Last Friday I rode up to Mr. E and Jenn's house for the beginning of the Meltdown festivities (couldn't stay due to a prior planned family camping trip). I strapped the tool roll to the frame right in front of the right rear shock with some dog collars. Seems to be a good spot. I am going to try and make some better straps out of the leftover leather.
I realized that the wiring harness cover that protects the alternator connections was up too high keeping the choke from fully opening. I thought this may be causing some of the rich/plug fouling problems at idle. So I tried my best to move it down but there are a bunch of connections right there and it is tight. (*For the literary challenged this is foreshadowing*)
I set off and made it there without too much trouble as their place is only about 45 minutes away. I took the back roads through the countryside since it was such a nice day and I wasn't in a hurry. Once I was able to cruise for awhile, the left spark plug seemed to clean up and stop missing so I hope I've got the fouling problem fixed.
E and Jenn were great hosts (she makes a mean potato salad BTW
) but I had to head back home about 11:30. About 5 minutes from their house, a deer ran out in front of me a few yards ahead. Luckily it missed me and I was able to keep my pants clean but I was now wide awake. I made it to the interstate and started cruising down the road about 70 mph. I think it was 70, as my speedo light isn't working. Nobody on the interstate, and it was a beautiful night.
About 5 miles down the road, my headlight suddenly went out and I was plunged into darkness. I quickly fiddled with the headlight switch but was only able to get the high beam to come on. Though I may annoy some other drivers, at least I could see, so I rolled on. About another 5 miles down the road, I was once again plunged into darkness as the high beam went out. Messing with the switch did nothing. There wasn't much of a moon and there were no other cars going my direction so it was very difficult to see the road. The few cars that were coming the other way were causing a glare on my face shield so I had to raise it to be able to make out the lines on the road. I slowed down to maybe about 40 and rode another couple miles to the next exit with tears streaming from my eyes from the wind. I actually almost missed the exit because I couldn't really see it.
I made it to a gas station and took the headlight apart. Both high and low filaments had burned out. What are the odds? Not good. There must be another problem. My hypothesis is that in adjusting the harness cover, I might have accidentally disconnected one of the voltage regular wires, causing it to over-volt the headlight when I was at high RPMs at highway speed. I couldn't get to the connectors because the engine was too hot and I couldn't really see anyway. And of course, the gas station didn't have any headlight bulbs. I noticed another gas station on the other side of the interstate so I rode over there.... in the dark. They didn't have any H4 bulbs, but they happened to have a 7 inch sealed beam. Score! It fit perfectly into the bucket so I was back in business. I decided to take the back roads home to try and keep my RPMs down. It took awhile, but I finally made it home about 2am.
I haven't had a chance to look into the problem yet, but hopefully I get it fixed before the Thaw. Ugh, one more spare part I will need to carry with me.
