Electrical failure whilst away from home.

[Airbear]

In a pinch, you can light a joint (or start a fire) with a coiled up thin wire briefly shorted between your battery terminals.

Another way is to pull the headlight reflector out, point it at the sun and stick your smoke through the bulb hole. I did that once with my veedub. Only takes a few seconds once you get the focal point.

[Airbear]

There is a timely discussion started by new member Red about a charging issue on his 90/6. The electrical experts are taking him through the diagnostics in that elegantly methodical way they have. I will devour this thread. I will try to get my poor old brain to digest every morsel of information.

Hopefully, doing this will allow at least some of their experience and knowledge to rub off on me and take away some of the fear I have about electrons. Further resolve over morning coffee: I will use my multimeter and other tools I have to test the values of the components on my bike while things are working well, so I know how things should be. This is something that Duane suggests frequently on his website, and it is good advice.

This is the sort of stuff that I want to collect, print and carry with me for that time in the future when I will be faced with a similar problem.

Welcome, Red. Thanks, electrical experts. You are much appreciated.

[Jean]

A-B, You should ALWAYS carry spare fuses and bulbs to fit all the major light positions. here on the other side of the equator, we can get the small bulbs in most any grocery or pharmacy, but on the other side of the lumpy-part of OZ, I'm not sure about how far apart such shops might be.
SO, The bike specific items are a spare headlight bulb is something to have. A spare rotor that matches your stator (they aren't all the same). Depending on you particular bike, you might like to have a headlight relay (you'll need it sooner or later, anyhow!) and a turn-signal flasher relay if you have one of the odd ones. There are NO substitutes for these on my 77 and 78 R100s and RS and the 78 R80. If you have points, a spare set and a KNOWN GOOD capacitor. A pair of those little springs that tension the weights are also mighty handy to have.
The general electrical tool list included a small multimeter, a short jumper wire with the proper terminals to bypass your voltage regulator, a longer jumper wire of adequate gauge to allow you to hot-wire your bike, electrical tape, and maybe a pair of jumper cables with clamps that are suitable for a motorcycle battery. You can also use them if you have to get home or anywhere "safe" running on an auxiliary battery.
Lastly, get a good schematic of your wiring system, make notes if you've made changes, and put it in a plastic bag with your tools.

[Airbear]

Thanks Jean. Duly noted and appreciated. I'm building quite a list of coffee induced resolutions. Just need to carry them out now.

[Garnet]

Hey Charlie, I found this kit http://www.euromotoelectrics.com/produc ... lt-bmw.htm which covers most of the charging problems that you'd have on the road.

[Airbear]

Thanks Garnet. A surprisingly good price for those components.

I've been re-reading some relevant stuff on Duane's site and J R Buchanon's site
http://www.buchanan1.net/charge.shtml
Both are written in a delightful, almost 'Bob and Betty' style, well suited to my level of knowledge and comprehension.
Some of it is already sinking in.

[Jean]

I just re-read my post about having a good schematic: I'll add a bit to that.
On the /5 and /6 bikes there are schematics published in all the common workshop manuals.
Unfortunately, I've discovered (as have many of us) that the drawings are not always accurate(wires missing), not always right (wires going to the wrong place), and sometimes just do not match your bike due to changes made at the factory (typical german-vehicle thing to encounter).
Since you have a /6, it may not be AS MUCH of a problem but they made them for many years and item 3 is always something to check-out before you take what you have as gospel. With the /5, there are the bikes WITH fuses and the bikes WITHOUT fuses, and the US model vs. the continental model vs. the UK model. (and on and on and on.....)
My Haynes manual from the early 80s is good 99.9% of the time, the Chiltons is poor. Rumor has it that the current Chiltons is improved...but I have not seen it.

SO...since you drive on the OTHER side of the road and are on the other side of the equator, your fuses are probably installed upside down...

Go the the IBMWR website and check the technical articles. There are some good tips for airhead trouble shooting there that you can print, including a list of common spares (VW parts mostly) for electrical components.

[Airbear]

Thnx again Jean. When Brunhilde first adopted me I read every tech article on that website, saved most of it into Word docs, printed heaps and stored into a folder which is ... somewhere. Glad to hear that the Haynes schematic is near enough to correct. I have that. I like the colours.

Fuses upside down? Holy sheepshit, I never thought of that. Thanks mate. I owe you a few beers now.

[Jean]

Airbear, when you live where the water in the toilet goes the wrong way 'round, ANYTHING is possible.
PS. You can teach your spel-chek to use "u" in all the right places, and transpose "er" and "re" too!
I even taught mine to allow "z" OR "s" in Surprise! Surprize!

Search the historical Boxer-forum listings for Rob Frankham (UK) posts on various electrical issues, too. He's got a lot of good stuff that are item specific. He does use "ground" instead of "earth" in his comments, so we have obviously corrupted him.

[Airbear]

Ah now Jean, I couldn't go corruptin' the Queen's fekkin' english. Not until we shake off the yoke of english tyranny by becoming a republic. It is rumoured (rumored) that this may happen sometime in this century.

I love Robin Frankham's stuff. while stumbling around his website I discovered that he also had an airhead called Brunhilde, named just a few months after my Brunhilde adopted me and made her name known. I wrote to him about this. It was fun. He's a very nice bloke (man, fella, chap).