PGO G-MAX 200 fuse melted
Just want to share an electrical repair on my 2008 PGO G-MAX 200.
Background
i bought this bike in 2015. I put about 30,000km into the bike, and have changed consumables many times. V-belt, Engine oil change, spark plugs. I now have multiple motorcycles, so this bike doesn’t get used very frequently. My daily commute to work is 56km 1-way, so the round trip will be 112km.
The Incident
One day, i was commuting to work, in about 18km, near Sheung Shui, my dashboard went blank, but the engine was still working. Unfortunately, 2 minutes later, the engine quit working. The bike electrical had died. No left right indicator, no horn, no starter, no brake light. I had a multimeter with me at that time, I immediately checked the battery, and it has 13.25V.
Since the battery was only 6 months old, I am 100% sure it wasn’t the battery. Since there’s nothing much i can do at the side of the motorway, i called the tow truck tow my broken down bike back home, then i just rode my other bike to work. Will look into the broken down bike in my free time.
The Repair
Yesterday, I checked all the fuses, and found one of the 15A fuse melted. I didn’t understand why it melted instead of the internal wire burning out.
According to my Year 12 Physics knowledge, a large current going through a thin wire (large resistance) will heat up the wire. Why did this fuse become large resistance? Oxidation of the contacts? I removed the fuse with a pair of pliers, then I sprayed WD-40 on the fuse holder. Also did the same with other fuse holder, then I reinstalled all fuses. Afterwards, all the electricals, starter the lights, horn, dashboard all came back alive and seemed normal, so off i went for a test drive.
10km later, all the fuses were very slightly warm, but the biggest problem is that my dashboard isn’t working properly. Although the dashboard is on, the tachometer, speedometer wasn’t moving. The LED indicating the left right blinkers were also not working. The fuel gauge was showing full, when in reality there was less than half a tank. I don’t believe the fuel level sender, speed sensor, the tach sensor will all become broken at the same time. (It might be now, continue reading), so i think the dashboard was somehow broken.
Right now, I can only use the GPS speedometer app to see my speed, but for distance travelled and fuel level estimation, i have to use google map to mark down the distance i travelled for every journey, to “extrapolate” when to go to the petrol station to fill up.
How did a single fuse break my dashboard?
Should i buy a Chinese universal dashboard, or should i buy the OEM genuine dashboard?
If I go for Chinese universal dashboard, i’d have to splice the wires from the original dashboard connector, which is a big work, also i don’t have the electrical diagram for this bike. I will have great difficulty making the universal dashboard fit into the current dashboard shell.
Regulator Fried
A few short trips later (total of 70km), while i was checking the fuse, I noticed the battery was boiling hot. With the engine idling, the voltage is 16.3V and climbing, so the rectifier/regulator was also broken. I’ll have to stop riding this bike until i replace the rectifier/regulator. I disconnected the negative lead to the battery.