Had Electrical Problems in Mexico, Please read to avoid same problem

[88millimeter]

Gentlemen, while traveling throgh Mexico i experienced strange electrical problems. It started with the ABS light intermittently turning on. I tried cleaning the sensor and cycling the ignition. The problem persisted. The weird thing is that the light would turn on with either the movement of the bike or the throttle. That is to say if the light turned on i would twist the throttle and either the movement of the bike or the postion of the throttle would make the light go away.

After 2 days of this problem the bike failed to start, no dash lights, it appeared as bike was completely dead. I had to jump it a few times to get the dash to turn on.

I removed the battery to compare to a spare battery that i was going to purchase. When i removed the battery i noticed some gunk/dirt and what appeared like burn marks on the ground side post and nut holding the lead to the post. The shop in Mexico did not have the right size battery, after i cleaned the post and nut i reinstalled the battery the bike turned on just fine and i have not had any problems since then (1 week ago).

My theory is that bugs, dirt and moisture accumulated on the ground post which is the post located on top (the way the batery is positioned in the bike). The gunk and corrosion led to bad contact between the battery post and the lead.

My fix - i removed the connector at the post, cleaned all surfaces and applied vaseline (poor man's dielectric grease).

Hopefully this post helps at least one other person.

 

[shrekonwheels]

Good info, thanks.

 

[Cycledude]

Thanks for the tip !

 

[Brick]

Over my many years riding I've seen bad ground connections cause many many different problems. This is very good advice!

 

[taskmaster86]

Thanks for the tip!

This happens to cars pretty frequently as well. To fix it, remove both battery terminals plus any other connections to the battery and clean them the best you can! Scrub all the stubborn corrosion off with a stiff metal brush, steel wool, fine sand paper or a 3M scour pad. If you want to de-grease the connections at this point, feel free to do so using a fast evaporating solvent such as electrical contact cleaner, non chlorinated brake parts cleaner or acetone. Now put the terminals and all connections back together tightly and coat them with dielectric or any type of automotive grease. I just use whatever grease I am using on the rest of the machine, usually lithium complex wheel bearing grease. Anything to seal out the connections and keep them corrosion free will help. Vaseline isn't really a good choice because it melts and runs at about 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

::012::

 

[talreli]

Gentlemen, while traveling throgh Mexico i experienced strange electrical problems. It started with the ABS light intermittently turning on. I tried cleaning the sensor and cycling the ignition. The problem persisted. The weird thing is that the light would turn on with either the movement of the bike or the throttle. That is to say if the light turned on i would twist the throttle and either the movement of the bike or the postion of the throttle would make the light go away.

After 2 days of this problem the bike failed to start, no dash lights, it appeared as bike was completely dead. I had to jump it a few times to get the dash to turn on.

I removed the battery to compare to a spare battery that i was going to purchase. When i removed the battery i noticed some gunk/dirt and what appeared like burn marks on the ground side post and nut holding the lead to the post. The shop in Mexico did not have the right size battery, after i cleaned the post and nut i reinstalled the battery the bike turned on just fine and i have not had any problems since then (1 week ago).

My theory is that bugs, dirt and moisture accumulated on the ground post which is the post located on top (the way the batery is positioned in the bike). The gunk and corrosion led to bad contact between the battery post and the lead.

My fix - i removed the connector at the post, cleaned all surfaces and applied vaseline (poor man's dielectric grease).

Hopefully this post helps at least one other person.

My ABS light would go ON irregularly during rides in the last month. I though that it had to do with some short caused by my junction box which supports a GPS, spot-lights, and a radar detector. My symptoms were somewhat similar, in the sense that at low RPM, when pulling on the clutch the bike will stall and the dashboard would reset. Eventually, the bike will restart and run with no issues.

I found a dry leaf stuck in the ground terminal. After removing it, and putting 90 miles today, the ABS light didn’t go ON even once. Obviously, need some more time and millage, but I hope that this took care of the issue.…. It's the first time in a while that the ABS light didn’t go ON even once during a ride !