Continuing - So what did you do to your bike today...?

[MickyJB]

The big job for today was split the indicator switch block, it was getting a bit stiff to push in so I gave the contacts and indicator slide a good clean with contact cleaner, a small smear with electrical grease and put it back together. Now works as good or better than when it was new.

[Hooli]

Update for that...

14 is back together & it's going to work tomorrow. No front brake light switch as the switch works, so I need more space around it to get to the loom & trim it back to find a working bit of wire. No rush on that, the MOT isn't till March.

Hmmm, scrap that thought.

She was running fine last night when I checked. Rolled her out this morning & coughing, spluttering, FI light & running on two cylinders.

Bloody thing! I've not even touched anything related to plugs or injection so most bizarre.

[Hooli]

Well my 14 appears possessed. I rolled it out today to find the running fault, all I did was fish out the diagnostic connector & bridge it before I started the bike. She started up & run fine with no faults. I can only assume I'd managed to not click the ECU plug in quite properly & wiggling the wiring sorted that.

So with that success I fixed the front brake light switch too. The fault turned out to be the Black/Blue wire from the switch had no connectivity back to the multiplug in the headlight. As the Black/Red wire was too short too, from all the times I've cut rotten connectors off & replaced them, I just run a new pair from the multiplug up to the switch and everything works again.





Ignore the cable tie on the brake light switch, the mounting screw snapped years ago & I can't drill it out of the master cylinder casting. So I stick the switch on with a small blob of araldite & it works fine. The cable tie was just to hold it in location till it fully dried.

Then a short test run to go see the state of the car as the garage rung & said the welding had got much worse than expected. 14 performed fine & the car looks expensive as normal.

[Hooli]

I ended up going out on 14 today although I had no plans too & can confirm she's riding as sweet as a nut again & didn't breakdown once in the entire day!

[Hooli]

Insert much swearing & muttering here.

Rode to work this morning, all fine.

Go to ride home & my 14 is so flat all that happens when I push the button is the lights go out. Managed to bump it as the work drive is on a slope. Rode home, turned it off & it started fine three times. Checked the charging & it still good.

Pondering a failed battery, but why only occasionally? although I have heard of them breaking internally so contacts aren't connected to anything occasionally.

[Eric GSX1400K3]

Have you done the load test on the battery mate? Ignition on ~12.4V then crank it over and you should see no less than 10V.

[Eric GSX1400K3]

Oil service today at 53000km. It's been ~12 months and (I think) 3000km since the last oil change. Mileage on the 1400 is down since buying the BMW K1300GT.  New HiFlo 136 filter and 5l of Gulf Western Syn3000.  Pulled out the oil temp sensor and checked that, as I seem to be using more fuel than normal.  Sensor works in that I get a mV response when applying a temperature difference to it. Need to investigate a bit more.  Gave the engine a wipe over with some HD engine brightener and checked sump bolts, I was getting a bit of weeping around the bottom of the engine. A few of the bolts did 1/8th of a turn, the one under the oil filter about 1/4 turn, so i think thats the culprit.  Good to go for another 5000km or 12 months.

[GSXKING]

Oil service today at 53000km. It's been ~12 months and (I think) 3000km since the last oil change. Mileage on the 1400 is down since buying the BMW K1300GT.  New HiFlo 136 filter and 5l of Gulf Western Syn3000.  Pulled out the oil temp sensor and checked that, as I seem to be using more fuel than normal.  Sensor works in that I get a mV response when applying a temperature difference to it. Need to investigate a bit more.  Gave the engine a wipe over with some HD engine brightener and checked sump bolts, I was getting a bit of weeping around the bottom of the engine. A few of the bolts did 1/8th of a turn, the one under the oil filter about 1/4 turn, so i think thats the culprit.  Good to go for another 5000km or 12 months.

@ 43,000 does that mean it's almost run in 😂😂

[KiwiCol]

Insert much swearing & muttering here.

Rode to work this morning, all fine.

Go to ride home & my 14 is so flat all that happens when I push the button is the lights go out. Managed to bump it as the work drive is on a slope. Rode home, turned it off & it started fine three times. Checked the charging & it still good.

Pondering a failed battery, but why only occasionally? although I have heard of them breaking internally so contacts aren't connected to anything occasionally.

I've had very similar Hooli, a fair while ago (3-4 years at least) I rode the Black to work, all good, go to ride home & same as you, nothing except the headlight dimming.  Got it jump started & rode home, stop / start a few times & appears ok, but it wasn't, the battery needed replacement. Can't recall what the SOH of it was exactly, but was something like 65% health.  New battery & sweet as again.

[grog]

What you said Hooli, bad internal connection, new battery required

[Eric GSX1400K3]

[/quote]

@ 43,000 does that mean it's almost run in 😂😂
[/quote] almost

[Hooli]

I've had very similar Hooli, a fair while ago (3-4 years at least) I rode the Black to work, all good, go to ride home & same as you, nothing except the headlight dimming.  Got it jump started & rode home, stop / start a few times & appears ok, but it wasn't, the battery needed replacement. Can't recall what the SOH of it was exactly, but was something like 65% health.  New battery & sweet as again.

What you said Hooli, bad internal connection, new battery required

Cheers chaps. It's just annoying to not be able to prove the fault before spending money. I've got a battery tester that says it's ok, but of course that's worthless with an intermittent fault.

I'm used to about 10 years from  Yasua, so it's disappointing this one has died in about 18 months.

[Hooli]

My other thought is the reg/rec failing when hot. I've had that on a car once, where it'd charge for about 10mies in daylight. So coped on short trips in summer, but as soon as I used the electrics more the diode pack would get hot & fail. Tested ok cold every time.

Only way I can think to test that is take it for a ride with a mutlimeter & jumppack under the seat. Hope it fails & test things at that time. Kinda difficult to see it fail before turning the bike off though,

[Hooli]

This morning I checked over my 14 again, it started several times without the slightest issue and using my cheap battery tester it tests as 100% good with more CCA than quoted on the side.

Still wondering if the reg/rec was packing up when it got warm under load I dug through my leccy testing stuff & found the old LED based batt/charging tester I'd got & hardly ever used. I much prefer a multimeter so this thing just laid in the bottom of the bag ignored since I got it got for a couple of quid. I cut the croc clips off, crimped on a couple of terminals to fit to the battery & duct taped it to the tank.



Then with the jump pack & battery tester under the seat I went for a ride to load up the charging circuit with grips & jacket on to see if it'd fail after a while. Well, it's worked perfectly all day. Not the slightest issue with charging after about 80 miles.

Random pic of one place I stopped to prove I've got an old man's bladder...



Not the slightest issue starting all day, at no point did it ever sound like it was less than fully charged. So god knows what's going on, I was really hoping to get an issue so I could test it while faulty and actually know what the fault is. I still suspect the battery but it tests 100% good & I don't want to spend £70 on a guess without proving it.

Also today this happened, which means another oil change is due so that might happen tomorrow.



Finally I saw these at Squires. Proper 70s choppers (except the stupid belt drive on the BSA). BSA closest & XS650 behind.

[Jeykey]

Gee Hooli, 180.000 miles??! Bloody sh!t, now that´s riding. My K5´s only got 31k.