2002 Roadhawk problem

[starrider1946]

On my way back from town. I looked down and my speedometer wasn't working. I looked again and none of my gauges are working. No turn signals, or horn. Didn't check the brake lights. I think I had running lights according to my wife. Anyone have any idea what to check or have a wiring diagram. Is there a main fuse before it goes to all the fuses? I had some trouble a while back. Can't remember exactly what is was but what ever it was I fixed it. Any suggestions?

 

[FuzzyWuzHe]

On my way back from town. I looked down and my speedometer wasn't working. I looked again and none of my gauges are working. No turn signals, or horn. Didn't check the brake lights. I think I had running lights according to my wife. Anyone have any idea what to check or have a wiring diagram. Is there a main fuse before it goes to all the fuses? I had some trouble a while back. Can't remember exactly what is was but what ever it was I fixed it. Any suggestions?

I'm not a VW Guy ... but electrical 101 Fuzzy style ... check fusses .. both for burned out and loose. Next check grounds, especially on the circuits that aren't working. Lastly, look for frayed wires causing shorts. After that ... I call my buddy Don ... he's an electrician.

Good Luck

 

[starrider1946]

Definitely not good with electrical. Just pulled the dash out. Seems like everything on the dash is out. Going to check fuses and see if I can find grounds. Was hoping to get a wiring diagram. I have have the trike 4 years. Was hoping for no electrical problems. They probably built the trike, wired it then set the body on it and hooked everything up. Hard to get to anything.

 

[FuzzyWuzHe]

We have some great VW guys here ... I'm betting one of them will chime in soon.

 

[Ozarkryder]

We had a Roadhawk that had some electircal gremlins. The gauges would go out, and sometimes the trike would just quit running after a turn. We called Roadsmith and got a bit of help, but there doesn't seem to be a wiring diagram on the V-Cycle VW based trikes. Our problem turned out to be a connector located on the left side of the steering head just in front of the dash. The problem was that over the years some of the wires in the 4 pin Molex connector - picture below -

came loose or or a pin broke. I ditched the connector and add a couple inches of wire to each lead using Posilock connectors like these:

Crimp connectors or soldering the wires will work, I used the Posilocks becajuse they make a very secure connection but I could easily take the wires apart if needed.

BTW - the color of wires that go to the components on the trike a not necessarily the same color as the original wires on the stock VW componets. It is best to follow a wire from a component to its source just to make sure it is the correct wire.

 

[starrider1946]

I started checking the fuses on and the top fuse was blown. I can tell it got hot. One of the prongs is burnt. It has four 15 amp fuses. I have to get some fuses tomorrow. I will replace it and see what happens I guess. When I got the trike I had to replace the alternator. After I did the amp gauge usually was around 12 amp. I noticed it was down to around 11 then got down to 10 then all of a sudden it was back up to 12. I don't guess that had anything to do with blowing the fuse. I am going to replace the fuse tomorrow and hope for the best. I will post what happened.

 

[Sidecarbill]

A burnt prong is usually an indication of a bad connection. Make sure they're clean and tight on the fuse.

 

[vwbug72501]

Probably not a bad idea to consider replacing the overheated fuse socket. The reason for this is that , even if you succeed in cleaning off ALL the corrosion, you have heat stressed the conductor and it will loose some if its spring tension. With reduced spring tension the contact cannot retain a "gas tight" contact and allow moisture and oxygen into the contact area. This will allow corrosion to restart and with that increased electrical resistance at the contact. Increased resistance produces a voltage drop across the contact that equates to heating the contact. At this point becomes a self fulfilling proficy (usually in the middle of nowhere).

Look at the blown fuse. Was it blown "hard" (smoked internally) or "easy" (little or no evidence of catastrophic failure, just open). Hard failure usually indicates a short circuit to ground. Soft can indicate that the fuse overheated due to the contact corrosion heating from the explanation above.

 

[starrider1946]

Had to take the fuse box loose. Couldn't get the new fuse in. The inside of the old fuse looks like it is hardly broken but one prong on it is basically melted. I am going to bypass the slot for it with a inline fuse. I hope it was just like you said and it wasn't making a good connection. I believe that is the fuse I had problems with before but not sure. I don't think the whole dash was out. I will keep posting with results.