I was checking the Brake light voltage in the socket and like a jackass I guess I shorted something. I saw a little smoke come from the dash. I pulled the dash apart to check and I can smell burned wires but can't see anything. I thought maybe the dc converter shorted out. I checked the horn and the turn signals and all is fine. The battery gauge reads full on the dash but the bike won't go when I push the throttle and the brake light is constantly light now when I turn the ignition on. Any ideas as to what stupid think I did?
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Support V is for Voltage
What did you use to apply the brake so you could test the voltage at the socket?
You may have fried the contacts in the switch closed.
Happy scooting,
JamesS
Well I smoked some diodes in the dash connected to the brake levers. 1N4007 is what one says, can't make out the other. I hope radioshack has these in stock. I also melted some of the wires after the diode up by the lever itself. Haven't figured it out why the rear brake lever won't light the brake light now. The front brake does when applied. I need to replace these diodes and see if that fixes all the problems. If the switch on the lever is bad how would you fix that. Would you have to order a new brake lever from extreme?
If "shorting the brake light" caused wiring to melt/burn, it seems that either someone has installed an improper fuse, or the circuit was poorly/dangerously engineered/executed! There SHOULD be a fuse in the circuit, of a suitable value to protect the switches and wiring from burning/melting in event of a short, as failure to do so could, in some cases, result in extensive damage, and possiblly a FIRE!--Has anything been altered from "Factory Original"? If no changes/alterations have been made, you should notify the supplier/manufacturer of the fact that apparently, circuit protection is inadequate, & possibly unsafe/hazardous.-Bob
Robert M. Curry
No nothing has been alter in the lighting circuit. What happen was I was trying to get a output voltage from the brake light and I some how shorted the socket with my multimeter and it sent voltage back up to the dash and shorted out some diodes and possibly the switch for the rear brake lever. At first when the rear brake lever switch was still connected the motor would not come on. Probably because it runs through the controller. I disconnected it and the motor now works like before. I will replace the diodes tonight and see how it goes after that I guess. These things are designed to let current flow all over the place in my opinion with no fuses. Only two in the entire bike I think.
My stupid mistake caused this problem. Not the bike design but some more fuses would be nice.
If you say that the brake light is constantly on and the throttle does nothing, this is what that means......
You somehow ruined/shorter/blew up the brake switch. The brake switch does 3 things.... well 2 if you dont count the actual physical pulling of the brake cable. The other 2 are.. It signals the brake light to go to stage 2 and get brighter, the last is it tells the controller to SHUT OFF THE MOTOR !!! :) So as long as the brake light is on the motor will not run! I have not looked at the brake lever or microswitch. Depending on what is wrong you MAY be able to get a replacement switch from radioshack, also you may want to try just spraying either WD40 or better yet, electrical cleaner on the brake switches. There might be a relay wrapped up in plastic covering in the dash as well, sort of a 1 relay for both brake levers to tell the controller to shut off the motor etc. If so that relay could be the lone cause.
Looks like you may need to do some multimeter testing.... keep following the wires from the brake switches until you find the problem.
Dave ; Tennessee
XB-600.
You are right on all counts Sixpax,I replaced the diodes that were bad and the motor is turning and the brake light is off. The microswitch for the rear brake lever is bad. It won't make the brake light come on and it wont stop the motor from turning. I am wondering if I need to replace it or leave it be. I found out that the brake light can be run from the front brake lever and since I always apply the front brake when stopping anyway I might just leave it for now. I also found if you reverse the connections on the brake levers my still good front brake switch will actually turning off the motor when you apply it.
So I could just leave it disconnected for now and worry about this later, Couldn't I.
If someone can think of anything bad from that statement please let me know.
Go ahead and find the replacement part, better to fix it right the first time, than blow something else, or have a larger mishap result.
well I guess you could run it like that. I wouldnt do it forever though, I would eventually fix it. I guess with it being the rear brake, if you give it gas while the rear brake is engaged it will cancel out, but could end up causing damage to the motor. IE, trying to spin and the brake working against it. IMHO, if either brake switch not working... the front brake is the best, that way if you are stopped on a steep incline you can start to give it "gas" (LOL, should we call it "juice" or "power" now?) with the front brake still on, allowing you to take off better.
Dave ; Tennessee
XB-600.
I tried to fix the microswitch but no go. I will order a new one from somewhere on the net or from xtreme if they sell it. I am not totally sure if everything is working correctly yet either. The front brake makes the brake light come on but I thought I saw it light up the dash panal a couple of times instead of the brake light. Weird. I hope I installed the diodes the right way? I left the rear switch disconnected for now. I also didn't switch the connections so the front brake isn't turning off the controller. I figured the rear brake will hold the motor if need be without it turning off the controller. I think that feature is there for safety when getting on and off the bike aways. Not so much for driving around.
If I put an OHM meter on the broken switch it reads OL "over load" when I push the button in it reads 0.00 on the meter. Is it toast?
sounds like the switch itself is good, in one position its open (OL) and closed (0.00) when pressed, I'd keep checking for proper wiring and diode direction. Good luck
Back to the drawing board. Thanks
This rear brake switch seems to be working in reverse. When I push it in it make the brake light come on. This switch is pushed in by the brake lever pushing on it and when you apply the brakes the the push button comes out and turns the brake light on. That's how the front brake switch works. So is this switch bad or is something else wrong? The front brake lever and switch works correctly in either connection on the bike so I think my wiring of the diodes is correct.
Flip the diode for that brake lever and see what happens
Happy scooting,
JamesS
I think the switch is cooked. Can a switch act competely opposite of the same identical switch if it has been damaged?
Good front brake switch is closed then open, Bad rear brake switch is open then closed.
James, I thought of that but the front brake lever connected to either of the 2 connections under the dash works perfect. It even stops the rear motor by turning off the controller when connected where the the rear brake lever micro switch is supposed to be connected to. I am really thinking it is the micro switch. I tested it when they weren't hooked up to the bike with an ohm meter and the working front switch is open when the brake lever is pushed against it and closed when you use the brake lever. The rear switch is directly opposite of that. It is closed when the brake lever is pushed against it and it makes the rear brake light lite up.
Once again.. I have not looked at the switch, but if it is working correctly, just reversed, you should be able to use it. Just find a way to reverse its output. Perhaps internally in the switch itself it overheated because of the short, causing a solder joint to melt and fall down to the next "pin". A microswitch is essentially a push button switch with 3 poles. an input (commonly 3,5,or 12V), an ON output (sends the input to the ON terminal when the switch is pushed or on), and the OFF output (sends the input to whatever is connected to the OFF terminal). in this case the solder prolly melted off the OFF output to the ON output... essentially sending the voltage signal to the brake light when the switch is on, as opposed to when the switch is OFF. When you use the brake, the switch goes from pushed in(ON) to pushed out(OFF). Most of these switches are so small and sealed so they can not be opened and repaired.
I would just get a new switch assy, I would think that it would be at most $10.
Dave ; Tennessee
XB-600.
I think the switch is cooked inside like you said. Some push buton switches are either normally open or normally closed I guess. The switch is sealed up so it can't really be repaired. I looked at radioshack online and going to go there today and see their switches. They have some small push button switches. Hopefully one will work.
UPDATE: Just took bike for my first ride without the rear brake switch hooked up. It rode fine took a little longer to stop I think than normal. Probably because I am not using the cutoff now for the controller when the rear break is applied. I was wondering if the front break lever and switch is suppose to cut off the controller too, or is it just the rear brake that does that? I noticed yestarday that if I switched the connection that I could in fact make the rear wheel shut off by appling the front brake but I am not sure if that is ok to do. Any thoughts?
Went to radioshack and bought some normally closed micro pushbutton switches. The switch was a little big to fit in the circular hole the stock switch goes in and the pushbutton was a little short to make contact with the brake lever. So I epoxyed an extra piece of plasic to the pushbutton to make it longer and I epoxyed the switch in place. Looks to be holding just fine and the rear brake light works again. The controller is once again shutting off the motor when the rear brake lever is applied. So I guess I got the diodes in correctly yestarday.
You can fix this problem this way but in my opinion it would be easier to just order a new switch from x-treme.
I took the bike on a 12 mile ride round trip today and it worked great. I tested the battery pack with a voltmeter when I got back and it read 64.8 volt with 5 batteries. That's almost 13 volts a battery so I believe the 25 mile range is accurate even with a 60v shunt mod controller.
Good job fixing it yourself. If you had waited on a part from Xtreme you could have had the same experience as so many others, including myself, have had. And you might get your replacement part next year sometime. Sad to say it but all the Xtreme bashing has turned out to be very true for the most part.
Happy scooting, Scott.
I took scoot to store today and ran fine but my new microswtich is sticking a little. I know that I must have cut the extra piece of plasic that I attached to the pushbutton to short, so it is not opening the circuit when the brake lever is applied. Which wouldn't be a big deal with it sticking if it didnt shut off the motor. It would just leave the brake light on till it unstock or I fiddled with the brake lever. Which is what I did today to get the motor to run again. Does anyone know if I switch the connection under the dash and make the front brake lever control the turning off of the motor if that would effect the ride at all when braking?
I really don't want to pull this switch out to attach another longer piece of plastic to it.
This scooter makes me feel like I have a VW Bug again. Always fixing something. lol