Charging Light Illuminates...

[Urbestfriend]

Just have to throw this one out before I tear everything apart to find a root cause. 
When traveling up or down my Gravel Lane or hitting certain bumps,  the red charge
indicator flashes.  Surely is a loose connector.   The question is:  "Has anyone ever narrowed
down what connector it may be ?

[windwheeler]

I ride pretty rough natural roads and never had this problem.  But I know from other vehicles to make SURE the battery stays in place and 100% strapped down and does not bounce around.  All kind of problems otherwise...!

If that's not it look also for a positive wire rubbing against a frame somewhere. 

Broken internal wire... hard to find.

Loose connector is actually my last guess.

That's how much I can think of things.  Hope this will help you.

[Stig / Major Tom]

Agree with wheeler - I have seen loose battery leads do amazing things. (lit some dash lights on my Scion with the key in my pocket!)
Stig

[mrbios]

I got this for the first time last night on the highway at 70mph.  It went on for a few seconds then went off and stayed off.  I am going to check the voltage at idle and when revved to see of the stator is weak.  I did power wash the motor about 6 weeks ago and it has only rained once since then.

[Urbestfriend]

Thanks everyone.. It's not that I'm stupid as much as I'm lazy.  If I have one of two scooters running,  I don't necessarily work as hard to get the second one running.  In this case, I expected to have to tear the front cowl off and it's getting colder.  As it is,  yesterday,  it failed with no voltage available at all.  I plugged in the Float Charger to my dash outlet all night and 24 hours later.  Still nothing.  I pulled the battery cover off and sure enough the Positive Battery Terminal was loose just enough to have contact.  That's why when coming across any rough surface,  the charge light would blink.   Tightened the screw,  rode it down the lane to the mailbox and sure enough,  no blinking light.  I'd like to encourage anyone to publish their final solutions as a help to all of us.

[Vivo]

Very good info... 

[mrbios]

SOLVED! 

The rear most nut on the ignition / spark plug coil was loose.  I believe this may have been caused by the dealer taking a shortcut to disconnecting the battery while cleaning the carburetor.  It is easier to reach this spot.  I checked several other nuts including the other nut on the coil and everything was tight.  Also, when I examined the eyelet on the end of the wire there were clear signs of arcing (damage cause by sparks).  I sanded the connections smooth and applied blue Loctite (thread locker) to the bolt and tightened the nut.  I have ridden about 100 miles with no further problems.

I will add a link to the pictures shortly:


Overview (Coil): 


Close Up Loose Nut:


Evidence of Electrical Arcing / Confirmation of the problem: