Sorry this is actually after the fact, but I'm still going to stick with present-tense verbage so's not to confuse anybody...and maybe make my old english teacher proud! The ride is a week away and this is what my chop looks like:
...and yes, I'm freaking out just a little bit. At this point in time the garage should be staged with all my bike krap and getting ready to put on the bike. But nooooo....I'm fixing s#%$ instead. Here's the backstory:
During the
Black Dog ride this year I decided to ride the KLR the first day on the B-course and the KTM the second day on the A-course. Great plan in theory...but halfway through the first day on the KLR the battery went dead. The great think about KLR's is the accessory and engine juice-maker on the stator are two separate circuits, so it will still run....if you can get it started....IF you can bump start it. Anyway, back to the main topic.
I went in slight panic-mode and started buying everything I thought might be the problem. Once I had a new battery and rectifier on order I went into troubleshooting mode. Luckily, it only took about an hour of touching wires to other wires and deciphering multimeter readings to find the culprit:
Those two yellow wires should actually be one yellow wire and is one of three wires supplying juice to the rectifier/regulator from the stator. Lord knows how long this thing has been fried, but after I got the new rectifier I noticed they didn't really look the same...
...which kinda makes me wonder if I either got an 'updated' rectifier or someone tried to fix this problem already and punted after the new part didn't fix it. Well, I have to say I was on cloud nine knowing I found and will fix the problem...and those bozos before me didn't...I had just a little satisfaction out of that. But then I started to wonder, '...wwwhhyy was the wire shorted?' and '...I wonder if it will happen again?' and '...I wonder in what god-forsaken place it will fail and leave me searching for hills...'.
Being the brave soul I am I decided to let it ride and see what
happens. Not really...if you know me at all I am the exact opposite-had you goin' though. I made sure the battery had a full charge and
rode it for a couple of days, and whataya know...it worked! (little fist pump) Now on to the real show...packin' my 80 lbs of crap in a 50 lb bag!
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