A case study of discovering a wire short

[tzzzel]

Hi guys,

Normally, this would be me asking for help, but I was able to figure it out. However, I am writing this just to help educate people on how a wire short might start, what the symptoms are, and how you can diagnose it.

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The early symptoms
Early visible issues were a bright-light indicator flickering when using my turn signals. Also, when I turned my steering wheel to the far right, my regular-light would go on, even though I was on bright-light. I ignored this because I saw no visible wire issues and cause it didn't affect my riding.

First problem
The first true problem came about a month ago. I was starting up my bike going home and I noticed that my start button acted funny. Even though my bike was on, my electric start got pressed. About 2 blocks later, my bike completely died on me while riding. No lights at all. I ended up taking out the battery to go to an auto store. Had a .08v reading. Decided to replace it. Rode home just fine.

Hypothesis: Blamed it on an start button just got stuck and killed my battery.

Second problem
My second problem came a couple weeks after. I was coming home from a 18 mile ride and my bike engine died at a stop sign. Lights were on and my battery read low, like around 11.7v. But my electric start button did nothing. So I decided to disconnect my headlights completely and that allowed my electric start to work. Bump started it to go home.

Hypothesis: Blamed it on the faulty headlight wiring (it's an HID kit the PO installed).

Third problem
I rode to the gas station to buy food. Headlights were disconnected. But I had problems starting it up going home. Had to bump start it. When I checked the voltage after I got home, it was about .5v lower than when I bumped it.

Hypothesis: Something other than the headlight is causing me problems and that may have also killed my regulator.

Investigation
So we know that the problem has to do with wiring. And it is wiring that is linked to the headlight, bright-indicator, and electric start. And of course, if you look at the wiring diagram, you'll see that both the headlight and bright indicator link to the electric start. I took off my side fairings to take a close look. Did not see any frayed wire, but found a spot that could be causing a kink/pinch. I cut open that wiring bunch and found the culprit (picture 1).

What caused it to pinch? (picture 2). That pinch area is why my headlight would change when my steering wheel was to the right. Repeated pinching caused the wire coats to break open over time.

Those exposed wires were causing a short and all kinds of weird happenings with my bike.

Unfortunately, taping them up did not solve something else: my regulator had died in the process. Shorts do cause excess electrical drain. Unfortunately, that probably meant overheating my regulator in the process. And my regulator was only about 2-3 months old! Oh well, another $45 down the drain. At least I don't have to worry about that short and those mysterious symptoms anymore.

And of course, if you need a regulator, you should definitely just go with this $45 one from caltric listed on Amazon. Free shipping!
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008UBXIXC/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B008UBXIXC&linkCode=as2&tag=thehawpla07-20



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