ELECTRICAL RUN !

[andy york]

I went for a little ride the other day. Hit the freeway to get out quick. Looked at the Tach....no worky...went another mile and thought "this is not right".

Pull over, bike idling, hummmm No headlight either.check taillight ....hummmmm no taillight either. Pop the seat ...15 amp light fuse is blown. No biggy

..put another fuse in ...no tach, headlight, or taillight. I go home.

Today I pop the headlight out ...bad lamp...Pop the taillight out...bad lamp...don't have another tach (really ! maybe).

Swap lamps out and try to start. battery dead. Charge battery. Start bike ...headlight works...cool.....taillight still no worky....tach no worky...fuse cover is off

and I see the 15amp fuse blow again. Have I mentioned before that I hate electrical...

I think I have another voltage regulator but I have to go look.

I have seen a lot of lamps fail for whatever reason, from 55w headlights to 10000w TV lamps.

This one tried do do its impression of a solar flare.

Help

[docc]

What is the battery voltage ignition off/ idle/ 2500 rpm?

 

House call?

[Kiwi_Roy]

Don't go anywhere without the headlight working, if it's not chances are the battery is not getting charged because the regulator relies on the headlight circuit to make it work (the Ducati Energia one)

Try unplugging the 4 pin connector below the headlight relay bucket, see if the fuse still blows.

Unplug the regulator black and white wire, see if it blows.

 

The headlight circuit also powers the stop light, if the fuse doesn't blow straight away I would start looking in that area.

 

It could be the regulator tits up but try the simple stuff first

If you do need a regulator Electrosport make a good alternate.

[doug m]

Seems to me I had the same problem, I think it was an exposed wire causing a short, because of  poor routing or a pinch ,

[andy york]

Yeah ...I have to find my meter and start checking stuff.

As I recall (kinda iffy) I have the electrosport complete setup on the bike.

key on ...replacement headlight worked but taillight did not.

Then when I had it running at about 2 minutes 2000rpm the fuse blew.

I sure it will be one of these  before its over

Sometimes its a ppain being married to an Italian women but boy the sex is good ....I mean riding is good -)))))

[Kiwi_Roy]

To find a short without blowing a dozen fuse or more substitute a large 12V lamp for the fuse.

Work your way around the bike wiggling all the wires, when you find the short the lamp will flash at full brightness.

 

I use an old headlamp bulb with a couple of short wires soldered on, stuff the wires into the fuse socket.

Since it's the headlight you are tracing the lamp will be on at half brightness until you find the short or you could remove the headlamp globe.

 

I'm a little puzzled as to why the lamps are blowing but they do that sometimes if the connection is bad, the inrush current for a cold lamp is many times normal.

[andy york]

I'm still pondering "the 4-pin plug under the headlight relay". Searching memory banks I don't recall a 4-pin connector

in the relay area but I will look .

trying to get a little heat in the man cave then I'm on it 

[andy york]

voltage key off 12.2

            key on  12.2

running 3k        12.2

found the other regulator and installed it bypassing the "bike" regulator

voltage in all scenarios is 12.2

me thinky my alternator has shat itself but I will await further instruction(as I don't think I have another alternator)

still no tach so I am guessing it may have shat itself with a voltage spike also.

need coffee so ( maybe I do have an alternator) be back later

[Kiwi_Roy]

Andy,

          The ducati energia regulators rely on the headlight circuit being alive to make them work, with the key on you should see 12 Volts at the regulators Black wire.

 

Unplug the two yellow wires, measure the ohms between the two sockets (from alternator), it should be close to zero, if it's open take the cover off and inspect where the wires attach to the coils

Start the bike and measure the AC Volts between the two sockets it should be quite high at 3000 revs say 30-60 Volt range

 

Get back, I'll send you a PM

[andy york]

Well, Found another alternator...swap out ....no fix.

found the other regulator....swap out....no fix

 Ac volts between 45 & 50 volts between yellow leads on alternator #1 and #2

Ohms between yellow leads .2/.1 on #1 and #2

 

I'll have to go back and check for 12v at the regs black wire.

 

I have a headlight switch on the bike fyi.  off / running lite / headlight

 

So all the while i've been getting a no charge situation....15a blue fuse blowing so leave it out till we remedy this situation.

puit a 60 w lite in there and gave it some revs ....blew the 60w lamp (12v lamp)

Put a new fuse in....start the bike...idle ...12.8-13v charging at idle -))) rev it up a little ...pop...15a fuse gone

going to buy more fuses and see what kind of 12v lamps are available   BRB

[Kiwi_Roy]

Something weird going on for sure, I suspect the full alternator output is getting into the headlight circuit bypassing the battery i.e. 50 Volts

 

Is it possible the red wire from the regulator is connecting  to the common point supplying the headlight fuse? but not going to Battery +

The battery would normally clamp the voltage to a safe level even if it's getting overcharged (the voltage indicates it's not getting charged)

 

Does the bike crank normally

 

Has anyone added an extra fuse or modified the wiring in any way

 

I think you said it has an electrosport

 

Check the hot side of the headlight fuse has a good connection to battery +. If you grab the fuse holder and give it a sharp tug it will pop out in your hand so you can inspect the wires at the back.

Make sure there's not a loose wire near the battery post, it's easy to miss one.

 

A scan of your schematic would be a big help.

 

(I moved the schematic to next post)

 

[andy york]

I'll back up one step further.

After 8 years I installed a new Oddssey PC 545. My assumption is that this is a recently manufactured battery, New store chain in

town…hasn't been sitting around forever….blah blah blah

anyway

yes …it has the electrosport setup on it right now..2 years maybe ...shortly after Docc did his ( he keeps notes)

Bike cranks normally 

Yes ….I put a dedicated 12 g wire from the regulator to the battery because it was melting the 30 amp main fuse.

So i'm back out there snooping around

stay tuned

[Kiwi_Roy]

I looked at my schematic, i can see how it might happen. But without being able to see how yours is it's a shot in the dark.

 

Another thing I would check carefully is where the main battery ground connects to the chassis, behind the seat release key bracket on mine, if that were intermittently disconnecting it might cause a problem for example the battery could remain at 12V but the ground might let the whole system float much higher if the Electrosport is directly connected to the battery it wouldn't see anything wrong except a low battery and crank up it's output.

 

Describe how you have each of the electrosport wires (the battery ones) where do they go exactly

Which model Electrosport?

 

I'm sure it will turn out to be some silly little thing but luckily you haven't fried the ECU yet.

 

[andy york]

Maybe SUCCESS !

Yes ...I was getting 50 volts to the fuse block..I pulled the blown fuse again and put the meter probes in and with a little rpm was getting 50 volts.

For grins I unhooked the 4pin headlight connector and started over. Hot battery installed, all cables connected and tight, another new fuse, minus the headlight 

4 pin connector. 

Could it be ....Yes !!! up and down through the rpms and no blown fuse. So what the hay is going on.?

4 pin wires look good ....bucket headllight connector looks good...Ahhhah  the square plug that goes into the headlight bucket has a nasty,frayed,broken black wire.

The hard part is going to be finding the crimps and things to fix it.

I remember a post about some custom wiring adaptors ...have to try and find that.

Thanks for all your help Roy. -))))

 

 

PS: I am assuming that this will be the fix

[docc]

Definitely looks like the kind of thing the Magic Smoke        can escape form!

 

Roy! Roy! Roy!