RR-S owners, if something electrical stops working, check . . .

[Ben500RR-S]

I just asked my kids where they got the idea and my daughter says it is from the PS3 Lego Superhero's video game, when in the city, and one either beats up, pushes or runs someone over, they say "Hey, watch it buddy."  Somehow, I became Buddy, the guy that one can treat like a second class citizen.  

[Ben500RR-S]

The new harness will be at my house today.  I'm looking forward to unclipping the old connections and then clipping in the new ones and then finally turning the key and having everything work like it should and not having a nightmare of spliced, taped, shrink wrapped and liquid electrical taped connections and then the outside of the bundle a wrap of Rescue Tape, zip ties and conduit cover.  

Full report tonight with a hopefully totally working bike-again.  

[Ben500RR-S]

Phew!  Got the harness installed tonight.  It is a very, very easy install, starting from the back and working forward, it is all plug and play.  

There were, maybe two, or three, extra plugs that were not on my 2017 harness while the bag the harness came in had 2016 as the date.  

If I have to replace the harness every year, at $136 or so, I think I'd be ok with it although I'm not putting the clamp that goes at the very front of the harness where all the terminations get joined together to start the big bundle.  I will find another way to secure the harness at the headstock as that is where all the problems with the wires being pinched/crushed and pulled apart begins-unseen, until stuff stops working or works erratically.  

Here was my one snafu, there is always one it seems.  When I started the bike, the FI light came on and would not go away.  When I had stuffed the fuel filter back inside the fuel tank, I know I did not get the filter oriented the same way it went in, see, all the cables/wires/tubes that are in the tank are very rigid so that stuff does not flop around on the inside with the fuel sloshing all around.  What I did not do was to tug on the tank wiring/tank hose end and pull all the stuff on the inside of the tank all back to its original position, I was lazy.  

Before I took the two inside pieces on the bottom of the tank apart, I had checked all the wiring connections I could to make sure nothing was unclipped/unseated or crimped/crushed.  I put the tank internals back in place, installed the tank, made all the connections-I LOVE the quick release for the tank fuel hose connection as it is almost spill/leak free anytime the connection is either undone or made fast.  I filled the tank almost to the top, keyed the ignition 2-3 times and when I started the bike, the FI light stayed off=SUCCESS!!!!  

I will be making sure to grease all the bolts that go back into the tank shrouds and to secure the tank itself as was recommended we all do on our new/used bikes or suffer when the tank inserts spin due to corrosion of the bolt to the insert.  

 

 

[Sierra_rider]

I ended building my own harness for my 300. The only things left besides the starter is the map switch and headlight. I kept the original starter button, but got rid of the huge multi-switch on the left and replaced it with a simple kill-switch from a YZ. I found a push-button for the headlight and moved it behind the number plate where the computer used to live. I moved the map switch on both my bikes to the steering lock...My 300 is probably one of the cleanest cockpits of any Beta. My 350 has to remain street legal, so it's the stock mess.

Edited August 11, 2018 by Sierra_rider

[OMEGAENDURO]

1 hour ago, Sierra_rider said:

I ended building my own harness for my 300. The only things left besides the starter is the map switch and headlight. I kept the original starter button, but got rid of the huge multi-switch on the left and replaced it with a simple kill-switch from a YZ. I found a push-button for the headlight and moved it behind the number plate where the computer used to live. I moved the map switch on both my bikes to the steering lock...My 300 is probably one of the cleanest cockpits of any Beta. My 350 has to remain street legal, so it's the stock mess.

Sicass racing has some nice switches to help clean up your 350's switchology. 

[MarantzManiac]

My 17 Beta 500 RR-S is in the shop due to electrical charging issues...  dealer changed voltage regulator which increased voltage from 12.3 v to 13+ v however once a load is added (stock headlight etc.) the voltage drops back down to 12v and stops charging the battery.

It's always been on a battery tender... only adds are Garmin Montana mount, Squadron Pro headlight & tender pigtail....  hoping the stator isn't fooked with < 60 hours run time.

[Ben500RR-S]

39 minutes ago, MarantzManiac said:

My 17 Beta 500 RR-S is in the shop due to electrical charging issues...  dealer changed voltage regulator which increased voltage from 12.3 v to 13+ v however once a load is added (stock headlight etc.) the voltage drops back down to 12v and stops charging the battery.

It's always been on a battery tender... only adds are Garmin Montana mount, Squadron Pro headlight & tender pigtail....  hoping the stator isn't fooked with < 60 hours run time.

Hope that gets sorted.  It can't be due to damaged/separated wires in the bundle as putting an electrical load on it changes everything.  

I ride my bike almost every day and have 2,930 miles and 168 hours but am charging just fine. 

 

I also have a Squadron Pro and only LED turn signals.  

[Ben500RR-S]

I got to ride with the family on our local rail-trail and everything on the bike now works as it should.  

I'm hoping that I'll never have to replace the harness but if I do, it is an easy job and $136 for the harness.  I have what I think is some good slack for when the handlebars are fully turned to each side so I'm going to again hope that I won't have any issues with the harness.  

[MarantzManiac]

Strongly recommend other Beta RRS owners install volt meter on frame in plain sight... cheap insurance 

 

 

[Ben500RR-S]

I have the running/charging voltage set on my "User 1" screen that I check on and leave up at least once every time I'm out as it also has the tach, minutes/hours of time run since reset, trip odometer, mph and maybe the time.  I like that both of the User screens have 6 values that we can choose to have displayed.  

 

[MarantzManiac]

New info today... bike's electrical gremlins appear related to the wiring harness with replacement now on order....

[Ben500RR-S]

Good that it is something simple.  

I can only wish that Beta would upgrade the harness so that when it rounds the headstock, there is no possibility of the wires getting damaged again.  I have done what I could with the routing and the securing of the bundle but there is only so much I/we can do as the wires have to move with the turning of the handlebars.  

Hopefully the new harness will solve your problems Marantz Maniac.  

[MarantzManiac]

I asked if replacement harness had same part number and it does. Beta does however improve problematic parts without notification so there's a chance a new and improved (longer!) harness will be installed.... fingers crossed

[Ben500RR-S]

The only thing I had noticed different about the harness I had received was that it had 2 extra wires at the front which must go to some things I just don't have.  

 

I had noticed that with the original/problem-harness, that not enough slack was provided coming up and out from below the fuel tank and that it was part of the reason as to why the wires crushed and slowly separated from each other and had their vinyl coverings rubbed away up around the headstock.  

There is a lot less stretch with all the slack I have now provided the bundle of wires but there is still the strain from the turning the bars to the left and right that I can see, over time, causing the problems again but I'll deal with it if it comes and just get a new harness right away.  

 

Be sure to keep the old harness for the indicator bulbs and any other connectors you might need someday, and to just cut it open to see what wires were busted unless the dealer had already done so.  

Edited August 22, 2018 by Ben500RR-S

[MarantzManiac]

4 minutes ago, Ben500RR-S said:

I had noticed that with the original/problem-harness, that not enough slack was provided coming up and out from below the fuel tank and that it was part of the reason as to why the wires crushed and slowly separated from each other and had their vinyl coverings rubbed away up around the headstock.  

There is a lot less stretch with all the slack I have now provided the bundle of wires but there is still the strain from the turning the bars to the left and right that I can see, over time, causing the problems again but I'll deal with it if it comes and just get a new harness right away.  

 

Be sure to keep the old harness for the indicator bulbs and any other connectors you might need someday, and to just cut it open to see what wires were busted unless the dealer had already done so.  

Good points thanks!  I'll definitely ask if they don't need to send back to Beta as they're covering under warranty. 

[Ben500RR-S]

10 minutes ago, MarantzManiac said:

Good points thanks!  I'll definitely ask if they don't need to send back to Beta as they're covering under warranty. 

You are lucky it is under warranty.  

Also ask if it happens again, will it be covered?  Like in another year warranty on the part?  

I can only hope that Beta is seeing so many harnesses being replaced, either under warranty or from poor saps like me who had to pay for a new one, and do something to make the harness better.  

[Brock Warwick]

On 8/13/2018 at 12:51 PM, MarantzManiac said:

Strongly recommend other Beta RRS owners install volt meter on frame in plain sight... cheap insurance 

 

 

Nice gadget but doesn't the Voyager display the charging output?

[Ben500RR-S]

Yes, with the Voyager, one has the option under the USER window, to program and choose the Engine Voltage/charging voltage on one of the two User Screens and have it be one of the 6 options for each screen as we get a total of 12 choices for what we might want on them.  The other voltage option is for the battery voltage for the Voyager itself.  

[danketchpel]

So I dug into my harness today to "fix" those crimp joints. OMG, there are too many crimp joints in there!

Here's the primary offenders.

So I soldered all of the crimp joints in that mess.

After that I wrapped it back up and made sure there was NO force on the loom as the bars were moved to full left. I actually didn't have much of a problem with that on my bike before as I'd checked it carefully and the joints didn't look "too bad". But quite honestly, that's a horrible practice and I can't see much reason as to why they exist like that. I believe there's a better way to do this.

That said, after doing the solder work and cleaning the main frame ground (it wasn't too bad either) my charging voltage went up about 0.3v on average, plus I can ride in peace knowing the stupid crimp joints aren't going to pull apart out on the trail in some remote place. The charging voltage still isn't great, but barely passable in my opinion. I'm seeing between 13.1 - 13.7v at the Voyager depending on what's on. If the Squadron Pro is on high beam (100%) it's in the lower 13.1 - 13.3v range, if it's on low beam (I've programmed it to 70%) then voltage goes up to about 13.3 - 13.5v at best. If I turn off the headlight (I added a on/off switch) it's 13.5 - 13.7v on average.   

I looked at the wire sizes for the charging wires coming out the voltage regulator and they are dang wimpy. I'm not surprised we are loosing voltage at the other end of the loom by the time it gets to the battery. I'd say the wire gauges for the primary charging are about 2 sizes too small. I think my next move will be to run larger gauge wires directly from the voltage regulator bypassing the loom in parallel to carry more current to the battery. I don't intend to change the circuit, only add to the current carrying capacity.

Edited November 5, 2018 by danketchpel

[Ben500RR-S]

OMGosh!  The nightmare bundle of wires from Hades.  They've got crimped connections, all sorts of splices, 3 into 1, 2 into 1, as plain as day in your pictures.  The grounded wires didn't even get the benefit of a covering/shrink wrap, just left wide open to chafe/open up/ground out against another crucial component.  

Animal nests are far more orderly than what Beta has put together for us to modify/fix/repair/replace.  

First sign that I have issues with stuff not working, I'm not wasting time going in to find and repair anything-because it means that other things are going to go not long after, I will just drop the $130 for a new harness and replace the entire thing and be done with.  

 

The bundle disgusts me, can you tell?