The Heat Is On

The song from 1984 by Glenn Frey of The Eagles for the movie "Beverly Hills Cop" starring Eddie Murphy.

 

 

Yes.... the heaters are now working on "The Beast"!!! It took quite a bit of troubleshooting but everything was testing out fine. I did get stuck and confused at one point but an examination of the complete wiring diagram showed me why the manual was telling me to do the step it was. I made up a jumper cord to connect the contact leads for the heater relay as the instructions said and BINGO! voltage on the pins where it was supposed to be proving good grip and seat heaters. I got to the point where it was either a bad HCU (heater control unit) or main ECM (electronic control module). Knowing either could be an expensive proposition, I made sure the connector for the HCU was freshly cleaned and snapped it in place. I started the bike and turned on the heaters. Still nothing. SHIT! I could not find any documentation anywhere about what the actual signal was from the ECM that tells the HCU to provide heat. Is it ground? Is it full battery voltage? Is it less voltage and if so how much? Or is it some kind of data signal? If you read the first post of this problem, you'll recall that the system does not work above a certain intake temperature and there is no "GO" signal to the HCU to allow heat. I was apprehensive about trying to measure the signal and possibly blowing something up. So I had a thought.... I wonder if the ECM simply needs to be reset? So, I disconnected the ground wire on the battery, turned the key to on and punched the starter button to drain every bit of juice from the whole bike. I then went in the house to get a snack with the ground still off the battery. When I came back out after 15-20 minutes, I reconnected the ground and started the engine. VOILA! Within a couple of minutes the seat and grips started getting warm. I left the bike running long enough for everything to get real toasty. The next thing I needed to do was splice and solder the wire permanently for the left grip. I shut the bike down and did an inline "Western Union" style splice, soldered the wire wraps, and buttoned it all up with heat shrinkable tubing. The Western Union works better for an inline splice whereas a pigtail hangs off one side. The extra wiring was looped and ty-wrapped in place at the base of the handlebar, and a check was made to ensure the extra bit of wire did not interfere with steering. I did one more test of the heaters to make sure it was all working, and it was.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It has been cold the past couple of days so I have limited my time in the garage and today was no different. The plan is to reassemble The Beast on Saturday since I am working tomorrow. Hopefully afterwards, I can take it out for a spin and really give the rejuvenated heater system a workout.