Electrical help...please!

[IdahoMtnSpyder]

I'm thinking that the low voltage of the battery may have caused the cluster and/or ECM to get confused as evidenced by the screen acting oddly. Disconnecting the battery and letting the bike sit for a minute or two should give the computers a chance to reboot cleanly when you connect a good battery as recommended above.

There is quite a bit of discussion on here about batteries but generally speaking you will be well advised to go with a Yuasa like the OEM unless you're inclined to spend extra for something like an Optima, which I'm not sure gives a return worth the investment. In any case don't waste your money on a cheapie from Wally World, or the like.

 

[oldgoat]

I you follow WasWinger's suggestion & mine & the lights & dash come on without the ignition being turned on, I'm thinking that maybe you have fried a relay or two in the front fuse box & power is going to some circuits all the time.

 

[latony007]

I'm thinking that the low voltage of the battery may have caused the cluster and/or ECM to get confused as evidenced by the screen acting oddly. Disconnecting the battery and letting the bike sit for a minute or two should give the computers a chance to reboot cleanly when you connect a good battery as recommended above.

There is quite a bit of discussion on here about batteries but generally speaking you will be well advised to go with a Yuasa like the OEM unless you're inclined to spend extra for something like an Optima, which I'm not sure gives a return worth the investment. In any case don't waste your money on a cheapie from Wally World, or the like.

Going to try this and if i get a new battery, which seems to be my only choice at this point if this doesnt work, or the jumping without the battery as suggested above, it will be the yuasa from amazon.

 

[latony007]

I you follow WasWinger's suggestion & mine & the lights & dash come on without the ignition being turned on, I'm thinking that maybe you have fried a relay or two in the front fuse box & power is going to some circuits all the time.

i thought about this too, i have checked all fuses and they are good. Since the lights and fan were coming on i assumed they were good too. is there any way to test a relay see if its bad?

 

[oldgoat]

i thought about this too, i have checked all fuses and they are good. Since the lights and fan were coming on i assumed they were good too. is there any way to test a relay see if its bad?

I've never tested a Spyder relay but I have tested many 12V relays for operating powerful horns.

On the ones I have tested you put 12V across terminals 86 & 85 of the relay while having an ohmmeter across terminals 87 & 30.

Without the 12V you will have an open circuit. When you apply the 12V the contacts inside the relay will close & you will see 0 (zero) ohms.

Now I don't know about the relays in the Spyder front fuse box. You are on your own there but I'm sure they must work on the same principles.

 

[latony007]

Nothing works. I am doomed. i had it unplugged for an hour and a half. i hooked jumper cables direct to the wires and again the headlights and fan came on but no gauges and no start. I had the battery tender hooked on the battery while it was unplugged and it went green but when i hooked it back up nothing. I had pulled all the relays while i had it disconnected and plugged them back in but nothing. I am going to try and bring the battery in to pep boys or something tomorrow and have it tested but if i cant jump start it and the tender shows green i dont think thats it either. I really dont comprehend how plugging in a seat could have done all this.

 

[pitzerwm]

The fact that the headlights and fan come on without anything else, I'd say that relay is burnt closed. Trade it with another and see what comes on. Maybe you toasted the cluster relay, so move them around. You should have a battery store around have them test your battery, I've toasted 2 of them being stupid. $100 cheap lesson.

 

[latony007]

The fact that the headlights and fan come on without anything else, I'd say that relay is burnt closed. Trade it with another and see what comes on. Maybe you toasted the cluster relay, so move them around. You should have a battery store around have them test your battery, I've toasted 2 of them being stupid. $100 cheap lesson.

i have tried swapping all three of the relays that can swap and same thing, unless its the big main relay 1 which there is only one of, unless you can switch that with one of the smaller ones?

 

[trikermutha]

I don't agree with some of these tips- but could it be that the display is toast and causing the bike not to start because the VCM does not recognize it anymore??

Take the bike in and have it fixed before anymore things may go wrong and it cost you more cash in the long run..

Good luck and hope to here you got it repaired soon..

 

[Dubliner]

All motorcycles and I'm including Spyders loosely here, have sensitive electronics. Jump starting one using jump leads from a car is asking for trouble. Relocating your fuse was reckless but you know that now! The tenders or maintainers are just used to top off your aging battery and don't give a decent soak charge to a battery. Ideally you should unhook the battery from the machine so there is nothing drawing current from it. Charge it at 1.5 amps for about six hours. If the battery has caps carefully remove them and check if the water level is ok and if below the plates add distilled water to just above the plate or to the lev l line. If the battery is a sealed unit forget about opening it up.
The modifications to the fuse arrangement you should return to the way they were before screwing with them. Once the battery is charged refit it to the bike.
The click you heard earlier would be the solenoid for the starter, they are like a big magnet, when you go to spin over the engine this engages to carry the massive current to prevent damage to your switch contacts.
Once everything is as original as can be try starting it again. Switch the engine kill button on and off and center it and double check that it is in neutral rock it back and forth in gear if possible.
Maybe it will start. If there is a dogbone fitted fuse check that it hasn't blown and also check all the fuses for one that might be toast. Electrics are a pain to play with but if you are fitting farkles you should fit a parallel wiring system that is fused rather than tap into the main loom. I had a customer who fitted Christmas lights to his Kawasaki and tapped directly into the cpu main loom frying the system we had such a laugh over that one.

 

[oldgoat]

I only have one last suggestion.

The -ve cable from the battery goes under the top frame rail to the other side of the seat. It is bolted there.

If by chance it is not really clean & tight you won't get the amps you need through to the starter motor & will hear that dreaded 'click'

It is a real pain to tighten if it is loose as you have to have a 10mm wrench on both the bolt head & the nut. The nut is 'very' difficult to access & will require patience & a selection of wrenches until you find one that will fit.

I wish you all the best in trying to get this fixed & hope it doesn't break the bank.

(I don't think it is your battery that is causing the problems)

 

[latony007]

All motorcycles and I'm including Spyders loosely here, have sensitive electronics. Jump starting one using jump leads from a car is asking for trouble. Relocating your fuse was reckless but you know that now! The tenders or maintainers are just used to top off your aging battery and don't give a decent soak charge to a battery. Ideally you should unhook the battery from the machine so there is nothing drawing current from it. Charge it at 1.5 amps for about six hours. If the battery has caps carefully remove them and check if the water level is ok and if below the plates add distilled water to just above the plate or to the lev l line. If the battery is a sealed unit forget about opening it up.
The modifications to the fuse arrangement you should return to the way they were before screwing with them. Once the battery is charged refit it to the bike.
The click you heard earlier would be the solenoid for the starter, they are like a big magnet, when you go to spin over the engine this engages to carry the massive current to prevent damage to your switch contacts.
Once everything is as original as can be try starting it again. Switch the engine kill button on and off and center it and double check that it is in neutral rock it back and forth in gear if possible.
Maybe it will start. If there is a dogbone fitted fuse check that it hasn't blown and also check all the fuses for one that might be toast. Electrics are a pain to play with but if you are fitting farkles you should fit a parallel wiring system that is fused rather than tap into the main loom. I had a customer who fitted Christmas lights to his Kawasaki and tapped directly into the cpu main loom frying the system we had such a laugh over that one.

i did not think it that reckless at the time as that is what the directions called for. The only difference was i did not have their "adapter" so i bought the one above and used a different fuse slot then they called for because the adapter would not fit in the fusebox using the slot they recommended and i used the correct amp fuse in each slot. If anything you would think one would have blown. I did remove the adapter and put the original fuse back in after not being able to start but that did not help. What i dont get is why there are no blown fuses, if i fried the gauges isnt the fuse supposed to stop that? The relays are the only things i cant tell if they are working or not. Im going to have the battery tested as my last resort even though i doubt thats it and then it will probably sit for a month while i try and scrape up whatever robbery amount the dealer gives me.

 

[latony007]

You know the more i think about this the more im hoping its the relays. If the headlights and fan are coming on just when attaching cables (but not the running lights) i would think that means the relays are bad because there is one for the fan and one for headlights. I used the 10amp fuse next to the large main relay 1 which i could not read at the time but later saw its said something about relay controls so maybe the fuse adapter thing doesnt work right and caused the relays to go bad but it would have to be all of them since the fan and headlight one dont control the engine starting. Im going to try replacing the main relays and see if that works. Now i just have to see if i can find the big one locally which is hard without a part number because auto stores cant cross reference anything off the spyder. If anyone has an autozone or napa part # for that big relay #1 let me know (apparently this big one is only on the 08 model?). I saw on another thread some you could order from overseas for really cheap which i will do but want to find somethign local so i can see if thats the problem right away, I dont want to drop 70$ on relays if its not the issue but i know if i take it to the dealer its going to be you need this that this that give me $1000.

 

[oldgoat]

You know the more i think about this the more im hoping its the relays. If the headlights and fan are coming on just when attaching cables (but not the running lights) i would think that means the relays are bad because there is one for the fan and one for headlights. I used the 10amp fuse next to the large main relay 1 which i could not read at the time but later saw its said something about relay controls so maybe the fuse adapter thing doesnt work right and caused the relays to go bad but it would have to be all of them since the fan and headlight one dont control the engine starting. Im going to try replacing the main relays and see if that works. Now i just have to see if i can find the big one locally which is hard without a part number because auto stores cant cross reference anything off the spyder. If anyone has an autozone or napa part # for that big relay #1 let me know (apparently this big one is only on the 08 model?). I saw on another thread some you could order from overseas for really cheap which i will do but want to find somethign local so i can see if thats the problem right away, I dont want to drop 70$ on relays if its not the issue but i know if i take it to the dealer its going to be you need this that this that give me $1000.

It says in the repair manual that for diagnostic purposes the 4 relays in the front fuse box can be interchanged to find the one that is not working.

As your headlights are working, you could try putting relay 1 in place of the headlight one & see if headlights still work.

If they don't, maybe you have found your culprit.

Also put headlight relay in relay 1 position & see if it starts.

 

[latony007]

i feel like an idiot. I finally got a chance to take the battery over to pepboys they said it was bad, i bought one they had (making sure i could return it) and brought it home. it was like 1mm to big to fit in the bracket but i managed to hold it up and connect the wires and the SOB started right up!!! Im soooo happpy. Its a lesson learned that A the battery tender saying its fully charged is not to be trusted and B i can't jump this stupid thing if i get stuck because i tried with my car and bike. Good news is nothing appears to be fried, at least in the minute i had it on. I tool the battery back and ordered a Youasa YTX24HL which is what the Youasa sight said to order and it will be here on Friday JUST in time for my Charity ride this weekend. Even though i am sure the fuse thing didnt have anything to do with i I think im just going to use and SAE connector and plug the seat directly into the battery this time

Thanks to everyone who tried to help, why the hell the headlights and fan were coming on when i tried to jump from my car who knows! when i tried from my other bike it didnt do that but wouldnt start either. Anyone who posted messages is ever in Simi Valley hit me up cause a beer is on me! Hopefully i will be back to fully function, with a corbin seat on Friday after work.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000N5SBBM?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00

p.s. dealer wanted 50% more for the same battery, which they said they had to fill and charge and the Yuasa sight says to use only factory prepped batteries because the battery lays flat on its back and is at an angle.

 

[oldgoat]

:thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

 

[dlby]

My battery on a 9 month old RT was drained totally by leaving key on for 3 days

It would not charge
It would not let me jump start bike (click)

Walmart - battery - quick charge - ( issue fixed )

I could have sworn it could not be just battery
But--- it was!

I thought I screwed it up by jumping it etc --- it was a scary day

All is well now

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-T337A using Tapatalk

 

[IdahoMtnSpyder]

Great news! I wonder if your battery was shorting out inside thus draining the jumper battery enough that it did not provide enough voltage either. The reason the lights came on, I think, is because those relays are grounded through the ECM, and if the voltage to the ECM was too low it may have allowed the relay ground circuit to be completed.

 

[oldgoat]

What I don't understand from a scientific point of view (once a scientist, always a scientist) is that if you removed of your battery's cables & connected those cables to your car battery: why it did not start ?

Makes no sense at all in view of the fact it started right up with a replacement battery. Your car's battery was also a replacement battery & far more powerful than the one you bought.

Maybe your jumper cables did not make a good enough contact somewhere as a lot of amps are required to start.

 

[latony007]

What I don't understand from a scientific point of view (once a scientist, always a scientist) is that if you removed of your battery's cables & connected those cables to your car battery: why it did not start ?

Makes no sense at all in view of the fact it started right up with a replacement battery. Your car's battery was also a replacement battery & far more powerful than the one you bought.

Maybe your jumper cables did not make a good enough contact somewhere as a lot of amps are required to start.

I wondered this same thing myself. I tried it several times and the first time it seemed to brighten the gauges but would not start it even with reving my car engine. Attempts after that all it would do is turn on the lights and the fan (also something i dont get). I also tried jumping it direct to the cables from my sport bike and no luck there either (but did not turn on the lights). I guessed that battery was just not enough for it. The new battery i tried was hanging by a thread so once it started i just quickly shut it off and disconnected the battery and returned it. i should have probably checked all systems but the gauges were good and pretty sure i saw the headlights come on. I was afraid the batt was going to fall and take the cables with it.