Jornie1
New member
I hope this helps someone.... FYI
While on a nice group ride last weekend to Snook Haven restaurant in Venice, FL my trusted 2010 RT SM5 died 70 miles from home. After a delightful lunch on the beautiful Myakka River our group of mostly Spyders prepared to depart for home. I suited up, started the machine and headed out of the parking lot to join up with the group. Making a left turn my Spyder died deader than a hammer. I mean black instrument cluster, no lights...no nothing - dead. I turned the key off then back on and Spydie lit up again and the engine started per normal. I started my turn out, it died again. Instrument cluster black with key on.Two or three more start and die attempts and that "Houston we have a problem" feeling settled in. Now my mind is racing.... grasping for a cause. I flagged down a couple of other Spyder dudes in our gang before they got away... We then did the old, "gather around and stare at the machine trick" thinking it may fix itself... NOPE... that didn't work.. So.... Where to begin?? Like most, start with the simplest most likely problem source.. and proceed from there. 1. Battery connections, checked and tight. 2. Even though fuses aren't intermittent I checked them anyway... All OK... 3.Hmmm.. gotta be relays, right? Nope.. they are switchable within their size and still couldn't get the panel to light up with the key on except for a few seconds at a time. After nearly completely undressing my Spyder in public, looking for loose connections, or anything obvious, with all the moving around someone noticed that with the key on moving the handlebars to left & right caused the instrument cluster power to flicker on and off.. So, with the speaker grills removed I could get my hand up and behind the ignition key. With the key on and wiggling wires... I found the problem, sort of. The wire bundle connected to the back of the ignition switch was causing the intermittent black out. There was a zip tie around the steering column and that wire bundle. The disconnect was more pronounced when turning to the left... After 2 years and 15K miles of riding it had gradually loosened one or more of the wire connectors. Pushing up on that bundle of wires as best I could with very limited access, I was able to get my Spyder to run with only one more failure out on the highway. I made my way home safe and puzzled.
The next day, safely in my shop I dug into the back of the Ignition switch, here's what I found... The D.E.S.S, that's the (Digitally Encoded Security System)...the system that recognizes your digitally encoded key.. Well the wire from the D.E.S.S. antenna was barely hanging on the electrical connection going into my ignition key module. Nothing works without that connection. My conclusion..... the factory installed zip tie around wire bundle and steering column was too tight and over time pulled the D.E.S.S. connection just loose enough to cause this intermittent problem. Quick solution, put your hand into speaker grill openings with handle bars turned left or right for access to ignition wire bundle and push up like crazy on the entire bundle. Then get it to your shop for a better more permanent fix. Cut the zip tie. When it's replaced... not so tight.
Has this happened to anyone else? I hope this will help someone out there one of these days and save a lot of head scratching and time. I was already looking for my road side assistance number for someone to head my way with a trailer.
Happy trails... Len
While on a nice group ride last weekend to Snook Haven restaurant in Venice, FL my trusted 2010 RT SM5 died 70 miles from home. After a delightful lunch on the beautiful Myakka River our group of mostly Spyders prepared to depart for home. I suited up, started the machine and headed out of the parking lot to join up with the group. Making a left turn my Spyder died deader than a hammer. I mean black instrument cluster, no lights...no nothing - dead. I turned the key off then back on and Spydie lit up again and the engine started per normal. I started my turn out, it died again. Instrument cluster black with key on.Two or three more start and die attempts and that "Houston we have a problem" feeling settled in. Now my mind is racing.... grasping for a cause. I flagged down a couple of other Spyder dudes in our gang before they got away... We then did the old, "gather around and stare at the machine trick" thinking it may fix itself... NOPE... that didn't work.. So.... Where to begin?? Like most, start with the simplest most likely problem source.. and proceed from there. 1. Battery connections, checked and tight. 2. Even though fuses aren't intermittent I checked them anyway... All OK... 3.Hmmm.. gotta be relays, right? Nope.. they are switchable within their size and still couldn't get the panel to light up with the key on except for a few seconds at a time. After nearly completely undressing my Spyder in public, looking for loose connections, or anything obvious, with all the moving around someone noticed that with the key on moving the handlebars to left & right caused the instrument cluster power to flicker on and off.. So, with the speaker grills removed I could get my hand up and behind the ignition key. With the key on and wiggling wires... I found the problem, sort of. The wire bundle connected to the back of the ignition switch was causing the intermittent black out. There was a zip tie around the steering column and that wire bundle. The disconnect was more pronounced when turning to the left... After 2 years and 15K miles of riding it had gradually loosened one or more of the wire connectors. Pushing up on that bundle of wires as best I could with very limited access, I was able to get my Spyder to run with only one more failure out on the highway. I made my way home safe and puzzled.
The next day, safely in my shop I dug into the back of the Ignition switch, here's what I found... The D.E.S.S, that's the (Digitally Encoded Security System)...the system that recognizes your digitally encoded key.. Well the wire from the D.E.S.S. antenna was barely hanging on the electrical connection going into my ignition key module. Nothing works without that connection. My conclusion..... the factory installed zip tie around wire bundle and steering column was too tight and over time pulled the D.E.S.S. connection just loose enough to cause this intermittent problem. Quick solution, put your hand into speaker grill openings with handle bars turned left or right for access to ignition wire bundle and push up like crazy on the entire bundle. Then get it to your shop for a better more permanent fix. Cut the zip tie. When it's replaced... not so tight.
Has this happened to anyone else? I hope this will help someone out there one of these days and save a lot of head scratching and time. I was already looking for my road side assistance number for someone to head my way with a trailer.
Happy trails... Len
