Strange Electrical Problem - Help!

[highbeam]

I have a '99 R1100S, 42,000 miles and I've had it since new and continue to enjoy the heck out of it. I think the electrics are quite similar to other R1100 models and am hoping somebody else has already had this problem and found a simple fix.

 

When it is a cold morning and I turn the key to the "Run" position and am ready to hit the starter button, the clock fades away like it has no power. The bike starts fine but the tach and speedo also don't work. Everything else seems to work normally. I'll ride for a mile or two and the clock, tach and speedo all come to life at once. This doesn't happen every morning but the colder it gets the more often it happens.

 

I'm hoping someone else has had this problem and found an easy fix for it. I don't have a good wiring diagram yet but it seems there must be something common to the clock, tach and speedo like a relay or ground or something. I've changed teh ignition switch but that wasn't it.

 

Any ideas? Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

 

All the best,

Wayne

[Tony_K]

You didn't mention battery at all. How's that doing?

[highbeam]

Good point. Battery is new, that was the first thing I changed.

[Tony_K]

Ok easy fix eliminated. I do know that a current draw will pull down certain led screens until the current is recharged or re regulated but why and where the problem is I do not know. NEXT.

[highbeam]

Thanks for trying!

[russell_bynum]

When the clock/speedo/tach suddenly come back to life, does the clock reset to midnight?

[ShovelStrokeEd]

Sounds to me like a connector problem. Static battery voltage is only about 12.6 volts, drops to 10 or so during cranking. Once the motor gets a little speed up, the voltage regulator will take system voltage up to somewhere around 13.8 to 14.4 volts. Voltage drop across a corroded connector could cause the feed to drop below the trigger voltabe for the LCD screen on the RID and play heck with the other instruments as well. You'll have to pull some tupperware, including the front cowl to get to this stuff. Some contact cleaner and a soft stainless steel brush along with some di-electric grease to reseal the connector not on the contacts and you should be good to go.

[EffBee]

Sounds to me like a connector problem. Static battery voltage is only about 12.6 volts, drops to 10 or so during cranking. Once the motor gets a little speed up, the voltage regulator will take system voltage up to somewhere around 13.8 to 14.4 volts. Voltage drop across a corroded connector could cause the feed to drop below the trigger voltabe for the LCD screen on the RID and play heck with the other instruments as well. You'll have to pull some tupperware, including the front cowl to get to this stuff. Some contact cleaner and a soft stainless steel brush along with some di-electric grease to reseal the connector not on the contacts and you should be good to go.

 

Good call, Ed. The other thing I would check is the headlight. See if it goes out when you start the bike (it should just during cranking) then comes back on. If it doesn't come back on right away, then you've got a bad load-shed relay. This relay cuts power to everything but the motor during starting, so it gets ALL of your battery's power. Once the engine is started, the relay releases power back to things like the headlight, horn, etc. You may have a relay that's hanging up and not releasing right away.

[Rocketman51]

I think you may have a contact problem in the fuse box, or a bad fuse. I would buy some new fuses of proper size, and check the fuse contacts when you change them out.

[highbeam]

Thanks for the thoughts on this.

 

The clock resets itself to 1:00 when it comes back to life.

 

The problem doesn't seem to be related to the starting circuit as I can see the clock die before even touching the starter button.

 

I thought it might be a contact somewhere that goes open when cold and then either through vibration or heat of running closes again. What would be common to tach/speedo/clock?

 

Thanks again,

Wayne

[Ken H.]

The RID (with the clock) gets voltage from two different fuses, F3 and (I think, but I don't have a schematic in front of me) F5. One is the keep alive when the ignition key is off, the other the supply voltage when it is on. Sounds like you are missing the latter.

[RFW]

Thanks for the thoughts on this.

 

The clock resets itself to 1:00 when it comes back to life.

This confirms that the problem is the power to the clock and instruments, either cuts out totally or the voltage drops so low that the clock (etc.) stops functioning compeltely. The only thing that will cause the clock to reset to the default 1:00 time, is a power interruption.

 

A others have said, look for a bad connection (connector etc.). Usually, just unplugging and reinserting fuses and connectors will scrape away any corrosion sufficiently that things will start functioning again (at least for a short time). Once you see which connector/fuse is the problem, they you can clean the contact properly.

[highbeam]

Great. I'll give it a try, starting with the fuses.

 

Thanks again.

Wayne

[kioolt]

Since the three things you say die at the same time and come back to life at the same time are all at the front of the bike I would suspect that the ground connection that is common to these three items could be the problem.

 

When you say the speedo doesn't work do you mean that the speedo illumination is not working? Isn't the speedo itself a mechanical speedo like on my RT?

[highbeam]

Not the illumunation, but the actual reading. Speedo is electronic, like the tach and the clock. I'll look for a common ground too. Good idea.

 

Thanks,

Wayne

[RFW]

Not the illumunation, but the actual reading. Speedo is electronic, like the tach and the clock. I'll look for a common ground too. Good idea.

The instruments and clock are not grounded separately, but the ground connection is just one of the connector contacts.