Suzuki Boulevard - Electrical

[John500]

Greetings,

I have a 2008 Suzuki Boulevard C90t. I also live in Florida so the weather can be hot! On top of this the bike has been running hot and I believe this has been due to a vapor lock issue. I think I confirmed this by finding a screw in what is probably the vent hose. If it wasn't the vent hose it was the overfill drain hose. Either way, there are signs of a vapor lock condition too often.

I took it out yesterday for a short run (about six miles) and it was hot by the time I parked it. Today I went to start it and there was no juice to the dash. The battery was fine and the more I looked I found damaged wires near the ignition but NOT the ignition wires. I believe these wires go to the stator which is below the ignition. The first image shows these wires.

You'll notice in this picture that I've rested a burnt plastic connector on the stator cover which connected two of the wires to the right and probably the one to the left which is still connected.

I attempted to see whether my dash would light up by turning on the ignition and touch the disconnected wires. This didn't work. If no juice is making it to the dash, is it safe to assume that the circuit goes from the ignition and kill switch through the stator?

How can I begin to make sense of these wires using a meter etc.

Thank you in advance !!

John

[jeffyjeff]

John500,
No, if your Boulevard C90t follows convention, and I would bet that it does, the kill switch and stator are entirely separate circuits.

I think it is likely that the three burnt wires go to the stator; burnt three phase stator wires are pretty common on several of the Honda models that I have owned. If you can follow a flow chart, the attached fault finding diagram should be of value to you. Don't assume you problem is with the stator, it could be the regulator rectifier or something really simple like a loose connection. The flow chart does a pretty good job of pinpointing the cause of failure.

Hope this helps. good luck. Jeff J.
____________________
History shows again and again how nature points out the folly of men - BOC

[Nobby the Bastard]

Stator wires only go to the rectifier and thus to the battery.

In that condition they would have no effect on the igintion apart from the fact your battery will die from lack of charge.

Overheating would be a coolent issue, not the stator.

In summary, you have two issues, a fucked stator/regulator and an overheating engine.
____________________
trevor saxe-coburg-gotha:"Remember this simple rule - scooters are for men who like to feel the breeze on their huge, flapping cunt lips."
Sprint ST 1050

[John500]

Jeff,

Thanks for the response and diagram!!

I took a look at the diagram. Since the bike doesn't start I figured it all starts for me at the end of "D":

Switch the multimeter to DC-Voltage (DCV or Vdc). With the block-connector disconnected as above, connect the multimeter-leads up to the two extra wires in this connector (apart from the three YELLOW wires), this in the connector-block emerging from the wiring-loom, not the other side going to then generator.

Would you agree or disagree these wires emerging from the loom are the ones in my picture?

I should have said regulator-rectifier cover instead of stator cover. At any rate, I'm guessing I should remove the RR cover also?

Thank you!

John

[John500]

>> In that condition they would have no effect on the ignition apart from the fact your battery will die from lack of charge.

Since the battery is fine (12.45) what might have been affected seeing I have no power to the instrument cluster / gauges?

[WD Forte]

The braiding on the 3 burnt wires tells us they're stator wires
and the connector has burnt out.
Its not uncommon.
It happens because of high current passing through poor contacts
where the resistance leads to heat which in turn eventually burns out the
connector.

The stator and reg/rec may or may not have suffered too, only
some systematic testing will tell.
This same testing should also point to causes and solutions for the
other issues.
____________________
bikers smell of wee

[WD Forte]

Its a 2008 bike so plenty of time to develop age related issues.
If it were mine I'd have it stripped to do a detailed inspection
and service of the electrical systems.
____________________
bikers smell of wee

[Nobby the Bastard]

[jeffyjeff]

[John500]

>> I recommend you get the bike in a state of repair that it can be started

I could jump the starter relay. I'm sure that would work.

Either way, this takes me back to an earlier question:

If no juice is making it to the instrument cluster, is it safe to assume that the circuit goes from the ignition and kill switch through the stator?


Since you've already answered this and the ignition and starter relay fuses are fine, the question begs - what could be hindering power to the gauges? I rode the bike one day, the very next day I have no power to the gauges and burnt wires.

That means the issue occurred while I was riding and after the bike was shut off the full affect took place afterwards so that I lost power to the ignition/guages.

These burnt wires do not proceed directly out of the ignition switch but somehow, at least one wire supplies power to the gauges, no?

The picture below shows the burnt wires lead to the stator:

[jeffyjeff]

John500, Without a wiring diagram, you are really approaching this blindly. A wiring diagram will show the terminations of the wires, color codes, and help you identify what you are looking at. A wiring diagram will enable you to identify which circuits operate on switched power, and circuits that operate on switched ground. You need that in order to determine whether or not the readings your meter gives you are proper or not. A Haynes or Clymer manual is a reasonable place to find a diagram for your bike. A Google search might get you a pdf. copy. Beware, there is a lot of stuff on the internet that does not apply to your bike. Try to make sure a diagram you find is for your year, make, model. Good luck.
____________________
History shows again and again how nature points out the folly of men - BOC

[Nutty]

This might help

[Nobby the Bastard]

The stator wires go to the rectifier and then the power goes to the battery.

The don't connect directly to the instrument panel or the ignition switch.
____________________
trevor saxe-coburg-gotha:"Remember this simple rule - scooters are for men who like to feel the breeze on their huge, flapping cunt lips."
Sprint ST 1050

[John500]

Thanks to all for the input and especially nutty for that diagram!

I think the battery got hosed during the time the wires got fried and the battery became the primary source of juice. The timing was perfect enough to leave the battery just under 12.5 but it hasn't sustained it. I've charged it but it won't hold it and sinks to a 12.3.

I may have been fooled by the battery by insisting these wires were involved. However, I figured it's one thing for the battery to not start the bike, it's another thing entirely to not even supply power to the gauges with a 12.3 or 12.4! I'm going to pick up another battery and see what happens but my gut tells me that won't make a difference.

As for the diagram, it looks like there's enough similarity to do the trick. Thank you again!

The picture below shows how the stator wires match my bike for the most part. I have 3 white wires leading to 3 black wires. The blue and the green wires aren't an exact match but I'm sure they serve the same purpose. Any ideas on whether it would be possible to get the two black/white wires mismatched when I hook them back up? Does it matter? At this point I wouldn't know which black/white combo is which.

I'll get the bike running and use that flow chart to troubleshoot...

[Nobby the Bastard]

[John500]

I'm making progress here if anyone should be interested. In terms of no juice to my gauges, this diagram I condensed (compliments of Nutty) shows power would be interrupted if the starter relay was hosed outside of a simple fuse:

https://www.motorcycleforum.com/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,onerror=redirect,width=1920,height=1920,fit=scale-down/https://www.motorcycleforum.com/attachments/stator_regulator_ignition-diagram-jpg.75292/

I plan to incorporate this modification below which removes some plugs at the stator and regulator/rectifier and bypasses some of the harness:

https://www.moccsplace.com/images/charging/charge.htm