1981 XJ900 No battery feed at fuse box

Hi all - I have a XJ900 (1981) which has lost all its electrical power? I have no ignition, no lights, nothing, yet if I put a wire direct from the battery to the fuse box, hey presto everything works.
Is there a common problem with the feed from the battery to the fuse box?

All help much appreciated.

Regards

Ant681

 

Check your cable connections at the starter solenoid.

Ghost

 

I'd say check your main fuse, but you probably already did that...SO-----

I'll ask some really dumb questions

--is your RUN/OFF switch set to RUN?
--is your key turned ON?

If you're good there, it would seem to indicate a possible broken wire. Do some continuity tests on the few wires between the switches and where you jumped to get juice.

Last question.....1981?

dave

 

As (Dave) hogFiddles says, from the starter solenoid, there should be a wire coming off the positive terminal (possibly still in a red woven cable sleeve) that feeds the fuse box. It's usually has a one pin wire harness that actually leads power to the fuse block (have you replaced that yet??) main fuse.

Check continuity from the solenoid pin to the end of the (red sheathed) cable, from the battery to the end of the cable, then from the harness connection point to the biggest red wire in the fuse block. Let us know if any of those are broken and replace the weak link or tighten up the screws on the solenoid to ensure a good electrical connection.

 

If I'm looking at the right diagram and understand you correctly, I'd suggest you check a couple of things with a multimeter.

First - here's the diagram I'm looking at:XJ900 wiring diagram

The first fuse is connected directly from the battery - a red wire feeds it.

So - first check that the wire from the battery is live. If you don't have a multimeter, buy a cheap one - you will need it again another time, even if only to check if the batteries in the TV remote are dead. If it is not live, there is an in-line connection which could have pulled apart. Other than that, you have a bad connection/broken wire somewhere, or surprisingly a corroded battery terminal (loosen and retighten with a spanner). If the connection is live however, carry on...

Next - check both sides of the fuse are live. If only one is live then the fuse is dead. Change it. [Out of interest, you should be able to short across the different fuses to switch the bike on - not very secure, but useful to get you home if you ever lose your keys....] If you have live on both sides of what I'll call the 'red fuse', but turning the ignition still has no effect, then....

From the ignition switch there ia a cable going to a four way block. Use the pointy probe to touch the contact with the red wire. If it is live, go on to the next step. If it is not, then there is a broken wire between the switch and the fuse which you have to find.

If the red connection is live, then test the brown connection. If it does not turn live when you turn the ignition on, then the ignition switch has died. To double check that, set your multimeter to amps (you've been using it on 'volts' so far - you may need to move the red lead to a different hole) and short across the red and brown connections. If you suddenly see life, then that confirms it is the switch. If the brown is live, then you have to carry on looking...

The brown wire carries power back to the fuse box (and a couple of other places), so check if the connections at the fuse box are live both sides. Except you've already said they're not. If you've got this far and everything is live then you've made a mistake somehow - or it's working and you didn't realise it.

Basically the battery connects to the fusebox (1st fuse), then main switch, then back to the rest of the fuse box. You have to check and wiggle connections, but using a multimeter will let you narrow down the number of places where the fault could be. I'd start with the nut on the battery terminal.