Power will not turn off - Help

The 1 is actually an I which stands for infinite resistance. That is what you want when checking for very low or no resistance. The sensitivity of your meter can determine your readings when checking for very low resistance.

At this point, If you are setting your meter to Volts and truly getting 19.2 volts, your R/R is defective and the resistance measurements I described earlier don't matter. Double check your meter by checking the voltage in one of your electrical power outlets. It should read about 120 V depending on the capabilities of your meter. If it is anywhere near that, I would say it is working properly and your 19.2V reading accurate.

 

Check out my project page... I understand these electrical systems quite well. Not only are we talking solid state, we are even talking computers in the 750 SECAs. The ignition system is completely solid state and somewhat integrated.

I also understand that there are relays used in this system, which are, as you say, electromechanical (not electronic) devices, but in this context that's somewhat irrelevant as, per the wiring diagram, there are only two places where Red and Brown come together, and neither of them is a relay.

Felix, if you are using a digital multimeter, which I expect you are, then you are reading WAY too high voltages, and you're likely correct that your rectifier/regulator is blown.

Cheers,
Paul

 

I'm not sure why you keep trying to drift off on tangents. The bike is not a Seca, it is a Maxim, and the drawing that was posted does in fact include a relay in the ignition system.

Just face it, the short as you described it had a very low likelihood of occurring, and it apparently was not the cause of the problem at hand. I'm not saying that the R/R wasn't the cause of the overheating that might have caused the problematic short in the first place, but it surely wasn't a short between the red and brown coming together in the R/R that was causing the bike to stay on. And if you continue to look at the diagram, you can see that there is more than one place that power could have been shorted to the ignition system. It doesn't have to have been between the red and brown wires.

 

Felixmcc :
maybe you better hold off on plugging that meter in a wall socket just yet
till you get the hang of it

 

Not to fire up any argument but I'll respectfully disagree DirtyMaxim. A relay (as used on our beloved XJs) is an electro-mechanical device. As such, there are no moving parts in the electronics, only mechanical solenoids (which is just another fancy word for a relay).
But you do have a point, there are no moving parts in the rectifier. This would tend to lend itself to your perspective of no parts getting stuck but I have seen for myself where diodes have burned through and transistors short (effectively a "stuck" component) leading to a shorted assembly that would allow current to ramp up and melt wires. That said, I too am curious as to the outcome of this electrical conumdrum. As I am unfamiliar with the X electrical system, I will defer to wiser men than I concerning this problem.

 

BDM, please point out how +12V will be continually supplied to the switched (Brown wires) side of the electrical harness if it's not coming from the battery (Red wires) part of the electrical harness.

Felix, since your regulator is probably currently disconnected, could you please take an Ohms reading between the wire or pin on it that connects to brown and the wire or pin on it that connects to red and let us know what you find? Or, if your meter has a Diode Check function, please try that, with the red probe on the red connection and the black probe on the brown one.

Thanks,
Paul

 

You said it yourself earlier. "shorted".

 

Where!?

You said "It doesn't have to have been between the red and brown wires." I'm saying it does.

 

Paul;
I'm getting an I when I do this test. I'm setting the multimeter to Ohms and choosing the 20 k setting. When I turn the meter on it shows a I and when I touch the pins the resistance does not change. If I flip it around and go red to brown and Black to red it still reads I.

Polock;
I opted to test the meter on a 9v camera battery.

 

Hi Felix,

When set to Ohms, if you touch the leads to each other, it should read less than 1 Ohm. If it still reads I, that would be a problem.

As for the Red or Black lead going to one pin or the other, this only makes a difference if the meter is set to Diode Check (if the meter has this mode). That mode might also be marked with a diode symbol (a line through a triangle with a vertical line next to it).

Cheers,
Paul

 

Felix,

I actually need to correct this statement earlier, see all the way below, as I think it might be adding to some of your confusion on figuring out your meter. The 1 is actually an I which is what you should get as soon soon as you set your meter to the resistance setting, others show OL. As soon as you short, or touch, the probes to each other you should either get 0's or a number depending on the accuracy of your meter and what settings you have available. For instance, on of my meters I show zero when set to 20K but if I go down to the 200 setting it shows .5 ohm. If you are measuring for resistance, make sure you subtract that number from your actual reading.

At this point, if you are touching your probes together and the I doesn't go away, you probably have a blown fuse in the meter. It may not seem like it because it is still taking other measurements, but that is how the meter is set up. It is only fused on certain channels. If you tried measuring voltage with the meter set up for current reading, or vice versa, you probably blew the fuse at that time.



"The 1 is actually an I which stands for infinite resistance. That is what you want when checking for very low or no resistance. The sensitivity of your meter can determine your readings when checking for very low resistance."

 

I'm confused? Maybe I'm getting too old for this. Going back a few Posts there's some information there that don't compute.

More than 16 Volts measured at the Battery. Bike Off.
More than 19 Volts measured at the Battery. Running.

These Bikes are supposed to produce 14.2 -to- 14.5 Volts Running.
14.8 Volts being a RedLine for Indicating Malfunction.

Pull-apart the Quick-Connection joining the Voltage Regulator to the Wiring Harness.
Examine BOTH halves for a sign of overheating and melting.
Pay close attention to the RED Wire's placement and Terminal End.

If the Quick-Connection melted and RED and WHITE Wires are melted together ... Unregulated current is going to the Harness and can cause all kinds of problems to the Electrical System.

Open the Headlight Bucket and Disconnect the Quick-Connect Pigtails coming from the Ignition Switch to the Wiring Harness.
The Bike should go dead.
Measure the Voltage at the RED Wire on the Pigtail of the Bike.
The Red (Hot) Wires and the RED-White-Striped (Hot Switched) wires should read 12 Volts.
Red = 12V
Red/White = 12 Volts when Ign On and Switch Closed.

 

I had the same issue this helped me a lot thanks guys! here’s a picture of the red and brown melted together in the connector behind the headlight.