Electrical Problems with my 85 ZL 900

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drexelfox

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Hi,

I bought a used 85 ZL 900 2 years ago with about 22K miles on it. It had been ridden hard and wrecked, but the guy that owned it knew what he was doing and kept it running.

I ran it a bit last year, but not that much (maybe 500 miles?). Everything worked fine, turn signals, kept a charge, engine sounded good. No problems. I put it away inside for the winter and got it out this spring....and that is when the problem started.

The turn signals wouldn't work. I got a new battery and they still didn't work. I took it in to the local shop I go to and they found that the the guy who had the bike before put a 30 (amp?) fuse in the turn signal fuse when it needed a lesser fuse (15?) so the mechanic hooked the turn signals up to another empty fuse receptacle and they then worked. Thought that was the end of the problem....but I was wrong.

A week or so later I went to start the bike at home, and nothing. I got the battery recharged and took it back to the shop. They put a meter on it and it was drawing power when it was turned off....so I told them I thought it was the turn signal set up they did....they didnt think so. They left it sit for a few days and it started up....so I took it home.

I tested it out by taking it for a 100 mile ride without turning it off. When I got home, I turned it off and then it started right up.

I found out that the turn signals work when the key is out of the ignition......never had that on a bike before.....so something is wrong.

In the meantime, I am taking the battery out and putting it on a trickle charger when I let it sit for a while. I am OK with doing that, as long as I don't think it is going to leave me sit (that's why I took it for that long ride...but too many short off and ons might run the battery down too much????)

Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Jeff
 
If I understood your post, you said that your mechanic had switched the turn sigs to a formerly unused fuse slot. If that is right then it is possible that the new fuse slot bypasses the key switch and is on constantly. As for the draw down of your batt, they might be related, might not. There is a rather astute fellow on this forum who rebuilds fuse boxes, maybe he has a rebuilt one he could sell you, then you could hook everything up as intended without the work around fixes. Just saying. Frustrating I know. Electrical shorts can be tricky to run down.
 
There are some unused slots in the 900 fuse box. To run the turn signals on a different fuse, the wires to the fuse box connector would have to be swapped around. That in itself shouldn't be a problem, although they appear to connected to an "always hot" fuse. The signals should not draw current unless they are on.

So - 1) the battery ran down after sitting a week
2) you took it to the shop, they said something was draining the battery, but after a few days sitting it started up ok.
3) you took it on a long ride and had no problem

Is it still draining the battery?
Have you had the battery load tested?
Battery posts and cables clean and tight?
 
Thanks rkerg, kawboy and MAIK72 for your replies. I apologize I didn't respond previously and thank you for taking the time to read my post.

I'm embarrassed to say that I still haven't resolved the electrical issue with the bike. My "work around" (since I haven't been riding the bike much) has been to take the battery out or unhooking the connection to the negative terminal when I am not riding it. Not a real solution.......

I'd like to ride it more this year and was going to attempt to replace the fuse box and see if that solved the issue. I'm wondering if it would be OK to buy from Ebay from a post like MAIK72 posted, or to go with the Eliminator owner on this site that rebuilds fuse boxes?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.....

Jeff
 
:hello: I'd find out why the shop did what they did instead of finding the correct solution. In order to keeping out electrical gremlins in the future do some preventive maintenance. Disconnect all your wiring harness plugs & clean up the ones that have corrosion. Put dialectic grease on the inside of each pin of each plug Then connect them back together. A home cleaning solution that I use is baking soda mixed with white vinegar.
 
Hook a volt meter to the batt and start unplugging things to see where the draw is coming from,would be a good start.
 
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