BIKE LOST ALL ELECTRICAL POWER, DIFFERENT PROBLEM THAN USUAL

[admin]

I was up in Trenton this past weekend to ride the Highway of Heros with Tricky (Rick), wpgfire (Wayne) and Goldwings 4 Ever (Bob) and pulled in to get some gas, shut my bike off, fired it back up to pull away and all was well. Then I pulled around to wait for the other guys and shut my bike off to wait for the rest of the guys to gas up. Then when we were ready to go I went to start my bike there was no display on the dash and no lights showing on the dash. I figured, OK so the 30 amp fuse must have blown. Checked the fuse and it was good, then Tricky and I checked the wires near the starter relay and a few wires showed that they had been heated but nothing was shorted back there, so off comes the seat and false tank so we could check the wiring at the front of the bike and sure enough we found the problem at the black connector on the lower right inside of the fairing. It was the 14 gauge red wire connector that feeds all power to the ignition switch. I had never ever seen or heard of this connection going bad, it had heated and actually melted away part of the connector housing and the spade connector itself had turned black from the heat. I managed to clean the spade terminal and reconnected it and voila the bike was alive again so we reassembled the bike and we rode off and rode the entire 180 K's of the parade with no problems at all arriving at the Downsview air force base where the parade ended.

Next, we all went for supper together and then we rode off, heading for home, and my bike ran great until about 10 PM, where on a dark backroad, my lights flashed off, then on, then off then all power was lost once again and I coasted to the narrow and steeply sloped shoulder of the road. I tried disconnecting then reconnecting that burnt connector inside the fairing but could not get lasting power so Tricky came back up to my bike and his hands were small enough to get into that tight space, while I held the flashlight, to reconfigure the female spade connector so that it would apply pressure to the male connector so a decent enough connection could be made to get the bike running. Wayne had already left to go get his trailer to get my bike home but my bike fired up and we called Wayne to cancel the trailer and Tricky and I rode to Tricky's house where I was invited to spend the night where we could work on my bike in the morning. The next morning Tricky starting doing some electrical mods to the wiring behind the battery to clean up and solder all connections properly and I worked at the front of the bike where I cut the red wire away from the spade connectors and proceeded to hardwire that connection by soldering in a section of 14 gauge wire to bridge that connection solidly and make it troublefree. I now have a reliable bike again and I am sure grateful for the caliber of the guys I was riding with for they did everything they could to help get my bike going after it lost power. If anyone has a similar problem to mine and can't find any problems with the dogbone fuse or in the wiring near the starter relay then I suggest that you check the lower right connector inside the fairing and specifically the 14 gauge red wire spade terminals because that's the one that went bad on mine. See pics below.

Here's that troublesome connector;


Here's Rick doing some of his Tricky mods to my bike;


Here we all are at Downsview airport, you couldn't ask for a better group of guys to travel with;
From left to right: Tricky (Rick), admin (Vic) wpgfire (Wayne) and Goldwings 4 Ever (Bob)

[85GL1200I]

good information.....glad you got it working!

[SIR tricky]

Ha Ha thanks for that one, It's got to be the white tee shirt that makes me look skinny