Gremlins Again

[79beem]

After cruising beautifully for 400+km over 2 days, spark to the ignition/engine unexpectedly died.  Spark back,spark gone....dead.

This has happened once before. I have a thick cloth tool roll in the tool box spot and i make sure its not touching any wires.

last time it happened it was exactly the same as yesterday. Splutter,die........splutter, die.......dead.

This time though when sitting by the road the Gen and Oil light came back on then died without me doing a thing.(keys in ignt on) Then died again.Power to all lights still on.
I felt under the rear of the tank jiggled a few wires,nothing. Checked fuses,ok. felt under the tank again and "Bingo",power to ignition back. despite my best efforts to find the problem the power stayed on, all the way home in fact.
 
last time after much investigation it seemed strangely that it had something to do with the wires running beside the rear coil leading towards the neutral and oil pressure switches.  After much jiggling and unplugging of connects the problem went away and wouldn't come back.    

Today i stripped the entire loom of its dodgy tape job by a PO, to no avail, no dodgy connections or exposed wires. Unplugged everything checked for corrosion/looseness. Nothing!!! Bending,pulling,jiggling wires.Nothing!!!!

All power on where is should be. Ignt on,Gen/oil pressure light on.  

New front and rear looms seem reasonably priced.  

Any ideas chaps???
  

[Barry]

Did you check the main earth connection to the front ignition coil bracket. The bracket has been known to break which can result in an intermittent earth or loss of earth. Might be better to locate the earth connection some place else.

[79beem]

Cheers Barry, Already cracked and rerouted. Not the problem unfortunately.

[79beem]

Still scratching my head here chaps. Still cant find the bugger,is there anything I'm missing or haven't done?

 Nervous about riding her again until I nut this one out. I'd hate this to happen again during cornering or overtaking.  

HELP!!

[Bob_Roller]

Try jiggling the key in the ignition switch, had one go bad on me, took quite a while to finally narrow it down, but when one of the contacts finally broke off inside the switch, made troubleshooting much easier .

[79beem]

Thanks Bob, I'll give it a jolly good jiggling.
One curiosity about my bike, the right indicator flashes faster than the left. Is this a possible cause or just the relay on the blink?
Grrrr...Electrical issues......

[Bob_Roller]

A quicker flashing of the turn directionals is usually a connection somewhere, I'm going to say possible corrosion, check the wiring inside of the turn directional 'pods', including the socket and bulb itself, the metal base of the bulb, is the ground for the turn directionals .

[79beem]

Hey Bob,
Sustained,varied and repeated key jiggling didn't duplicate the symptoms.

I'm thinking ,replacing coil contacts,  resoldering all wire to connector points, cleaning and applying dielectric grease to all contacts/bulbs/earths etc.
Anything else?
 :-/

[Bob_Roller]

You've pretty much have it covered .

Intermittent electrical problems are the worst to solve !!!!

[79beem]

Ok, cheers Bob. I'll have to be thorough with the quality of my work so I don't spend every ride worrying. If only I could find the source........  

[tvrla]

Agreed! As if electrical faults aren't bad enough - intermittent ones are the worst!

When you go for a ride, take along a wiring diagram and perhaps work out a troubleshooting directive to follow. Know the points where there should be electricity and check for it.

Also, for greater peace of mind, carry a lead to hot wire the bike should it fail completely.

Hopefully the fault isn't in the ignition components and running a 'new' hot to the dead spot will get you home.  

[Ed Miller]

You've pretty much have it covered .

Intermittent electrical problems are the worst to solve !!!!

That's for sure.  Every once in a while my R65 won't start after a ride, like when I stop for gas.  I have to push start it.  But when I get it home and pull off the starter cover to do some diagnosing, it will start so I can't test anything.  The big drag is I'm not willing to ride on the ferries over the Willamette River, as I don't fancy trying to push start it up the hill on the other side.  

They want you to shut motors off on the ferry.  

[79beem]

Just wondering, isn't dielectric grease an insulator and not a conductor?

So packing connectors with it would inhibit flow?

Therefore I should only apply to outter surfaces/orifaces of contacts/connectors?

Thinking out loud here.  :-?

[tvrla]

That's correct - dialectric doesn't aid conductivity.

The point of the stuff is to protect against corrosion and getting damp. When the connectors are slid together, there will be metal/metal contact. That's all that matters.

[Barry]

The true definition of "dielectric" is complicated and confusing but yes it's an insulator when used to describe electrical grease.  I have a tub of Vaseline on the shelf and use that for all sorts of things including battery terminals and electrical connectors. It doesn't matter how much you put on as Wirespokes said metal to metal contact cuts through the grease and makes a good electrical contact and in the long run better electrical contact than if it was assembled dry as the grease prevents corrosion. Vaseline is a good enough substitute for proper dielectric grease except  at high temperatures and where it comes in contact with rubber. I'm never sure about the effects of Vaseline on rubber.  

Using an insulating material on electrical connections is an odd concept to get your head around  but it does work.

One place not to use grease is moving electrical contacts. They tend to be self cleaning anyway.