sp838

I AM SO ANGRY. Took a look at my brand new front fender, which I installed less than six months ago, and it has cracks around two of the three holes where the two halves join. So craptastic! There is no possible chance it would be under any sort warranty, is there? Even if I bought it through a dealership? Gonna be doing the front end swap this winter and using a GSXR fender, but I was planning on using this on another bike. This really p*sses me off. Oh, and very nice fender extender btw.

"Hey, man, your thread is only on Page 5! You can't rest now!" Hah!!! Yes. I think maybe I should mark this as "solved". At least for now "How did you instal the ESR510 - In the usual spot?" Yes, on the bracket where the stock one lived. Grounded it to the timing cover. "Did you extend the battery wires or the two yellows?" Extended the battery wire with slightly heavier gauge wire than what was provided. "Did your new reg. come with a fuse?" Yes, came with a fuse, but we cut the fuse holder off and replaced with another one that has heavier wires. Located it right next tot he battery terminal under the seat. "keep a close eye on the bullet connectors" The POs replaced the bullet connectors with spades, so we removed the bullet connectors from the r/r and crimped on male spades. POs did some really weird stuff, including running a line directly from the battery (the one I thought was somehow related to the turn signals) through a headlight relay and into the old r/r. We cut all of that out. As if by magic, my high beam idiot light is working again. Thanks again for all the help guys. You rock

Yes, that is what I meant. The wire is attached to the gearbox case on a bolt located directly behind the lock. The bike will certainly be happier once that above pictured monstrosity is taken out of service. Is it also worthwhile to ground from the case to the frame?

Found the attachment point right behind the seat lock, was actually pretty easy to find. Holy Moses is it in sh*te condition. Didn't have long enough wire to replace it tonight, will do it at the end of the week. Just re-wrapped it with fresh electrical tape in the meantime. Bike will be so much happier with a real ground wire.

Got the ESR 510 installed tonight, with the help of my senseï. Put in a new 30a fuse holder. Holding off on the maxi fuse for now. The charging is now up to 14.8-14.9 with the throttle open!!! About 12.9 at idle, with the high beam on it barely drops, maybe down to ~12.7. Knocking on wood, but that seems to have been a huge success. So much crappy, weird hacked up wiring going on in there. Got some of it cleaned up. What a relief. Thank you all for your help.

Very interesting, thanks Roy. My bike seems to have a non-stock filter. At least it's not the UFI brand sold by Harper's. Gonna replace that.

Anyone have any tips as to how to most easily remove the battery ground wire? What is the minimum amount of stuff that needs to be disassembled in order to get to where it is attached to the bike? I've followed it back to behind the seat lock, where it disappears into a bunch of other stuff. Mine was cut at some point and spliced back together, I want to replace it with a fresh wire tonight. Any suggestions as to how to do this as efficiently as possible wold be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Well, I have no idea if / when mine was ever replaced by the POs, so gonna pop a fresh one in there. K_Roy, would love to know the results of such a test, would be interesting to know if this could be a potential issue for the r/r's general health. docc, granted I know next to nothing on the subject, those numbers seem high to me too. Maybe they are intentionally over stating the operational loads in order to discourage people from going crazy adding accessories and then complaining when they don't work?

Just read this on the Powerlet website: "A dirty fuel filter can cause the fuel pump to use 120 watts, 60 more than normal. A dirty fuel filter is a common cause for a voltage regulator to fail on a fuel-injected bike." http://www.powerlet.com/learningCenter/excessCapacity Very interesting. Anyone have any direct experience with this?

Well, mine is busted anyway, so I'd like to make sure it's not leeching juice out of the system. I suppose I could replace it with a working one, but I have no problems remembering to put the side stand up before riding off, so it seems like more trouble and money than its worth.

Hey Kiwi_Roy: how do you like your Speedhut gauges? I am very tempted to buy one, but I read that they are not waterproof... Worried that I'd be throwing away $350+ if I bought one and then got caught in the rain. Have you ever got yours wet? Or anyone else who might have them?

Ok, so the the thing attached directly to the battery is a K&S flasher relay: http://www.amazon.com/Technologies-Type-Flasher-Relay-24-0005/dp/B0013LDMLO So it seems like a lot of the sloppy wiring is related to the blinkers added by the PO. Really can't wait wait to clean up the electrical. Again, not to get off topic but: as far as the intake is concerned, the left side has an allen bolt in the spot where, on the right side, there is a breather tube. Should I remove this breather tube and close it up?

Had the tank off last night and checked the main battery grounding cable as suggested by Kiwi_Roy, and it has a fat wad of electrical tape in the middle of it, which suggests to me that it was cut at some point and spliced back together. So that's the first thing to fix. I didn't trace it back all the way to where it's mounted, wouldn't be surprised if there were other nasty things back there. The wiring along the frame under the tank for the most part looks ok, I didn't really get into it. Kind of dirty overall. Some weird lines running here and there that don't look like they are part of the stock harness. The battery stacks have three thick main wires on each terminal, and a thin green one on the positive terminal which goes to a cylindrical electrical thing next to the ECU (which I can't find in the manual ,) and on the negative there is a thin red wire which is zip tied to the main harness that goes along the spine, and it then disappears into a rat's nest of other thin red wires. I will investigate these further. Lots of brittle cracked harness, but I didn't notice any exposes wires or much in the way of corrosion (yet...) Not to change the subject, but there was another weird thing I found: what looks like a thin breather hose coming out of the right side intake manifold. It wasn't attached to anything. It does not appear in the workshop manual. When I put the tank back on it annoyed me that it was hanging there. So I (temporarily, pending some explanation) attached it to the tiny little nozzle on the bottom of the "Pressure Adjuster" (section I page 6 of the workshop manual) because that was the only thing nearby that seemed like a logical place for it to go onto. I haven't tested the r/r yet, will do that next, and get deeper into inspecting the wires. I'd like to figure out what those two extra wires are that are running off the battery. There are also some connectors that aren't hooked up to anything. The PO put a LED fender eliminator on the back and LED turn signals on the front and that was done sloppily, with electrical tape splices. Also the side stand switch is broken but still wired into the harness, so that could be a cause for some electrical badness, I'd like to remove it if possible.

I think I'm going to skip the whole testing / grafting on a diode or bridge rectifier hoopla and buy a new r/r. If Kiwi_Roy endorses the ESR510, then that's as much of an endorsement as I need. Will upgrade the 30 amp fuse to a Maxi fuse, since docc swears by it and it makes sense to do it. Then I'll hunt down and correct any other issues elsewhere. I still would very much like to upgrade the alternator itself, which was the original point of this thread. I'm not satisfied with the idea that only 350 watts at best can be produced from this machine, and I never got a satisfactory response from Euro Moto Electrics as to why the 450 watt stator and rotor combo, which is compatible with the v11, can't produce more than the stock unit.

Gahhh. No. I'm an idiot. I have all standard fuses. (Was looking at pictures online that didn't show the scale of the Maxi fuse.) Ordered some, along with a holder. Also ordered some connectors, contact cleaner, and wire. Can't seem to find the right diode yet. According to Kiwi_Roy's schematics I need a 20 amp diode, but so far can't locate one. Went to a Radio Shack today and they only had 12v 1a diodes. If anyone knows where to get the correct one, please let me know. Thanks again!

I think I already have MAXI fuses. They all look like this: http://www.cj-jeep.com/cj3b/images/6101640.JPG

I'm always willing to spend on getting better tools. The one I have now only cost me $10 on harbor freight, so I have no problem getting something better.

Haven't had the chance to yet. I will hopefully have some time next week. I also need to buy all the necessary materials. My multimeter doesn't seem to have the diode testing function either. Can you recommend a specific model?

docc - just checked my battery voltage as you asked: key off 13v, key on 11v. Also checked my fuses. All look good, the 30A fuse however looks slightly melted. The plastic around one of the legs is a little wavy. Doesn't look burned or otherwise discolored though. Just deformed. Another weird thing is that the fuses don't match what is indicated on the cover, don't know if that a good thing or not. The last three that are listed as 5A on the cover are 15, 20 and 15 amps each. My headlight relays are bosch brand. I'd post pictures but haven't figured out how to do that here yet.

Thanks mznyc! I would love to take you up on that. (And that way you can see the fender eliminator in person.) I will send you a PM.

I've been emailing with Bruno at Ghezzi-Brian about their exhaust systems for the v11, and during our conversation, he recommended switching to pod air filters: "the K&N air filter is a good solution but the original airbox is too small, with two high efficiency filters you can get a better result" Just food for thought. I think this is a controversial subject, not trying to start a flame war; I'm going to stick with my stock airbox and k&n filter for now, but dumping the air box is very tempting...

Hahaha... Ok ok, you've convinced me. Contact cleaner, and maybe some vaseline... Still dreading it. Any other tools I will need? What about general electrical/electronics instructional material? I know exactly nothing about this stuff.

docc: I will make those grounding mods as soon as possible, thank you. Also will clean as much of everything as possible, and check the fuse. I don't remember the voltage with the key on and bike not running, will check and post back. As I do not have a functioning Tach right now (on my to-do list) I don't know the rpm, but it was pretty much full throttle. Roy: Why no dielectric grease? I've been told by many people that I should use it. Don't know if my multimeter has that function... I will check. The headlight relays that I know of are located under the seat. There are two of them (with "headlights" written on them) and they are grey Bosch brand...... Thanks for your help guys.

Not very good results: around 10.3 with the starter cranking, 12.6 at idle, 13.7 with the throttle wide open. Hooked a 60 watt bulb to the battery to see what would happen with an extra accessory, barely over 13 with the throttle open, a little over 10 at idle. Dreading it, but will have to start by going over the whole bike connection by connection with contact cleaner and dielectric grease. Then... Also, my fuel injection is clearly f-ed up. Fueling pulsates. I could feel the bike lurching while riding but wasn't sure what it was.

I'm going to run some tests on my bike next week. I'll post my findings.