2006 Yamaha FJR1300A electrical problems

Filed Mar 2, 2016 · Electrical · 92,000 miles · CA

I commute on my motorcycle nearly every day throughout the year. This is the reason I have a motorcycle. My work start time is at 5:30am so I commute to work in the dark year round. I also travel a section of road that takes me through a 6 mile canyon that has no street lighting so the road is completely dark and has many turns while traveling at near the 65mph speed limit. Two weeks ago while traveling this section I flipped the headlight brights switch which caused my headlights to go completely out. Flipping the switch back to normal lights did not turn them back on. After a few seconds the lights came back on. This happened three times during down the canyon and twice more until I got to work. I was very lucky I didn't crash or get injured. Luckily, a car was positioned a little ahead of me which allowed me to know where the road was due to the car's tail lights. I was able to ride home in the daylight. I tested the headlights at home and found that a relay was buzzing so I thought that was the cause. Unfortunately, swapping for a different relay did not fix the issue. I eventually located a connector with a spider grounding pole that had a burnt mark. Taking it apart showed the caused. One of the wires no longer had good contact due to an overload of the connector. I'm attaching a picture. There's a recall due to another one of these connectors and it was completed a while ago. My recent issue is not addressed by the federal safety agency campaign number: 11v‑338. My faulty connector is s6 not the s4 from the recall. I've read that many others have had issues with the same connector and if future riders have a similar problem as mine we are certainly looking at a major safety issue.

Filed Feb 23, 2014 · Electrical, Lights · 30,265 miles · TX

Headlights failed without warning. Potentially life threatening as this occurred while underway at night. The defect occurred in what is known as the s6 spider - a spider being a ground wire collector circuit on the vehicle. The vehicle has already been recalled for other spider failures, but the spider affected by this problem was not among the ones dealt with.

Filed May 30, 2012 · Electrical, Lights · 58,000 miles · OH

Riding in western virginia, on a warm saturday afternoon, I noticed my turn signal indicator lights were both on, and flashed weirdly when I used them. I also lost the electric adjustable windshield, and discovered when I stopped that I had no headlights. This was painful because the ride I was on involved a lot of night time riding. Luckily this happened during the day and I was able to use my auxiliary lights that night. Upon dis-assembly, a ground spider (s6) under the nose of the bike, not covered or inspected by the current recall was burned to a crisp. This would have been really bad had I lost my lights at speed, at night on a twisty mountain road.

Filed Jun 5, 2011 · Electrical · 78,000 miles · CO

Aug. 3rd 2010 while driving north on ca 101 at about 4:00 pm in heavy rush hour traffic , the engine stopped dead. It would not restart. It was towed to the nearest yamaha shop where it was diagnosed and repaired. The problem was found to be a bad ground connection(spyder). The connector was removed and the wires were soldered together at the yamaha dealership . I have the connector and gave it to my local dealership . They were not aware of the problem and were not concerned about the safety factor ( driving in rush hour traffic at speed and to have the engine just stop ).

Filed Apr 24, 2011 · Electrical · 41,300 miles · NH · crash

Total loss of power and control with failure of the motorcycle grounding harness system.

Filed Apr 3, 2011 · Electrical · 89,460 miles · WA

My motorcycle stopped running twice while riding down a local highway. The engine briefly shut off for a few seconds before starting back up and running normally. When it did so a number of lights came on the dash while the engine was off, including high-beam indicator, emergency flashers, and the speedo and tach stopped working. Later the same day I stopped to fuel up and the bike would not start, and all the same dash lights were on (even though the emergency flashers were not flashing and high-beams were not on. The motorcycle was towed home. I later repaired it. The cause of the failure was a melted ground circuit connector, caused by an overload on the circuit. I repaired it by running an additional ground wire to the frame to offload part of the current.

Filed Oct 30, 2010 · Electrical · 37,500 miles · MD

Electrical power cutout. No power to starter, multiple dash lights on, flashing fuel meter indicator, turn signal indicators, etc. Not a burned out fuse but rather a fried ground point on the wiring harness. This is being reported very often on the fjr forum. My shop took pix and sent to yamaha to see what they will do about it. Ground point connector gets corroded, loses ground, overheats and fries circuits. If this happens when you are riding, you will lose all power and the engine will die.

Filed Sep 28, 2010 · Electrical · 24,340 miles · MN

After starting my motorcycle for the first time that day, my wife and I rode it .9 miles when the engine quit running. I was midway through a steep, downhill left turn when I lost power. I stopped the bike using a combination of front and rear brakes, stopping at the stop sign at the bottom of the hill. Several of the lights on the instrument cluster were illuminated. Both turn signal indicator lights were lit without flashing. The lcd fuel gauge was flashing. The high beam indicator light was illuminated. The bike's headlights were not illuminated. The horn did not work. These symptoms have been reported before on fjrforum.com as I was 150 miles from home, I made a phone call to a friend and asked him to go on fjrforum.com and find the cause of the problem. Following the descriptions and photos offered on the forum, I was able to locate a melted connector. It is known as a "ground spider". After removing the ground spider, cleaning it and reinstalling it, I was able to get the bike running. The bike ran normally for 4 or 5 miles before the same problem returned. Knowing what to look for, I again partially disassembled the bike to again have access to the ground spider. This time, I cut the melted plastic off the lugs, exposing them and used utility wire to bind them together. The bike ran normally after that. I was able to ride the bike home. I would like yamaha to correct this design flaw. The problem is well documented. Some very intelligent fjr owners have tried to make the best of this situation. Yamaha could easily use the information generously shared on fjrforum.com to correct their problematic wiring harness.

Filed Jul 25, 2010 · Electrical · 31,094 miles · AR

Sitting on motorcycle, started motor, backed out of garage, put kickstand up and motor died. Tried to restart, but nothing worked; no lights, no horn, no information showing in display, no flasher lights or turn signals. This is the first time this incident has occurred. Took to local motorcycle dealer and after having to look on a motorcycle forum on the internet found out problem was in one of eight different ground switches located in the wiring harness. He cleaned switch (cannot replace individual grounding switches) and got bike running again. Mechanic stated it may occur again at any time and could occur while riding. According to the particular motorcycle forum, some people have had this occur while riding at freeway speeds. It seems to be common to my particular make and model of motorcycle. This could be a very serious safety issue; the manufacturer seems to know about the issue but has done nothing publicly to address the problem or advise owners the problem exists.

Filed Jul 7, 2010 · Electrical · 50,500 miles · CA

Investigation of known issue with other yamaha fjr1300s. Spider ground #4, "s4" showed signs of a catastrophic failure of the electrical connector in the wiring harness due to overheating. Connector is melted and corrosion is present. Finding this melted connector before riding the motorcycle precluded failure of the connector while in motion. No accident occurred. I installed a 'ground shunt' wiring harness that I made to re-route the ground connectors away from the factory harness which is of poor design, and of wire gauge size too small for the possible amperage of the circuit. Melted connector and common ground insert are available.