Triumphrat

01-20-2006

I got out yesterday and I believe I overheated the bike. ie... it blew some coolant out of the overflow tank. Don't think it was too bad though as I had only gone about 5 miles and was moving for most of it. Couple of questions here. First I just bought the bike a 98 Trophy 1200 with 33k and I thought bulbs were burned out in the dash for the warning lights so I replaced them with LED's (they work great BTW) It appears that the sending units are bad rather than the bulbs being bad (I ran the diagnostics via Haynes manual to determine this)

The fan switch seems to be bad. The fan does not come on, but if you ground the switch it will kick on and run.

The temp sending unit seems to be bad. Won't set off the light.

Oil sending unit seems to be bad. Won't set off the light.

Are these common units to go bad? Or is this a sign of deeper electrical problems?

Anyway I have ordered all above listed parts to the tune of about 100 bucks and will report on the success or lack there of on the repair attempt.

Next question is do yo think I could have damaged the head? Are these bike sensitive to this? The engine is so noisy that it's hard to tell if you have messed something up.

Thanks for your help.

flatspins · 01-20-2006

What was your temp reading on the gauge during your "overheat"? Had you just filled coolant res? I very much doubt that anything was damaged. Fan should start at 210F or close to it.

[ This message was edited by: flatspins on 2006-01-20 08:53 ]

01-20-2006

The Trophy doesn't have a guage it only has a light, which didn't come on, but niether did the fan. The coolant level was at the proper marks and I hadn't changed the level. I ran the diagnostics via the Hanes maunal which leads me to belive that the sending units are bad.

Slinky · 01-20-2006

What sort of temperatures do you have where you live? It seems unlikely that the fan would come on after 5 miles, especially if you were mostly moving.

Mine only comes on 2 or 3 times a year, on really hot days ( we don't get many of them). That may not be a valid comparison seeing as we have different bikes.

A better test of the fan switch is to heat it up with a hot air gun, or heat it up in a pan of water and watch the resistance just before the water boils.

The oil light should come on with the ignition and go off when the engine starts.

01-20-2006

Sitting in traffic, in NYC, in August, my Trident's fan would often come on. The temp gauge was usually around the halfway point when it did.

Then, one chilly, soggy, Autumn night, after a week of solid rain, I went to start it up. The temp gauge went all the way to the red as soon as I turned the ignition on. The ambient temp was about 53* F at the time, & the bike had been sitting for about 8 hours, so I'm pretty sure it wasn't actually overheating. :razz: After messing about with the ground a bit, I determined that my sender was bad & I will eventually replace it. My fan still runs once in a while in stop & go, & I'm just ignoring the temp gauge for now. (If it didn't overheat in stopped traffic at 95* F, it ain't gonna overheat in stopped traffic at 45* F...)

That being said, get this file from the downloads section of the site. You may have a bad ground.

HTH,
-Kit

01-29-2006

Got all the new parts in and installed and all is well with the world. Lights come on and go off like they should and the fan now kicks in when needed.