Member Contributer billyjackjimbob Posted April 13, 2011 Member Contributer Share Posted April 13, 2011 So it happened again Saturday. After about 200 miles of riding at the last gas stop of the night bike is running fine. Fill her up and..... Nothing. Grrrrrrrr. Won't hit a lick. So, bump start her and limp her back home the last five miles. Put her on the charger over night and she fires up the next morning. Reading over hours of electrical forums and sounds like I have a dead rectifier. So, today I ordered just about eveything Tightwad makes. Vfrness bundle, rectifier, blue cable ground wire fix, fastener set for the fairings that I have mix and matched. System reads charging good in the driveway and this new stator has only about 2000 miles on it. Battery tests ok too. So, for now I am sticking with it. It's only about a year old. Man I hope this works and I can put these problems behind me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer YoshiHNS Posted April 13, 2011 Member Contributer Share Posted April 13, 2011 Man that sucks. Wasn't it just last fall or spring you had the same problems? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
otmaximus Posted April 14, 2011 Share Posted April 14, 2011 Even though its only a year old, i would suspect the battery. Paul in SoCal So it happened again Saturday. After about 200 miles of riding at the last gas stop of the night bike is running fine. Fill her up and..... Nothing. Grrrrrrrr. Won't hit a lick. So, bump start her and limp her back home the last five miles. Put her on the charger over night and she fires up the next morning. Reading over hours of electrical forums and sounds like I have a dead rectifier. So, today I ordered just about eveything Tightwad makes. Vfrness bundle, rectifier, blue cable ground wire fix, fastener set for the fairings that I have mix and matched. System reads charging good in the driveway and this new stator has only about 2000 miles on it. Battery tests ok too. So, for now I am sticking with it. It's only about a year old. Man I hope this works and I can put these problems behind me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer billyjackjimbob Posted April 14, 2011 Author Member Contributer Share Posted April 14, 2011 It was October. LoL. Should have installed the Vfrness then but didn't have the funds. Going all out. Got a voltage meter for the dash as well. Going all out this time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer Joshvfr Posted April 14, 2011 Member Contributer Share Posted April 14, 2011 Do you have a voltmeter on the bike? I would be curious what it shows for voltage before and after your troubles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer swas Posted April 14, 2011 Member Contributer Share Posted April 14, 2011 If you can't see any sign of overheating on the plug and socket connections to the RR, pull them apart and make sure they are still looking clean and not overheated. The problem could be at it's intermittent stage where the connection is OK until it heats up - as in a long ride. Once the connection resistance increases the charging becomes less and eventually battery goes flat. If the charging system had died completely and the battery is dead flat, you wouldn't be able to jump start either, got lucky there. An onboard voltmeter gives an idea all this is happening whilst riding Good luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer billyjackjimbob Posted April 14, 2011 Author Member Contributer Share Posted April 14, 2011 If you can't see any sign of overheating on the plug and socket connections to the RR, pull them apart and make sure they are still looking clean and not overheated. The problem could be at it's intermittent stage where the connection is OK until it heats up - as in a long ride. Once the connection resistance increases the charging becomes less and eventually battery goes flat. If the charging system had died completely and the battery is dead flat, you wouldn't be able to jump start either, got lucky there. An onboard voltmeter gives an idea all this is happening whilst riding Good luck I ordered a voltage meter as well. Not from tightwad as I found one on eBay that a friend recommend a bit cheaper. I too could be called "tightwad" ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spud786 Posted April 14, 2011 Share Posted April 14, 2011 Doesnt sound like you ordered the right part, very rare for 6th gen RR's to go out , The stators are much more likely to have issue, but they can take out an RR or viceversa. The 5th gens, are the ones with Kronic RR issues. Having said that, you didnt mention any trouble shooting and testing, to verify the problem before hand or after is corrected. Did you find corroded or melted wiring, did you throughly do a stator ground check, what is your present voltage output across the battery with Bright lights on at 5000 rpm? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer billyjackjimbob Posted April 14, 2011 Author Member Contributer Share Posted April 14, 2011 Spud, the stator failed in Oct. This is Rics with about 2000 miles on it. This bike has had electrical problems from day one. First problem back in 2007 was the cornice tail light bulb blowing followed by head lamps. Repeated trys at connection cleaning and what not could not fix the tail light problem so I replaced then with led lamps. Then the first battery died 14 months in despite battery tendering it when parked, which isn't much. 47,000 miles on her. Then last fall was the stator failure. After replacing the stator for shits and giggles I tried regular lamps in the tail section and that problem was fixed too. Headlights and all other electric functions appeared to be fine. Parked her over the winter on the tender and started her about every other week to keep things loose. Then the same symptoms I had on the 02 bike that eventually caught fire after a major wire harness failure started on Saturday. Working fine... Charging fine.... Battery fine.... Take a nice long ride and it's running fine... Stop for gas and she won't turn over. Clock and trip odm reset to zero and 12:00. Bump start the bike and she runs. After a night on the charger battery was testing good, even at starting was still around 10.6v. 12.5 key off. 13-14 at idle with high beams. 13 at 5k. When she wouldn't start I pulled the seat off to check connections and smelled something hot, but not the connectors. They are not charred. I am not an electrician, so I am throwing everything at it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spud786 Posted April 14, 2011 Share Posted April 14, 2011 13 volts at 5krpm on bright, thats very very weak, Lowest spec is 13.4volt by the book and thats barely adaquate. Even on low beam just above idle you should see above 14 volt, ideally atleast 14.5 is what I consider in the range of normal. So your down more than a full volt. I dont know the ouput of your ricks is as strong as OEM, everything originates from there, then rectified to DC voltage through the RR. The big yellow connector coming from the stator is Clean? Id recheck recheck that and test continuity all through the connections , remove the starter solenoid and check those connections and the red charge wire from rr goes through a couple connections, that can drop voltage. Mentioned before if those connections can wiggle and lose continuity if not tight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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