GSXR cluster repair

[eduardorr52]

First off let me say what a wealth of knowledge you guys have in this forum. full disclosure i am a novice attempting to learn as much as possible here. here we go, i have a couple of GSXR clusters 06-07 that have been on my bike with rectifier problems. it seems that everytime the rectifier goes out it fries the cluster. all i get on the cluster is the backlight. normally the mileage shows up and the needled does an up and down cycle. now its just blank on the display and no power to the LCD. only the backlight. so from my limited troubleshooting ability i have determine that the cluster is not getting secondary power. i just cant tell if a capacitor or diode is responsible for this any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks here are some pics for refence

 

[eduardorr52]

just want to update this i just applied power to one of the leds going to the LED and the led diplays characters so it is not broken just cant figure out why the power isnt getting there thru the board.


Thanks

 

[spec]

Hi E52,

By GSXR, I assume you mean A Suzuki GSXR motorbike. If so which model?

If this is the case, the first thing to check is the bike battery voltage when the engine is running st 3000 RPM or higher.

spec

 

[eduardorr52]

yes suzuki gsxr 600. another cluster works just fine on the motorcycle and i am actually powering this on a bench with a power supply.

 

[spec]

All the same, I would check your bike's battery voltage.

spec

 

[eduardorr52]

thanks for the heads up, battery is good. this is quite a common problem for gsxr models i just suprised no one has tried to tackle why the cluster cant be repaired, as replacing the cluster can get rather expensive. (which is what i had to do)

 

[spec]

From what you say, the GXR600 seems to have a battery voltage that is either too high or has spikes or both. A simple circuit could stop this.

As far as repairing the cluster goes- if you post a schematic of the cluster perhaps we can help.

spec

 

[bwilliams60]

Schematics for the bike are hard to find. Schematics for the cluster are next to impossible unless you draw it yourself.
Instrument clusters have become mini modules or computers and as such, you must look at them the same way. Do you have the schematic for the bike and if so, can you share it on here? Have you made sure that you have all power and ground wires connected to your power supply as well as the switched ignition supply?
Have you checked all the solder joints to the main connector and then followed the teaces for power and ground?
Check all solder joints thst you can as clusters are known for loose joints.
Make sure that the battery is fully charged and that it passes a load test.
Check the red/blue wire (I think) that feeds the cluster. Do this by checking for battery voltage and load the wire so that the integrity of the wire is checked as well.
Check all this and get back to us. I will check to see if I have any notes on this cluster..

Checked my notes...Often times the main harness will be chaffed and will wear the wiring down to a few strands. You will see full voltage or light up a test light, but not power up the cluster. Hence what I said above about loading the wire to test the integrity.

 

[KeepItSimpleStupid]

If this is a common problem, I'd consider building a device based on LT's Surge Stopper series, to condition power. See https://www.linear.com/products/surge_stopper,_overvoltage_*_overcurrent_protection

Here https://m.littelfuse.com/~/media/el...n_automotive_environment_application_note.pdf is a useful article.

 

[bwilliams60]

Take a pick and lightly try to move all the surface mount components and watch the solder joints. R70 looks like it has been moved at one time?

 

[KeepItSimpleStupid]

it seems that everytime the rectifier goes out it fries the cluster. all i get on the cluster is the backlight.

What do you mean by "rectifier" in that sentence?

 

[DirtyLude]

This is a tough one as it sounds like you don't have a lot of experience with electronics. Tracking down what components have failed requires knowing what the components do and going through steps to narrow down the problem. Usually #1 is checking voltages, so finding the regulators on the board and checking all the voltages are correct and power is fine. Check for blown chips that will heat up when powered. After that it requires some general knowledge of the chips and what they should be doing, following the inputs and outputs to determine where the failure point is. Once you get into finer detail a scope becomes more of a requirement.

Good luck. Broke my gauge cluster on my ZX-14 and ended up just making a replacement. A little harder for me as the ZX-14 uses a CAN bus to get about half of its data straight from the ECU.

 

[DirtyLude]

What do you mean by "rectifier" in that sentence?

GSXR has a stator / rectifier setup. It's a very common failure point.

 

[KeepItSimpleStupid]

Which basically means, it's prone to overvoltage, so a surge stopper based design should work.