Hi all - 

So here's the deal. Over my lifetime, I have owned bikes from Kawi, Honda, Yamaha, and Harley.  Every single one of them eventually developed an intermittent electrical problem - probably because I hate them and I was a very bad person in a former life.  Whatever...

So what? Well, my Connie has an annoying habit of turning "halfway" on when I turn the key in the ignition.  What happens is, the right side of my 1987 instrument cluster stays dead - no dash lights, no tach operation.  Also, I have no headlight, and no tail light.  Turn signals work, horn works. The bike Starts right up with a push of the starter.  I turn the key all the way to the right (what setting is that?  I always forget why we need that on a bike...)and the tail light will come on.  Then back to "on" and no tail light.  Eventually, it all comes back on, but never until I've turned the bike off and restarted it, and rarely will it fix itself right away.  I've done the  "Repeated key twist" fix, the "Jiggle all the wires inside the fairing" fix, the "bend the wires looking for a break / short" fix, and the "Clean the connection" fix.  All to no avail.

ANY ideas on what might be the culprit besides "old wiring harness"?  I'm really hoping one of you gurus will pop on and say something like, "Oh yeah, that happens all the time, you need 3 pieces of electrical tape and five minutes to fix it." 

As I said, I always find myself in this situation eventually, and am no stranger to electrical work, but I'm not as patient as I used to be.  The last two electrical issues resulted in me just throwing the entire harness away and building a new, simple harness from scratch (my SR chopper doesn't even use a key or battery).  Not sure I could swing that on the Connie. ;-)

Thanks in advance, guys.

Have a read regarding the j-box. I think it needs to be refurbished. The solders go bad on there. Just a matter of time. And your bike is old. There is a jbox guru who does this reconditioning work for the c10 community. Buck sport touring, I believe.

We rarely do any maintenance or checks on the electricals of the bike (or in most cases our cars, homes, etc). We are doing all sorts of other mechanical maintenance and repairs all the time. Electrical parts get ignored till they have issues. So it is bound to falter sometime.

The parking light you speak of are used in many parts of the world when bikes and cars are parked on city roads. Not every country has huge roads like we do here. Most places are congested like NYC or DC.

Bad Karma?

Corrosion on the connections.
But, in this case, probably the J box.

Ride safe, Ted

hahahahaha. that too.

Bad Karma?

You know, I joke about that, but some people do seem to have 'issues' with electrics more than what they should have.  I know a certain 'Bob' that did on his C14.  Had them with his GPS as well.

Must have been his magnetic personality.

hahahaha. Yes, he does have a tinge of that magnetic personality you speak of.

Bikes get old, and eventually all of them start to have issues, including electrical. Your '87 C10 is ancient! Have all of your bikes been old? If so, that's your answer.

What's wrong with old?    Just kidding  .

The answer is simple, the solution is not.
Note: This is a bit of a rant, as I completely dislike the current state of motorcycle electronic design!

  <YOU HAVE Been WARNED>

Bike electrical systems are unreliable because the design requirements specify a life of probably 3 years.  This is a marketing, cost and competition decision, based on what each company sees their competitors doing.

Once this is defined, all the trouble starts.

Only two things will change this: 
1.  At least one company will have to decide they can increase their market share by improving their reliability.  This would be a big risk, not likely!
2. Buyers must respond to #1. If the market isn't willing to pay more for reliability it will never happen. As long as the majority of new bike buyers respond to shiny paint and performance far more than reliability, nothing will change. Look at BMW's recent direction!!


Electical connectors are chosen because they are the cheapest available. Little to no plating is applied to either the pin or socket of connectors  Where plating us used, it is primarily for manufacturing needs, and not very helpful for long term connection reliability.  This leads to oxidation, corrosion and intermittent contact.

No environmental shielding is used, except for the most primitive sort.  This is the least expensive.

Connections are placed wherever most convenient for manufacture and assembly, with no regard to exposure to the elements.

Metals and platings are chosen for manufacturing purposes, with no thought to the long term reliability they could provide.  This is a cost decision.

In the case of the Jbox, I believe Kawasaki did the design themselves to save money. The designers were not experienced in electrical design and had no clue how to make things reliable.  No reputable electronics manufacturer would do the things done in the Jbox!
"Most" of the custom designed and manufactured items such as starters, alternators, regulators and such are designed and built by companies such as Denso, Mitsubisi and similar. These generally speaking are better designed, as those companies hold themselves to a higher standard because the automotive industry has better reliability standards. This isn't universally true, I'm speaking in overall average terms.

The wire used is not designed for repeated flexing, such as at the steering head.  The wire harness configuration is designed for assembly, with little to no thought about repeated flex. As long as it doesn't cause steering issues (safety) it's good enough, and cheaper.

Switches, relays, and all manner of electrical devices are chosen based on lowest cost to meet the short life requirement. They are likely to make it through the warranty period, but anything beyond that is pretty much luck.

 

You know, I joke about that, but some people do seem to have 'issues' with electrics more than what they should have.  I know a certain 'Bob' that did on his C14.  Had them with his GPS as well.

I am definitely one of those guys.  I've had issues with old, new, and lightly used bikes. 06 Roadking, 96 Sportster, two 78 SR 500's, 87 Connie, 86 and 87 Hondas owned in the early 90's.  They all have (had) electrical gremlins. My wife's new Jetta (back in 2002)?  electrical gremlins.  Her used Forester(back in 2012)?  Electrical gremlins.  Her lightly used Fiat (this freaking year). My ancient 98 Dodge van?  Electrical gremlins.   I hate electrical issues.

I'll read up on the J box and see if I can try to fix that.

Here is a copy of the schematic for your bike.  I seemed to remember replacing all the relays in this unit to  better ones, solved some electrical issues I had. 

You could try re-flowing the solder joints on the relays that are known for fracturing if your handy with a soldering iron as it sounds like this is the suspect.  You might even consider checking with Murph (by email) who may still sell the relays for about $5 each, or maybe your local RadioShack.  Here's some pix that may help:

Hey Nevadazx12, what's the source of that schematic? 

It's a really good picture of how the Jbox work.

what's the source of that schematic? 

I stole the same one from somewhere - but don't remember where - probably Bing or Google images.  I have the later one also:

Hey guys, huge thanks for all the replies and the pics / schematics.  I'm pulling it all apart today and will reflow the solder, unless somethings burned up, of course..  I appreciate all the help!

RFH, great pics. Thanks.

Was that your jbox?

Was that your jbox?

Not mine, just pix I found along the way.  It looks like the pix are from Guy B. Young (thanks Guy!) according to my notes.  You can either try to silicone (RTV) it back together or just use a few wide strips or black electrical tape to hold it all together.  Its in a pretty well protected location until you turn the garden hose loose.

PM me your email (or anyone else) and I have a Word doc I can send you that helps to troubleshoot the j-box among other things.  It has a whole bunch of random Concours things in it.

Email sent. Thanks...

Those drill holes...Do you have to drill holes to crack open the jbox?