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Hello all, I wonder if you can suggest a cure for a problem that is getting close to causing my hair to fall out.
Over the winter I fitted a voltmeter and a solid state rectifier to my Mk3 Commando, because I thought that with my slow-speed and headlight-on touring it would quickly drain the battery to a point where the Boyer wouldn't work. I wanted to keep an eye on it. I believe they are fitted correctly. It worked OK last year.
However, now I have a problem. It will start and run fine. I ride off, and a few miles away it just stops dead, as thought I have switched it off. Sometimes, when this happens, the fuse blows and judging by the state of it, quite violently, like a dead short. Not always though. Sometimes it will come back on again. I have noticed the voltmeter shows a huge drop in voltage just as this happens, and when I do get it back it shows a reduced battery voltage.
Now, I know the most obvious thing is to look for a 30 year old wire shorting, but I have been doing that for three weeks! I found a few loose connections, but nothing more. I have been unable to reproduce this in my garage and it doesn't happen when I switch on lights, stop lights, indicators, etc, on the road.
The voltmeter suggests a massive discharge (a dead short?) just before the bike shuts down or the fuse blows.
So, any suggestions guys? Could my new solid state rectifier be faulty? If so, would it cause these symptoms? I want to stress that while it could still be a simple exposed wire, I am running out of places to look! I just wondered if anybody had any suggestions.
I have a Boyer fitted, and just now it failed on me with a blown fuse. I fitted a new one because nothing obvious was wrong, it started and ran for maybe 10 seconds, then discharge showed and it stopped. Could this be a Boyer problem? At this moment nothing else was switched on, just the ignition, and we weren't moving. It doesn't even splutter, it is just like I have turned it off.
Help! Otherwise, anyone want a cheap Mk3 (e/start removed) cheap? Might need rewiring......
Thanks in advance,
Ian
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