and other stuff (Pt. 2)
Electrics
The big job for this past weekend was to test all the
electrics. Since bringing the bike home way back in February, I’ve not so much
as connected the battery, let alone tried to switch anything on.
To do this, I put the original battery on charge although
it’s old and unlikely to hold a decent charge, I was hoping it would be enough
to at least switch the lights on. Also to test the lights, I needed to connect
them, which meant attaching the nose cone, which in turn meant re-attaching the
bracket the nose cone is attached to.
Over Saturday (aside form cleaning parts) I pulled all the bodywork down from the attic space in the garage and ended up re-attaching not only the nose cone but all the fairing, indicators, mirrors and rear fairing as well. I stood back and admired my hover bike in all its glory, before admitting that without wheels and a seat, it was going nowhere and removed the fairing again.
First light
New battery
A quick search on the interweb showed my local(ish) Halfords had the correct battery in stock at £49. I had a £35 Love2Shop voucher, so used this and my debit card to buy a replacement battery.
Sunday morning, in goes the new battery and I turn the ignition on. Same two warning lights but this time the rev counter showed 0rpm, just like it should. A check of the the electrical system showed everything seemed to be fine. I ran a check on the temp gauge by pulling the connector from the sensor and earthing it – the temp gauge went from C to H as it should. There’s no temp warning light on this bike.
Next up was the fan, again, pulling the connector and using a jump cable operated the fan. Whether the switch works will have to wait until I have the bike running.
With the tank on, I connected the low fuel sender and after about a minute, the low fuel light came on. I also put the side stand down and the warning light came on. Both horns work which surprised me and the pass switch also works. As does high and low beam (along with the high beam warning light).
Not all plain sailing
There were two problems, the stop light wasn’t working, nor
were the indicators. I could hear the indicator relay click once but that was
it, no indicators or hazard lights. The relay was suspected and after pulling
it, cleaning the connectors and reconnecting it again, the indicators &
hazard lights worked fine.
Now to the stop lights. First to check were the bulbs. I
swapped them over with the ones in Tiger2 and they worked fine, so it’s not the
bulbs. I thought I’d test the voltage running to the rear light cluster. 11.8v
to the tail light when switched on 0v as expected when off. The brake light was
a different result. 0.19v when off and 5.8v when on. It seems I have a short
somewhere.
I could hear the front brake light switch clicking, but not
the rear one, so disconnected the front switch first and tested the voltage
again – same result. Next, I disconnected the rear switch and reconnected the
front. Another voltage test, the same result. Some head scratching ensued
before I decided to trace the earth connectors on the bike, clean them and
reconnect them. Same tests yielded the same results. Time for some continuity
tests on the wiring, both +ve and earth circuits were tested but showed
nothing. Unlikely as it seems, the only other explanation and one I discounted
earlier was that both brake switches had failed. I disconnected both
then using a jump wire, bypassed the switches. The brake light came on. I’m
reminded of Occam’s razor
More items for the shopping list then, although I have a
spare rear brake master cylinder from the Tiger, so I think I’ll see if the
switch is interchangeable first before buying new.
Update
Connected the rear brake switch from the Tiger and it doesn't work - what is it with brake switches - oh well, more money to fork out.
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