Modern Buddy

So, the Sky Island Riders, had a great ride this morning, but my '08 Buddy with 14k miles on it, developed a sudden rash of problems:
1. Earlier this week the electric start failed to work, twice. Took it in the shop and they found that the screws that hold the solenoid were loose. Tightened them, no problem, right? Wrong. Went to start the ride, Buddy won't start, but did kick start okay. We had several other stops, start button never worked again.

2. Went to sound my awesome 139db horn to alert everyone that we were heading out, initially got a loud squeak then a loud hissing sound. No more horn.

3. Turn signals (both left and right) initially made a strange buzzing sound, then quit working.

4. Survived all that, ride finished, get home and give the scoot a look-see and notice that the brace on the rear rack has disintegrated. See pic



All in one day? Craziness!

Howard

Wow, that sucks! have you done any electrical mods like running lights or anything?

Sorry, Howard, that bites. But with all those electrical problems at once, I'll bet when you fix one, you fix them all. (Of course, you need to find the problem first, ugh.)

I did the dead-light to running light mod, 8-10 months ago. I used the kit available here on MB. Where would the buzzing sound come from when the signals were turned on?

Howard

one of these things is not like the other, one of these things just isn't the same.

Something is going seriously wrong with the electric but I know not what.

The bracket is unfortunate timing.

All this happening at once?! Sheesh! I hope you get it back on track soon.

If you have anything higher wattage that LED's in your deadlights your battery will gradually be run dead. It won't happen all at once, but over time as the battery slowly gets sucked dry. Everything will seem fine then one day, nada. Put some LED's in your deadlights and the battery will once again get enough juice to charge...

All your electrical woes sound like a dead battery.

Anachronism wrote:All your electrical woes sound like a dead battery.

BINGO.

The buzzing sound came from the flasher relay as the blinkers were trying to fire.

The electric start, horn and blinkers are all powered by the battery.

I had a similar prob and it seemed to just be that one of my wires (I cant remember which one + or -) on the battery was loose, tightned it up and all was good, at least so far

I had this happen with the old style rear rack.

When the rack broke it sliced the top box brake light wire. This blew the fuse and killed the battery.

wow, so much going wrong at the same time, sorry to hear that Howard. You mentioned that you rode up the back side of Mt Lemmon last week, that's on a rough gravel road. Sounds like that ride may have shaken a few things loose. May be just a weird coincidence of things happening at the same time, like battery wearing out AND screws and bolts working loose during your rough ride last week AND...

Good luck with the fix!

I'll pull the battery today and investigate that part. Seems like the quickest thing to check. Simple, though not cheap, to fix if that is the issue. I'll keep y'all posted. For the record, Skootz, i have 25 LED "bulbs" in for the runners. However, even though the battery is only about 2 years old, AZ summers are notoriously hard on batteries. I ride almost everyday, so it's not discharged from setting around.
Pimacanyon, I actually did the Mt Lemmon ride a few months ago, but I frequently ride on rough roads. So loose connections could still be the problem.

Howard

It does sound like the battery is low.
Is your horn relayed and fused?

Howardr wrote:...
Pimacanyon, I actually did the Mt Lemmon ride a few months ago, but I frequently ride on rough roads. So loose connections could still be the problem.

Howard

oops! Your new skyislandrider forum has thrown me with dates a few times. I see something there, think it's a recent post, respond to it, and then later realize that you copied that post from the old forum and the date I was looking at was the date you copied it instead of the original post date. sorry about that.

(I did kinda wonder about riding up Mt Lemmon this time of year, likely you'd run into ice above 7 or 8 thousand feet in shady part of the road. )

My incredibly intelligent and wise MB brethren come to the rescue again. As I went to remove the battery, I noticed that both terminals were a little loose, one much more so than the other. I tightened them both firmly and viola' 3 of my 4 problems were solved! Unfortunately, the rear rack did not suddenly reassemble itself.

Thanks for everyone's input.

Howard

Howardr wrote:..., I noticed that both terminals were a little loose, one much more so than the other. I tightened them both firmly and viola' 3 of my 4 problems were solved! Unfortunately, the rear rack did not suddenly reassemble itself.

Thanks for everyone's input.

Howard

Good one!

Howardr wrote:My incredibly intelligent and wise MB brethren come to the rescue again. As I went to remove the battery, I noticed that both terminals were a little loose, one much more so than the other. I tightened them both firmly and viola' 3 of my 4 problems were solved! Unfortunately, the rear rack did not suddenly reassemble itself.

Thanks for everyone's input.

Howard

Tightening the battery didn't fix the rear rack? Cheap racks.

Glad to hear. Saves some money for other stuff now