main battery fuse to be hot enough to burn my fingers, but it was not blown. I replaced the fuse and it started. I rode it home and took my truck to work. Called the dealer who said I must have a short. He said I would need to leave the bike with him for at least two days so they can thoroughly check the electrics. Tonight she started fine. I rode her for about two miles and checked the fuse, which was cool to the touch. I really don't want to take my bike in and leave it for two days just for them to tell me again that they could not find the problem. Any suggestions on what could be causing this intermittent problem?

Mal

Check your battery/solenoid/starter connections. A loose or 'dirty' one will cause enough resistance (larger voltage drop = more current) to heat up that main fuse.

I think I might have found the problem. When I look at the fuse box for the 30 Amp large main fuse. This is the one second from the top not the top one which is a spare 30 Amp fuse, I noticed that I can only clearly see one connector, the right one. The left one must be inside because when the fuse is inserted there is a connection, but it appears to be pushed in far enough that I can't see it. I've looked at all of the other fuses and I can easily see both connectors inside. I'm assuming that if the left side connector is not making good contact with the fuse, a little vibration would be all it would need to cause an arc, loss of contact and overheating.

Before I take my bike into the dealer and ask them to replace the fuse box under warranty, I was hoping someone else could check their 30 Amp fuse receptacle on their Speedmaster to see if they can clearly see both connectors.

Here's what mine looks like.



According to the fuse block diagram in the Tech Vault(thanks Jay), the 2nd one down is #11, the main fuse. As you can clearly see, my prongs are even and visible on both sides. Hope this helps, and I hope your dealer takes care of you.

Thanks for the picture Sal. It looks like the dealer needs to replace my fuse block because mine does not look like yours. Mine is definitely defective.

If this is the case, you should be able to easily just reach around th ewback of the box and slide the connector forward so it is snug. That's most likely all the dealer will do anyway. Replacing the fuse block would probably require replacement of the entire wiring harness too.

Replacing the fuse block does require a new wiring harness, I had a problem with the 30 amp fuse socket being loose, rather than file a warranty claim for that my dealership, they swapped the wiring to go to what was the spare 30 amp fuse holder, and made the old socket the new spare.

Mine did this too. The 30Amp fuse kept falling out and it sounds like this is getting more common among our bikes.
The clips inside the fuse box were distorted and wouldn't hold the fuse in place.The bike kept shutting off.
Rather than having the dealer replace the fuse box(and replacing the bikes whole wiring harness thus creating MORE problems) I just pulled the two wires, and their connecters, out from behind the fuse box and wired in a waterproof in-line fuse. Cost me $2.50 and about 1/2 hour worth of my time. I don't trust the dealer for anything.

I took your advice and fixed the problem myself tonight. I had to take out the battery and pull the fuse block from the frame to get to the wires in the back. I pushed the bad wire into the back of the fuse box and it now looks even with the right side wire. I took the fuse in and out a few times to make sure that when I pushed the fuse in, it did not push the wire back out the back of the fuse box. I took it for a 5 mile test ride and so far so good. I'll keep an eye on it and if it looks like the wire is not going to stay in place, I'll try Soul survivors idea and put in an in-line fuse. Thanks for all of your suggestions, they saved me from taking it to the dealer and wasting a day just so they could push the wire in the back.

Mal