For the past month, the Bullet has been sat with a mystery electrical problem while I have spent time playing with W800 and XS650. You switch the bike on and
nada. But the past coupla days, Elliot has been on hand to assist. He is like a bulldog when it comes to finding an electrical fault - where I might get distracted and think
I wonder if it might be this? Or this?, Elliot will stay closely focussed and follow the wiring step by step.
Told him IMO it was probably the fuse holder. So he checked voltage from battery - 12.83V. This goes straight to the fuse holder - confirmed. Output from fuse holder - still 12.83V. Then,
with fuse holder removed, he checked the cable that runs from there to the ammeter - still 12.83V. Eh?
This is where things got weird. Lets recap - red cable from battery to fuse holder has full battery voltage. And with fuse holder removed, the onward cable still shows full battery voltage.
Surely, zis cannot be, monsieur?
There was some head scratching, but in the meantime a lot of confirming connectivity through the ammeter, the ignition switch, the kill switch. All good. He was worried about a voltage drop on the ignition switch, so we pulled the switch out fer a look. One of the two wires was hanging on by a single strand. Went and made some coffee while Elliot shortened both wires and re-soldered it properly.
But plugging the fuse holder back soon showed what I suspected. This time, no connectivity. 0V. Fiddle a bit and it comes back to full voltage. Fair to conclude that the fuse holder is a piece of crap.
View attachment 250931View attachment 250932
But what about the mystery voltage where none should be? Of course, our suspicion fell on the Boyer Power box - as well as acting as rec/reg, it has a capacitor and can be used to eliminate the battery. It has been, uhm, a confounding factor on previous occasions fault finding on the wee Bullet so I decided to make an investment - for fifteen pounds, have ordered a 4-wire single-phase rec/reg and will replace the Power box, eliminating all problems and doubts from that source.
Also, ordered some old-worlde glass fuse holders. Elliot reckons these withstand the vibes from an old British single* better than a spade-type fuse holder. Certainly worth a try.
Next action when they arrive, try the bike again with new fuse holder. But I
really will do
another re-wire to tidy up/rationalise the electrics a bit.
As I thought all along, only a minor problem but I am still grateful to Elliot for his more logical thought process and fault finding.
Ah well, I bought this bike for tinkering. We had fun, I learned some more, Elliot's Mrs and mine had a great two days visiting garden centres and buying loads of plants.
* OK, so the Bullet comes out of a factory in Chennai but, well, it's still an old British single.