Hitchcocks Forum

Ironically, after yesterday's plethora of advice on the forum, I have broken down on the M8 motorway. Luckily I was able to coast to the hard shoulder. Waiting for the RAC man... just lost all power and now have no EFI electrical life. Fuses are fine and lights etc work. Not enough emergency tools to diagnose... Bum.

A running commentary... why not... My initial guess is something electrical has failed again. A fuse holder disintegrated when I checked it. I bridged the gap and now have headlamp, pilot and neutral lights. Brake and tail lights also now work. Right hand indicators work. Left hand ones don't... And the indicator warning lamp doesn't work. No EFI warning lamp either

Good grief, what a story! Keep us informed......

Sorry to hear this Michael, now if you only had a set of points lol

A few investigations on the hard shoulder backed up by two very nice 'Transport Scotland' policemen who clocked me on CCTV having issues and came to make sure I was OK, and a lovely orange RAC van with a cracking man called John on board and we came to the conclusion that a relay had burnt out...




Not sure why yet, but we 'ahem' hot wired across the relay terminals and I got going. A £5 replacement from Maplins (electrical store in UK for those in Oz!!!) and I could start againn without a hot wire!




Got to work at 11:30 on my bike BUT... need to find out what caused the relay to go in the first place. Old age or burnt out due to a high current?? As said, one of the fuse holders literally disintegrated on touch, so I suspect a high current/high resistance problem may be at least partly to blame, although there is no telling if it is the same circuit yet. Will do that when I get home.




Still have no left turn indicators though. Right ones function, all other lights function except the indicator 'tell tale' on the speedo face. All worked before the breakdown... A multimeter, a wiring bridge and a new fuse holder are in order... seems like a job for tonight?

Incidentally, does anyone know what circuits the fuses actually work on and in what order? Ditto the relays? On the Electra EFI there are three relays in the left hand spectacle-case shaped cover. The middle of these three relays operates the ignition and kill switches. This is what failed... but what do the other two do?

Hi Michael, glad it wasn't too bad. Wasn't it yours that had a lot of electrical problems 12 months ago, from memory a lot of bits got cooked. I think one of the relays is for the fuel pump and the other for the engine management/fuel injection

It was indeed my bike around October last year which melted In fact, last year at that time the right hand switchgear melted, the ignition switch itself melted, the rear wiring loom melted, the headlight wiring loom melted and at least one relay melted (the one under the seat which is separate from all the others; starter relay perhaps?).




Anyhoo the third 'relay' on the left hand case is the indicator flasher... forgot that one

A possible cause... Corroded left rear indicator bulb and holder causing excessively high resistance, and heat. High current draw as a result, blowing all bulbs on the left hand circuit and taking the positive feed to the relays with it. Hence burning out a relay. One survived. One died. What do you think??

I think your tolerance of grief is worthy of a commonwealth gold. I could not be bothered with that level of hassle these days. I was up in Perthshire today hammering the woodsman on the M8 then up to Braco, Comrie, back via Callender. Ran superbly. Done my time on unreliable electrical problems. Good luck!