Instruments Dead.....Bike runs fine...What gives?

one-auburn-fan said:
I have powered the ignition up and worked the connectors under the tank vigerously. No luck. Very frustrating. I am looking for a flicker or something, but get nothing.
Click to expand...

The ignition power leads are probably OK if you can still power the bike. Check your instrument connections to ground. You may have power to them but no ground to complete the circuit. Trace the leads from the instrument cluster to the connector. You're looking for a black wire connection. Check page 18.33 of the service manual. You'll see the instrument lights are powered seperately from the instruments and the instrument ground is not the same as the instrument lights. The ground at connection 10 or the ground from your oil pressure switch is what I suspect is your problem.
 
Thanks for the suggestion. I have confirmed, I believe, the ground wire. My service manual download has a last image at figure 18.27 (Complete System). I have no more pages and cannot see the page 18.33 you are referencing. I think I got the ground though. Very edge of the connector that is a bit out of line with the other wires. Circuit rings out good between the negative of the battery and the pin itself.

I do have instrument lighting on the tach, not the speedometer. The tach light is the only sign of life on the cluster.

I checked power on the green wire. Had about 10.5 volts is all. Had 12.6 at the battery. Seems it should be enough to sweep the needles and make it do something.

Keep the ideas coming guys. I really appreciate the help.
 

You can download the service manual on the .com site by looking at any Bishop thread (moderator) he has a link to the manual with the page and drawing I referenced (its a pdf file). The voltage should be OK, but the circuit isn't getting to ground is my guess. If only one bulb is lit that's suspicious since thats a seperate circuit from the cluster.
 
OK, more information here. My dad also has an 05 R3S. We isolated the problem down to my gauges. Plugged his gauges into my bike. Stripped things down to the point that my harness was plugged directly into his gauges such that I could eliminate anything in my harness from the problem.

Seems unlikely that both gauges would die at the same time. I am near the point of purchasing a pair on Ebay. Seems like my last option. Any ideas guys?
 

Did his gauges work? Look for the common ground wire from the gauges, that sounds like where the problem is. If his gauges worked then you have your problem partially fixed, the next is finding what shorted them.........
 
Yes. His gauges worked perfectly when I plugged my plugs into the back of his gauges on my bike. Seemed pretty clear that my gauges are toast. I have even tried to plug my harness into the back of my gauges one at a time. I did this to try to confirm that one gauge is not shorting the other out. Indeed, they both seem defective unless one requires signal from the other to complete the circuit. It really sucks.
 
Gps?

I gotta say, this sounds like the GPS sending unit. My R3T did the same thing and the dealer fixed it by replacing the GPS sending unit (luckily under warranty).

Didn't seem like that big of a deal, but my gauges were dead until the work was done.
 
Just a thought
I have had the same problem with just the tacho and it turned out to be the multi pin connecter block from the clocks. Just one of the tiny pins in the block had snapped off inside the female terminal.
If the inside of the connecter block has a green tinge to it, it is a fair sign of corrosion even though you may not notice any real bamage.
Check the number of pins inside the block to the number of wires on the outside. The feed wire's pin on your clocks may be broken off.
Have you also tried connecting your clocks to the other bike?
Incidentally, the corrosion inside my connecter block was water damage. Every time it rained or I washed the bike, water was running down under the front of the fuel tank and shorting out this connecter block. This used to trip my alarm every time. Not good at 3am in the morning, pissing down, wearing just my shorts, barefoot and frantically pushing the button on my alarm fob trying to get the **** alarm to shut up.
 
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Guages Dead

I have an 05 Triumph Rocket. The Gauges intermittently will not work. I believe it is a ground because the turn signal indicators will not work either and the are feed from the turn signals that are working. The only common thread is the grounds Does anyone know where the ground is connected to the chassis?

Thanks in advance.

Gary
 
Its an 05 Sounds like corrosion may be the problem..so I would be lifting the Tank and cleaning and re- grasing all the Multi plug connectors especially the Gauge Cluster connectors.. along with a ground test for the cluster,

A spray can of electrical cleaner and a tube of dielectic grease and a couple of hours of sore finger tips..

Download the manual for circuit diagrams etc. use the site search.
 
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