DIY Again? Still?
categories:
- “life”
- “motorcycling”
- “ramblings”
”The cheapest part of every motorcycle is the owner.”
In the life of owning a “Lemon Law” motorcycle, I’ve been told now that it’s manufacturer is not responsible for any more repairs. The dealer’s statement was kindly enough, but also vague enough that this may mean all/every repair ever. Or just repairs related to the Lemon Law-branding on its title.
I’m not deterred quite yet. At this point, the rider-input device has been a)re-wired, 2x, and b)replaced. This leaves the next bit as “all the wiring between input and computer.”
The official manufacturer repair guide helpfully includes not one whit of info on how to replace a single “branch” of the wiring. It doesn’t even instruct on how to replace a single connector’s branches of wiring. It simply tells the mechanic how to replace the entire wiring harness.
Note: the last dealer operation, someone in shop told me they’d never seen a motorcycle disassembled that completely. Implying that perhaps they were on the threshold of replacing the entire harness when {something intervened}. For whatever reason, it was decided to replace the last foot of wiring toward the input device. Using about 500% more wire than needed. (First rewiring.) I went in and removed the several-ounces of bundled-up surplus. (2nd rewiring.) The problem persisted.
To be fair, the problem occurs really randomly. When it does, the computers wisely all revert to a limping-mode because loss of accurate input is really dangerous. All the ritual fixes like software updates do nothing because everything seems to have fixed it since the occurance.
A month later...
I’ve since purchased an entire wiring loom from eBay, carefully teased out just the 6 wires I needed, developed a means to release and replace those 6 pins from the 64 others in that connector, then installed my new wiring between control and computer. A dozen rides since and no sign of the problem. Of course, we’ll never know if that’s fixed it since the problem was randomly occurring.
I’ve also purchased on eBay the replacement for the engine part affected by this controller. It would seem odd that the recipient of the commands could masquerade any role it might play if it had a problem but that seems like a possibility. The fact that the bike was so heavily dismantled by the dealer implies they were on the cusp of replacing the wiring harness. (That’s the ONLY wiring part for the motorcycle. Imagine replacing 54lbs of wire because 6 strands were problematic.). As an unlikely cause, I’m ready to replace it next nonetheless.
I’ve also gained access to a source of information that can yield wiring diagrams. That means I can now start to look into real specific electronic causes, even though I’ll get no insight into the various black boxes. Still, this represents near X-ray vision into the workings I never had before. I long for the days when Chilton and Haynes manuals had complete diagrams of my car’s wiring and plumbing. I figured out a lot from that info over the years.
So here’s hoping. I might still be the cheapest part of this equation, I’m hoping I don’t need replacing before necessary.
Edit from Feb 2022:
The wiring replacement was most likely successful. Past repair attempts never went more than 6 months between onset of failures. Then repetition with increasing frequency until next attempt seemed to quell the gremlin. Riding season 2021 had zero events. I’m still practicing awareness, I ride at the back of any group. I try to remind and rehearse the need for sudden clutch action at highway speeds. But it seems like I can trust it. Of course, having handled those incredibly thin, solid-core copper wires, and having routed them not through the official path, and having wrapped the bundle in not the approved material nor supported with the designed number of locations, now I get to worry about them failing anew. But like coping with my first failed O2 sensor* I think I can handle it if this ever appears again.
*Important thing to remember about motos: engine-speed directly affects bike speed. In a way not at all like cars, there’s no mass to dampen a sudden gain-loss-gain of +500 rpm when the closed-loop fuel-injection system goes bananas because the O2 sensor (the closure in “closed-loop”) looses its shit. Especially at low, mopey-doping speeds, which is the only time an f-i engine’s ever in closed-loop mode.