My electrical gremlings

[Night Rider]

Hi Everyone,

 

This is my first post here on the forum. I bought my V11 Le Mans about year ago with about 13000km on it. My first year with the bike has been very uhm... challenging and it left me stranded more than once. It actually made me look back at my old bike but then again after I week of riding it I would probably wanted the V11 back. :-)

 

My last electrical problems I was able to fix myself thanks to the excellent information I found here on the forum. Thank you all! Until last week the bike would randomly drop out for which seemed no reasons at all... I switched all my old relays to new ones but it only seemed to delay the problem for a few weeks. After more then a week it dropped out again now and then, but half an hour it would run fine again and I couldn't find anything wrong. So I started riding around with wiring diagram and multimeter. :-) Last week I finally found that it was the relay base to blame! After rebuilding part of it (relay sockets 4 & 5) all problems disappeared! woot!

 

Next electrical issue I'm facing: when cold the bike runs perfectly. But when hot it seems to have a bad throttle response, seems like missing a few spark ignitions when idling and riding really instable at around 3000 RPM. I'm pretty sure it is another electrical problem? Regulator ground? It seems to be random again and directly related to the brightness of my head light. Another something I discovered: when he's starting to act grumpy again and I stop the bike the battery warning light turns bright on after I switched the ignition contact off and on again (it goes back out after engine start) However on cold start the warning light is never lit.

 

I think I'm going to check the other sockets my relay base also and then my next bet would be the regulator ground? Anyway thanks again for all the information here on the forum, it already helped me a out lot!

[Tom M]

Welcome Night Rider! Sorry to hear you V11 is giving you a hard time.

 

I'm no electrical expert but I suggest that you put a volt meter on the battery leads (which are clean & tight, right?) and check for proper charging. You should see about at least 12.5 volts with the key off, 13v at 1200rpm and 14-14.5 volts above 2500 rpm. If that's OK you might want to check the regulator connections to verify that they aren't corroded or loose. Since you think it could be an intermittent charging problem installing a volt meter would help you figure it out.

 

If the poor running when hot isn't an electrical problem check the rubber intake boots for air leaks. Also consider doing a valve adjustment/TB sync/TPS check if they haven't been done in the past 5k miles. Good luck.

[docc]

Sorting the rest of the relay bases is a good idea. As is grounding the regulator.

 

Look also at the 30 amp regulator fuse. The contacts on this mini-fuse are rather undersized for the load and many of these fuses have melted or the contacts have burned off (without "blowing" the fuse!).

 

Cleaning the contacts in the ignition switch is not difficult and will be worthwhile.

 

Check your battery voltage and charging voltages with a digital meter. A weak battery is trouble for these systems. Look for battery voltage 12.7-12.84 and charging over 14 volts.

 

Best of luck and keep us posted!

[Buzzard]

Additional grounding will do no harm, and probably help. Run a wire from the regulator mounting bolt to the engine case. Another from the battery neg terminal to the engine/transmission case. One more, from the frame to engine case is a good idea. I know that the bike came with ground wires, but the terminals, contact areas, and even the wires can fail. On my LeMans, poor grounding was playing havoc with the voltage, which affected the fueling and ignition. After running a few ground wires it was a different motorcycle.

[Kiwi_Roy]

After running a few ground wires it was a different motorcycle.

+1 on the regulator grounding, I feel that's the main cause of regulator failure.

Your bad idle and missing could be the ignition switch also, that happened to my V11 Sport, I found the switch would measure as high as 20 Ohms.

You can check it from under the seat, pull R3 and measure the resistance from the top terminal (30) to common point at Fuse6/7, it should be

Test Point Layout.pdf

Several others have found a broken wire where it solders to the switch, check that also it might be touching then loosing contact intermittently, anchor the wires so they don't flex at the solder jont.

 

Good Luck

 

Roy

[vuzzi]

Hi, interesting topic.

 

My battery was low yesterday though I had a (small) ride a few days before.

 

I'm not sure whether the battery is loosing charge or whether it's not loading enough.

 

I put it on the loader which indicated 50-75% full. After a few hours loading the battery reads 12,75 V.

 

Just to be sure I checked some points. The alternator seems OK; plenty of Volts at x rpm. When running at 2500+ rpm I read (only) 13.6 Volt at the batetry. Does that indicate the regulator is not working properly? I measured 12,9 V after revving a few times though, and that value drops back to 12,75 in say ten minutes when the engine is turned off.

 

Any ideas anyone?

[Kiwi_Roy]

Does that indicate the regulator is not working properly? I measured 12,9 V after revving a few times though, and that value drops back to 12,75 in say ten minutes when the engine is turned off.

 

Any ideas anyone?

Make sure your regulator is well grounded, don't rely on the holding bolts, run a heavy ground wire between the regulator case and an engine bolt.

Regulator Diode Tests.pdf

 

Sometimes the regulators overload and melt the diodes.

Do this simple test and get back to us, just unplug the yellow and red wires from the harness.

 

 

Roy

[gstallons]

Roy, I am glad you are a member.

[mznyc]

Roy, I am glad you are a member.

Roy as thankfully taken up the slack of losing Callison to the CARC cult

Thank You!

[Kiwi_Roy]

Roy, I am glad you are a member.

Roy as thankfully taken up the slack of losing Callison to the CARC cult

Thank You!

Actually I couldn't do much at all without those excelent Carl Allison drawings. All Guzzi owners owe him big time.

[Buzzard]

I thought I would tell you about my test results as to charging voltage and grounding. Before running additional grounds, testing at the battery terminals with a digital volt meter, I got at idle: 12.3V, at 1K RPM: 13.2V fluctuating somewhat, at 2500-3000 RPM: 13.1-13.6V fluctuating wildly. After additional ground wires, at idle: 12.5, at 1000RPM: 13.6 steady, at 2500RPM: 14.6 steady. This motorcycle was actually staying charged just fine, until I installed heated grips. An additional bonus was that the running characteristics of this bike changed dramatically. I used to think that the program of the ECU was just a little crude, you know, what with this just being a Guzzi and all. I no longer feel that way, it runs just fine, no hiccupping, coughing, or stalling. It is one very fine fuel injection/ignition map.

[Night Rider]

Welcome Night Rider! Sorry to hear you V11 is giving you a hard time.

 

I think the problem was/is that I bought a bike which only ran 12000 km during 9 years and I doubled this amount in less then a year.

 

Some things I already checked:

 

• Rubber intake boots are new (I needed to replace after one month I got the bike).
  
• Valves were adjusted, TB, TBS, all done during last maintenance.
  
• Fuse contacts are all ok.
  
• Battery was replaced after three months (first time it really got me stranded after refueling).
  

 

My best bet at the moment is the regulator, I will check the charging voltage and wiring this weekend and keep you informed

[yamalama]

Roy, I am glad you are a member.

 

+ 1 !

 

[callison]

Follow the two yellow leads up from the alternator to under the left front of the fuel tank. The two yellow wires have connectors to the main wiring harness at that point. Those connectors are just simple bullets and they change a tad over time from corrosion or mechanical vibration. My guess is that when they get warm (they do pass a lot of current) they start making poor contact.

 

Like a weather report, there is only a small chance that I'm correct but this is another place to look for a cause of your problem(s).

[callison]

Roy, I am glad you are a member.

Roy as thankfully taken up the slack of losing Callison to the CARC cult

Thank You!

 

Gad, run out of diagrams to post and everyone thinks you've dropped off of the edge of the world. While it's true I don't post here anywhere near as often as I used to, I'm not gone. As far as CARC seduction, ah, no. I'm spending most of my riding time on my V7 Café and loving the heck out of the little beast. I rode it 963 miles combined Monday and Tuesday.