GSer in Mauritania need technical help please

It could of course be a case of demonic possession as this came up just before I stopped:


I will ask at reception for a good exorcist.


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simondippenhall said:

Afraid wifi doesn't run to YouTube here!


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Ali Baba's camel loved Ali Baba so.Bonzo Dog Band! Good luck on the trip which brings back a free memories of a Scoots in the sahara trip nearly 4 years ago.

Nothing bad from the looks of spark plugs - it's very common in third-world countries due to fuel additives they use. I've had this alot (Iran, Yemen, Ethiopia, Congo, Bolivia and Mauritania, the same as you - red colored plugs with hot operation signs) but the GS keeps going, with the valves making metal grinding sound under a heavy load. I've had my share in Nouakchott hassles with gearbox bearings gone (around 1-2 weeks stuck) so not all too bad in Mauri - at leastthe beer is available in certain spots

Being unpredictable it looks like some sort of electronic issue to me - a loose ignition (sparkplugs/coil), hall sensor or Motronic wires gone mad with the heat expansion and third world dirt in the air? Maybe just go over all the connectros under the tank to give them a firm contact. Ditto battery terminals, they can be suspect when the bike goes whacko.

If you're using a more powerful headlight then also a very small possibility is the headlight wires have burned through the isolation of some other vital cables in the main wiring loom, the R11xx are known to do that when using more powerful headlights and probably the hot climate only benefits the meltdown of cable isolation. And with vibrations or rubbing they short circuit each other making the bike behave strange.

Your technical analysis is spot on.

After a couple of false starts (or rather stops) in Mali where recharging the battery and redoing the battery connection seemed to solve the problem, I had a total loss of electrickery in the scenic Casamance area if Senegal.

The scene of my enforced stop in Lakeland:



I managed to get a local mechanic out from the nearest village on the back of a mototaxi.

Pretty quickly we traced it to a faulty connection under the fuel tank, as you suggested. I wished I had brought connection cleaner spray that was sitting in my garage.

However the Senegalese mechanic managed to bridge the gap with some wire within the connector, and suddenly all systems were go again.

Bike now safely tucked away in The Gambia until I return next month for another Senegal foray.




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