TCI voltage readings

[Larrym]

The Perfect Crime...

Yep, I was kind of assuming Nikon knows how to check for spark and wasn't finding any after the bike got left in the sun. It is also possible that it was bright outside in the sunlight. The spark got washed out by the light so he couldn't see anything and stopped cranking the starter so he didn't kill the battery or light the fumes from the hot gas tank on fire by running an open spark directly underneath it..
.

3Phase,

Yup. I kinda take the politically incorrect position of "not" extending the benefit of the doubt that the spark test was done unless someone actually reports in that they have. Get's me in trouble cause the owner/member might take my position as an insult and then get offended. But then again, I'm Ok with the owner being mad at me if the bike gets a little closer to being functional.

Did ya have to bring up the safety issue that there's a danger of nikonyamaha actually ASPLODING during the "spark test"??? I mean where are your loyalties here? I'm a semi-longstanding member and well...he's just a greenhorn. If he and the bike went fireball then it certainly wouldn't be proper to have that result linked back to me, right?

I mean we'd carry on without a ripple in the Channel 11 pond. Another epic "FAIL" where some newbie didn't check for the presence of fuel vapors before introducing a high volatge spark into a volatile atmosphere.

Besides...we'd never get to know what happened. Nikonyamaha would just not ever provide us with any more posts/reports.

(Kudos to identifying/presenting the "pivotal test point" :ballast resistor/ignition coil/ballast start bypass function junction. Now to give it a name we can remember.)

[3Phase]

Now to give it a name we can remember.

Conjunction junction: that's its function?

[Larrym]

I hereby name this Location for Future Generations...

Conjunction Junction:

So named and location noted on my personal <unsigned...> copy of the custom wiring diagram GIF on my Hard drive. Also included footnote as to the "discoverer" of said point on the map of the XS1100G wiring "world".

Sorry but no bronze plaque added to commemorate/memorialize this place for posterity. Maybe take up a collection for funding the bronze statue later.

Right now all I've got there is a yellow push pin with a little flag on it.

(Note: LCD screens plus push pins equals a less than perfect outcome...)

[3Phase]

Haven't seen anything from Nikon today, I hope he's alright!


No plaque?

Okay, a bronze statue would be nice but the pushpin through the sacrificial LCD is a bit much. <laughing> I can sign and email your modified GIF or try to hang on to one of the rare first edition signed copies for you until the rally next summer but they're going fast.

[Larrym]

Pretense is a Prelude to Being: Bruce Lee

Haven't seen anything from Nikon today, I hope he's alright!

3Phase,

Egads, MAN!!! Where's your sense of proper Decorum? I mean openly expressing concern about the owner's well being violates the whole "professional detachment" ethic/practice. You're only gonna encourage him to believe that people CARE about him and that leads to the "patient" being the one in control here. Him manipulating us??? I don't think so...

I strongly encourage you to cease this "coddling" and return to the normal "presenting posture": We are GOD-like if not actual gods of the XS world. He's supposed to Fear us. You're undermining all that I hold dear and work so hard to keep going even if it is an illusion.

I mean, people are s'posed to wonder whether an XS god can build a motor with so much compression that even they can't kick start it.

(My getting close to guru status has me really...I mean REALLY concerned.)

[3Phase]

Let's just be careful your almost-guruship!

There have been three XS11 fires in the last year or so that I can remember off the top of my head: one member lost his house and his XS to the fire; one XS was mostly saved by a quick-thinking child with a fire extinguisher; another member almost lost his life saving the bike, the garage, the house and possibly some of the residents by grabbing the burning gas tank and running down the driveway with it in his hands.

[Larrym]

Physical Vulnerability...

3Phase,

<sigh...>

You're right...Maybe as I approach the Guru status I'm losing touch with my original "member" roots and my sense of empathy for the "mortals". I do sorta favor the Omnipotent Evil Tyrant/General Zod version of guru-ship. (Just has that fascination and appeal to me I guess....)

On the other "almost god-like" hand, I believe that it's common knowledge that FIRE is inherently dangerous to those without the gifts of invulnerability. That's why the original Prometheus was appropriately punished for letting ordinary folks have it to play around with.

Now that fire is "out there" and a required process if the XS is to move from point A to point B under it's own power, there's so very much material to present about "Cautions, Warnings, Dangers" at just about every step if one chooses to work on their own XS/XJ.

It's almost as if there should be one big banner covering the entire motorcycle which reads:

DANGER: Electrical Shock/Fire Hazard/Moving Parts. Refer all servicing to Qualified Personnel Only.

In a very "expedient" (Translation:lazy) way, I more often than not don't include my very own clearly worded warnings/cautions about the "dangers" in the posts that I submit. I mean already my "word count" versus my "post count" ratio is embarrassingly weighted/unbalanced.

Thanks for the "wise counsel" your Guru-ship.

I'll contemplate matters further....

[natemoen]

This has been a very interesting and entertaining conversation you two have had here!

[natemoen]

This has been a very interesting and entertaining conversation you two have had here!

[Larrym]

Empty Work Bay

Nate,

Yah...But only about as entertaining as it would get if two or more Techs were-a-standing in the shop next to a vacant space reserved for an XS/XJ. Not really "productive" in the conventional sense unless we're trying to fluff up our post count. <Guilty Expression>

Since Nikon has gone rabbit the only hopes of getting him back is to try and bump up this post so it's right there on top. I figure he'll be curious as to how in the heck there can be 24 replies and an ongoing discussion if its HIS original thread and he hasn't input anything new.

<image of bright shiny dangling object in front of rabbit hole>

(sigh)

I think he may have run out of the other side and we're wasting out time. Some of those rabbits ain't stupid, ya know!

[natemoen]

Well I certainly must be trying to up my post count, I even double posted my comment (not sure how that happened HONEST). Hopefully he comes back and has some new info!

[3Phase]

Larry: Nikon may have gone rabbit but, hopefully, he's just waiting for another sunny day and hasn't turned his XS into a fancy electric-start hibachi. That pesky variable daily weather and 24 hour day/night cycle can really put a damper on realtime troubleshooting when you're trying to nail a problem that only occurs after sitting for hours in the heat of the day.


Nathan: Thanks!

Nathan: Thanks!

[nikonyamaha]

Alright everyone I'm back. So over the weekend I cleaned the connector connections in the back of the fuse block plate with a cleaner called DeoxIT D5 (Fry's Electronics has it). Some of the blades were pretty oxidized. Worked pretty good, I was able to gain 0.3V. I left the bike in the sun and it did start. I then cleaned all the connectors under the gas tank and in the headlight shell and gained an additional 0.1V so now I am reading 11.5V total at the TCI.
While cleaning the regulator connectors the red wire showed evidence of melting so I cut it off and it has its own connection separate from the connector. Long time ago the red wire at the ignition switch connector melted in its place so I spliced it out on its own. Now I went ahead and replace those three remaining connections.
Tomorrow when I head to work it will sit in the sun and I will see if the cleaning helped.

[dbeardslee]

Sounds like you're making progress. As they say in italian, 'keepa you fingas crossed.'

[BowlingSS]

This is a great thread. Old but good.

Bill