Maxim gauges

[ajvot]

Ground strap at the back of the engine, I'll have to check that one out. I'm not sure it's even there. I thought I know every inch of the bike, but I guess not. Boy, I hope it's that simple. The PO has the engine out of the bike. There were a lot of things lost during the tear down.
Thanks for the info on the coils. It sounds like they are good. I've checked them both hot and cold and they measure 25.3+/-. They're consistent on the primary side as well.
I cleaned the female side of the connector by spraying contact cleaner into the connector, then scraping the inside of each hole with a stiff copper wire, then put a little dielectric grease on the male ends and reassembled. Great pics by the way Ken. How do you get the wires out of the connectors? I'm going to need replacement connectors for the alternator wires. I'm pretty sure MikesXS has them for my, AHEM, 650.

[Ken Talbot]

The metal connectors have a small locking tab that you can depress with a jewellers screwdriver:


Wiggle the screwdriver in beside the connector while looking down into the unplugged connector block and wallah - you've got it.

[ajvot]

I found the engine/frame ground strap. I thought that this was going to be the problem for sure. The frame had been painted and the strap put back onto a painted surface. I pulled both ends of the strap, sanded the surfaces, cleaned the strap ends, and put everything back together. I also took apart the major connectors and gave them a thorough cleaning thanks to Ken's info.

The problem is still there, but I have a little more info.

While the bike is idling, everything is pretty cool. I reved the engine to about 2500rpm while holding onto the alternator wire at the connection, and it got real hot in a hurry. If you decrease rpm's, it get cooler. Something must really be putting some resistence in the wire, but I'll be damned if I can figure it out. God, I hate electrical work!

Only a couple weekends left until the rally and I really need to get some miles on this thing.

[LoserShoes]

If just the connector is getting hot, and not the wires going to it, it's likely that the connector has a high resistance for some reason, or possibly a short.Try removing the contacts from the shells and connect them back together. Run the motor to see which one gets hot, then bypass it with a jumper and see if that helps. Of course be real careful not to short the connectors to each other or anything else!

Could also be some broken wire strands at the connector, cut a little insulation away near the ends of the connectors to see if there any broken wires. If their ok then cover them back up with a bit of heat shrink.

Corrosion can occur at the connector crimp and act to insulate the strands from the connector. The wire under the crimp should not be green!

Localized heating in an electical componet is usually a result of broke wires or bad contacts

Hope this helps

Steve

[ajvot]

Thanks for the tip LS. The wires are actually getting hot, as well as the connector. I'm going to peel back a little insulation to see if the wire is good. Kinda like checking the plug wires.

[ajvot]

I took all of the plastic off the wire contacts and put them back together. I also made sure they were good and tight. As usual, the bike fired right up with just a little choke. Everything stayed pretty cool until I revved the engine for couple seconds at about 3000 rpm.
The 3 white wires from the alternator still got hot. The wires all look good under the insulation. No frayed ends, or corrostion anywhere. I just can't figure out where this heat is coming from. Even if I do, I'm not totally convinced that this would shut the bike down, but is probably part of it.
Surely, some one out there has seen something like this before, that wasn't connector related.
Thanks for all the help so far. I'm extremely frustrated at this point. It's gorgeous outside, and I can't ride for more than 2 minutes at a time. I'm thinking about putting a name on the XJ. Something like: P.I.T.A, or P.O.S, or For Sale.

[Czekus21]

Don't get to hasty now. If worst comes to worst. I'll stop by your place on the way to Bean Blossom and we'll get er figured out. We'll be in the Pick up and can be there in the pm of the 14th.

[ajvot]

Thank you very much for the offer Czekus21. I may have to take you up on it. I was just venting a little frustration.
I spent way too much time in the garage with the bike today.
I really sat down and took a closer look at the manual and all of the stuff to put the meter on. One thing that I noticed was that the alternator should meter out to 40Ohms and .32Ohms +/-. I'm getting .7 and 15.3. Is this the sign of bad parts? I haven't measured the brushes yet, but they looked pretty good.

[ajvot]

Just an FYI- I measured the amps coming out of the alternator. All three wires measured 15.7. I'm keeping you posted until it's fixed.

[LoserShoes]

If it's not the connector AND the wires are hot, that means that the altenator is pretty much maxed out and is pumping all that current into SOMEPLACE! The trick now is to find out where. What shape is the battery in? Could be shorted. What is the voltage across the battery? Should be a bit more then 13 volts fully charged. Not sure where the Rect/Reg is located, but that is a prime suspect also.

Steve

[LoserShoes]

You say all three wires, which three is that, and how similar is the XS and XJ chargring systems?

Is there an XJ wiring diagram online?

Steve

[LoserShoes]

Ok got one, if your are still having problems get back to me here.

The first thing that jumps out at me is the thought that you might try disconnecting the starter solenoid from the battery after you start it and see what happens, it could be hanging and the starter is drawing lots of current.

Steve

[ajvot]

Still having problems LS. I was reading the new posts and noticed something interesting in the one of the wobbling tach comments. It said that a previous bad connection was causing the plastic housing for the connection to melt. Boy, that sure sounds familiar. It sure sounds like the same thing; except, I have the the plastic housing off and the connectors are polished and connected directly to one another.
The bike has a new (used) wiring harness, alternator, and rect/reg. The really odd thing is that the previous harness had the same connector melted. This leads me to believe that there is a component somewhere that is causing this.
I will start with your advice about the starter solenoid. If that doesn't cure the problem, I'm going to unhook a component at a time until I find the problem. I've already tried disconnecting everything in the headlight bucket, but that didn't help.
Thanks for sticking with me LS.

[LoserShoes]

Since it's a replacement wiring harness, you might what to check that all the connectors have the pins it the right places, ie the colors match on both sides of the connector. I assume your don't know the past history of it?

Question : why did you change the harness in the first place?

Does the Reg/Rect feel hot?

From looking at the schematic, two of the wires from the altenator stator go to the instrument console, one to the tac and one into the display, as near as I can see from the diagram, try disconneting those and see what happens. The altenator is basically a three phase generator, and messing up on phase can affect all three.

Steve

[MAXIMAN]

Petcocks

I just read this whole thread stem to stern. The problem with the bike dying sounds very similar to one that a friend of mine had on his Eleven.

He would ride a short distance and the bike would just die. While it was running it was running great but after a short way it the engine would die. Sometimes it would start back for a second but wouldn't carry a load (couldn't ride it) but most times it wouldn't even start again until after it sat for a while.

Long story short....PETCOCKS. The screens were plugged with trash and the things need kits. After he cleaned the petcocks and rebuilt them he hasn't has a problem.

I supposed the petcocks were allowing just enough fuel through to fill the float bowls. He could get about a mile away with that much fuel before it died but the flow was so restricted it couldn't keep up with the flow demand and it would die very suddenly.