Solenoid and harness melted down
On 16-JAN-2006, when riding to my office in the morning, just 3 km away from my home, I had
another CDI problem. I stopped beside the road, in order
to temporarily fix it. Then I saw some small clouds of smoke coming out of the solenoid cap, and it smelled
very strange. A quick inspection showed, that nearly everything around the terminals was melted down,
even the plastic body of the main fuse, and the harness. No way to ride on, electric was completely dead now ... :( See the pics.
Repair progress notes:
- 16-JAN-2006, 14:00: With a big little help from my neighbour, I took the bike home on his trailer.
- 16-JAN-2006, 18:00: I did a first inspection of the damage. The solenoid seems to be scrap, I'll need
a new one. Should not be the big problem to get a used one at the junkyard. The harness damage
turned out to be not as serious as it seemed at the first sight. If I would have had two suitable cable sockets,
it would be ok already.
- No idea, what has happened there, to find out the reasons for this will be another good piece of investigation.
Attentive readers may have noticed, that the white 4-wire-connector, normally used to connect the harness to
the solenoid, is missing. I used the solenoid of a Dominator intermediately, and on this the connections
are somewhat inverted. That's why I had to remove the connector. Maybe one of the cable sockets got loose ... BTW,
the melted down one is a TA solenoid, which I swapped for the Domi part some years ago.
- 17-JAN-2006, 19:00: Purchased a new (used) solenoid at the local junkyard (25.- EUR), and a package of cable sockets at the next DIY shop.
Fixed the CDI problem, and put it all together again.
Still no idea what has happened, the idea, that the rectifier was damaged for some reason, wasn't right, luckily.
Ok, to be on the safe side, I had my hands on a rectifier at the junkyard (50.- EUR), but I think I can tell them, that I don't need it.
- 17-JAN-2006, 20:30: Everything seems to be fine, old Faxe Biturbo is back on the road!
Seems like I had one ton of good luck though. If I wouldn't have noticed the
problem still early enough, the bike could possibly have been burnt.
