All this took about 15 hours for me. It was also worth it to me, now that I have familiarised myself with the bike a little further.
BHP’s BullettuPaandi recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
In all honesty, a more befitting title would be: “Making up for my negligence towards my XPulse”.
Prologue:
Just after buying an XPulse 200 4V two years ago, I remember clocking over 3500km within the first two and a half months & checking in for third service in the third month- I took the advice of a mechanic in the showroom to bring the bike in for second service at 1500km, instead of the factory-recommended ‘3000km or 6 months’. Back then I used to commute 60km/weekday and simply ride around visiting places, exploring new trails and roads once in a weekend or two. All this changed soon enough and since, I haven’t had to commute and have been out-of-station more often. So, I only managed to ride for about 1500km in the rest of one and three quarters years! In both circumstances, the bike has never caused any issues- only required chain lubrication for maintenance & has always started without any drama even after months of leaving unattended. I now feel like this has slightly spoiled me and that I’d long been taking it for granted.
While there’s never been an issue with me leaving the bike unattended, I obliviously triggered one: Little over a month ago, monkeys managed to break a part of security grill in my house. While getting this fixed by a local welder, I decided to add some more protection to avoid snakes and squirrels getting inside. After a week, I noticed a squirrel under a scorching sun trying and failing to crawl into its regular shelter-spot. I couldn’t help but enjoy watching this with a smirk- but as it’d turn out, that little devil had been eating my bike from the inside out all along! Shortly after, when I tried to start the bike after a wash, I noticed that I didn’t hear the fuel pump ‘whirr’. I thought maybe a fuse got rusted out in the rains; and when they turned out to be fine, I started looking for if there’s a relay only to find a hay-nest hiding this:
After a good while of hitting my head against every wall in the house, I decided to do the repair myself; just to put myself through it and learn. I called the Hero Showroom that I bought the bike from, to order a new harness. The mechanic asked me to send a picture of the damage, to see if it’s fixable with just some new wires. Although I had no hopes for it, I obliged just to appreciate that gesture. After confirming that fixing is not viable, he advised me to bring the bike to the showroom and told me that they can only order parts to the showroom’s address, not to mine. But, as I was fixated on replacing the harness myself, I neglected his advice this time and asked him if a soft copy of the service manual was available. To my surprise, he told me that they only receive training from Hero and are not provided service manuals. This was a bit of a let down, but I still proceeded with my decision and ordered a Wiring Harness from TheSparesCompany, that had COD as an option, and received a genuine part a while after. I tried my best to look around the stock bike and managed to label almost all connectors of the harness:
Disclaimer: This is just from me figuring out what each connector could be for. This may not be accurate (or) The connectors may have other functions than what they are labelled as.
Note 1: I have no idea what ‘ABZ’ is. There’s a sealed rubber housing on the bike next to relays, the connector end of which has ‘ABZ’ printed on it. So I’ve just labelled here as that for identification. I also have no idea, what the two ‘connected’ connectors are for; I have no way of knowing, as in the factory harness these were just connected to each other. Perhaps these have some function in a different model that shares this same part.
Note 2: As this is my first time posting, I kept forgetting that I had to take pictures for this post while I was working on the bike. So, I’ve added pictures I took post the job- pictures from re-installing panels added to removing panels section, for instance- for the sake of continuity. Because of this, you may notice some inconsistencies- such as, the bike being dirty, then cleaner, then dirty back again. Consider this a rookie mistake and kindly bear with it.
Note 3: I’ve decidedly omitted details that can be found on the user manual. So, in case you are reading this to do a similar job on your bike and find any detail missing, check the user manual.
Harness Replacement:
Removal of Old Harness:
Firstly, I had already removed the battery after noticing the damage, just in case Mr.Menace Mouth makes a visit again and somehow manages to short himself to Squirrel 65. Now, to remove the existing harness, the fuel tank and some other parts need to be removed first. I started with draining the fuel on the tank. With a fuel pump sealing the fuel line to the injector, this shouldn’t be necessary. But I had a full tank of 13L; so felt it’s rather safe to drain the tank and then figure out how to remove it.
I have only watched mechanics siphon (suck fuel out of a tank with a tube); I was a bit reluctant to do so myself and bought this mechanical siphon- basically a bladder with directional flaps that only fold on one side. When pressure is applied air/fluid is pulled from where the flap opens inwards to where the flap opens outwards (w.r.t. the bladder). After about 4-5 presses on the bladder, it managed to drain the fuel fairly quickly- 13L in about two minutes. I also bought a HDPE container to store the fuel. There was some fuel left in the tank- must’ve been within a litre- but as it wasn’t leaking after removing the undermentioned lines, I just let it be. After draining the fuel, I proceeded with removing the tank.
A tank bolt, Evaporative Emission Control (EEC) line, Drain line, Fuel Pump Connector & Injector line need to removed first in order to remove the tank. Just one single bolt on the rear of the tank is what is holding it in place, while the front of the tank rests on and is pushed tight against some rubber cushions/dampers. After the removing side panels, battery and the tank:
A close up of the crime scene and the remains of the criminal’s nice little condo. Must’ve been nice for Mr.Jaws Mini between just about enough warmth from the engine and faint fragrance of fuel intoxicating him after a long day of gnawing on copper, rubber and metal! Fortunately, just a near miss on the ECU. Only the rubber housing is damaged and not the actual component.
After cursing him for a while, I decided to work on the front first, as it was fairly simple. Two front-facing bolts of the four on the headlamps bracket needs to come off- one holding the headlamps and the other holding the LCD. The connector for the LCD is underneath it, which can be removed after pulling the red tab downwards. I also, took off the wind-shield bolts to give myself some extra room to work with.
Stock front routing. After removing the front sock connections, the white push-lock zip-tie needs to be detached from the frame to remove the harness from the front of the motorcycle. Also, the rubber cushions/dampers visible just above that are what the tank rests on and pushed against.
After removing the harness from the front, I ran into a bit of a problem. A bolt holding a connection on the Rectifier & Regulator (RR), was so tight that I’ve only managed to strip it while using the ring end of a proper-sized Stanley spanner. Looks like the assembler drove it the hell into the nut with a power tool. I tried all I could with increasing the arm length, using a hammer, etc.; all ended in vain. So, I just decided to cut the connection on the old harness & cut and tape the connection on the new harness when installing. It was indeed a bit unnerving to cut a brand new harness, but with the bolt this stripped, only other choice was to order a bolt extractor, wait for about a week and then do it right with a new bolt. I wasn’t that patient; so, chose the scissors.
At this point, I had spent way too much time on that bolt than I should’ve. It was starting to get dark; so I decided to remove connections from the rear. Though the connections themselves are fairly simply, getting to the connections on the rear is a bit tricky. So, I wanted to be done with that, when there still was enough light.
The factory routing on the rear passes through this narrow section. The harness can be removed from the rear only after the rear fenders under the harness are dropped. I had until this point dismissed buying a T-spanner, as I thought the spanner set I already own was enough & as they don’t fit inside a regular tool kit. I failed to realise that some bolts are just not accessible with a regular spanner, like in the rear fender cover below. So, I went to the nearest hardware store- about a km away- to buy some cheap tubular spanners for now, which I can use with a screwdriver.
Soon enough I learnt what I get for cheaping-out: the tube spanner broke after removing a grand total of one bolt.
So, I went back to the hardware store and bought an actual T-spanner and continued the job. In all this drama, I’d completely forgotten to take pictures and it was already dark before I realised that. But, I managed to remove the harness entirely by this day.
Continue reading BHPian BullettuPaandi’s post for more insights and information.
