My Valkyrie has been sitting in the garage for a year-and-a-half. Heavy sigh. But I start it weekly, roll it around to prevent flat spots on the tires, and generally stare at it, wishing Judy and I were on our way out West.
I got a call from my earlier parttime job, asking if I would (please) come back to work. The offer was too good to pass up. Then I thought, "Heck, I'll ride the scooter to work!" So I rolled it out in the driveway and gave it a well-deserved washing. After I chamoised it off, I fired it up, and rode back into the garage.
The next morning I got up intending to change the oil, ride the Valkyrie to the Honda shop to get it inspected, renew my motorcycle insurance, and then ride to the DMV to renew my registration (yep, I had let everything lapse).
I rolled the bike backward out of the garage and halfway down the drive; I wanted to move to the other side of the garage where I had more open floor space. Sitting on the sloping drive I hit the starter and the bike cranked but failed to start. What! I turned the key off, then, back on, listening for telltale sounds of what might be happening. The dash came on per normal, I heard the faint sound of a relay, but the fuel pump didn't come on. I tried again. Same thing happened: no fuel pump.
"Crud," I said under my breath. And then I pushed as hard as I could until I had the bike back in the garage. This bike is not easy to push up a sloping drive when you weigh less than 140 lbs.
"Well," I thought. "I have some troubleshooting to do."
Of course, the "obvious" issue to consider was the potential that water made it into one or more switches or connectors when I washed the bike. Nope! So I next checked fuses. Nope! Next I checked relays. Nope! So I peeled off all of the bike's plastic so I could raise the tank - I wanted to check the voltage on the plug that connects to the fuel pump. And look what I found. How that wire separated I will never understand. But I knew it was going to be a problem.
I considered replacing the whole connector but it is unavailable. Crud. And the pins inside the connector are unavailable. So, I decided to extract the pin with the separated wire (what a pain!), "uncrimp" it, and replace the wire with a pigtail I could then solder into the wiring harness. It took almost all of today to get it done, but I got it done.
So, tomorrow I'm going to put the bike back together and change the oil. Monday I'll get it inspected, renew my insurance, and renew my registration. I'm glad the wire separated when the bike was within pushing distance of the garage. Can you imagine trying to do this repair in a hotel parking lot when touring out West? Not a pretty thought.
Stay safe out there.
