Weird Electrical Problem in Handlebars? No Spark Unless Disconnected

[nickhesson]

A month or so back, I posted on here about my fire repair job and am very thankful for all the help I had along the way.


On to my new problem. I am having some kind of electrical short or resistance that is preventing my from achieving spark, which I've narrowed down to be something in the handlebar electronics.


The sled will only achieve spark if I first disconnect the plug/chassis for the electronics going to the handlebars. With this disconnected I can start the sled. In order to regain electronics on my handlbars, I simply plug the clip/chassis back in. Boom, my lights are on, and most electrical works. I currently have the killswitch taken apart, as we thought the short was there, but it is not.


That being said, I have noticed that my reverse button no longer works, even when I plug the handlebar electronics back in. Which is quite the pain in the "edit for bad language" for unloading right now. So I'm starting to think that the short may be in there. However, I have tried to separately disconnect each side of the electronics, left and right, but nothing changes until I unplug the chassis/plug that goes to both.


I have tried electrical cleaner inside the plugs which seems to work the first time, but now no longer makes a difference. Is it safe to assume here that the problem is the actual clip/chassis plug that feeds up to the handlebars?


Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!


I will post an image of the mentioned clip/chassis plug in a few minutes for better reference.

 

[nickhesson]

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/805/img5794h.jpg/


http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/207/img5792j.jpg/

 

[tex78]

So if u unplug the top bars plugs under the pad it does the same thing.

 

[nickhesson]

originally yes, I found that if i unplugged the left side of the handlebars it started, however now that is not the case. The only difference that is made is when the bigger connector is disconnected.

Im at a loss here...

 

[vjc]

Does it have a throttle breaker?

 

[AkNomad]

Get yourself a multimeter, disconnect the connector and ohm out your wiring going to your handlebars. Shouldn't be too diffcult to find the short that way.

 

[nickhesson]

what is a throttle breaker?

 

[vjc]

what is a throttle breaker?

Check for a small button behind the throttle lever, a loose cable will keep this from fully closing and will make a dead short. they do this in case your throttle sticks wide open.

 

[nickhesson]

well guys, heres an update. Reverse wasnt working because the battery was dead. trickel charged it over night and reverse works.

It appears that it is not taking a charge while the engine is running. Does this mean a bad battery or bad wiring? What can I check for the case of a battery not getting charged. It charges fine with the trickle charger.

While its good to know that reverse will seem to only work with a battery, this may or may not be the case, as there is a catch...

The electrical problem i've been having, where I had to disconnect the harness under the CDI panel, Ive plugged and unplugged and did the whole routine again, and am now back to the original discovery. The problem appears to actually be in the left side of the handlebar electronics. I now have the harness clip plugged back in and have the top left side unplugged at the top of the handlebars, and everything starts and works fine. Once I plug it back in, (need to to achieve reverse), it does still work, but its shotty at best.. u can tell its hiccuping, as soon as I unplug the clip for the left side, it runs fine again.

So now that I know its somewhere in the left hand side of the handelbar electronics, my best bet is to start taking apart the electronics there? Check all the connections etc? My electric starter doesn't work right now so perhaps there is an issue inside the start/rev button that is causing the short.

Good to narrow things down.. or maybe i havent. what are your thoughts?

 

[AkNomad]

I'd start with the start/rev switch. It doesn't seem jammed or feel funny when you depress it does it? Sounds to me like you have a short in that left hand wiring.

To check if you battery is charging while in the sled, check the voltage with it running then with it shut down. If it's the same then your battery charging system isn't working or there's something that's keeping it from charging the battery, like a broken/burnt wire.