Porkbreath Posted December 27, 2015 Share Posted December 27, 2015 Hey everyone. So a few hours ago, I rode about 10 miles on my 1999 VFR. When I got to my destination, I noticed a funny smell, but didn't think too much about it, beyond I should look into that soon. Then I started a (very cold) trip home, about 80 miles away. At the 60 mile mark, my speedo and tach died, and my headlight began to dim. I immediately turned off my grip warmers and electric vest, but the bike started dying and in a few miles came to a stop, and I was unable to get it started again. The starter just clicked, didn't even turn over. I've ridden many hundreds of miles with the same gear plugged into the bike, and it was nighttime, so I didn't even have my highbeams on. So obviously the battery is dead, but the strange thing is that I installed a brand new R/R (Rick's, from Wiremybike) and battery (Yuasa) less than 2 months (~4,000 miles) ago. When I replaced those things, I checked out the stator and all seemed good. Any ideas? The bike is still a few hours away from being able to get towed home (it's 5 in the morning), and I could jumpstart it with a friend's car, but I somehow doubt it'll make it home even if I do that. The bike has about 35,000 miles on it, 6,000 of which I've put on since I bought it less than 3 months ago. Thanks in advance for any suggestions... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer Rice Posted December 27, 2015 Member Contributer Share Posted December 27, 2015 I hope that you are not typing this from the side of the road. Usually either of the two things "smell" - the plug from Stator to RR and/or the 30 Amp fuse located next to the starter relay - Next to he battery. In the short term, charge battery, disconnect all gear and get home. In the long term, there is a looooong thread on here talking about all things electrical and your symptoms in particular. My personal takeaway from this was as follows: 1 - Replace the Stator and solder it to the RR 2 - Add ground from the RR to the frame, using one of the RR attachment points, e.g., the shortest route to ground 3 - Replace the stock Monitor Wire with a new one, going directly to the battery, eliminating the chance of it not sending correct signal to the RR 4 - Once per year (or three) remove plastics and unplug all the electrical connectors, clean, grease and plug back in. Also tighten all grounds if loose. After experiencing the same issue as you have, I've done this about 5 years ago and never had an issue since. The only accessory I run is heated grips. RR is stock. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
otmaximus Posted December 27, 2015 Share Posted December 27, 2015 This sounds like what happened to me several years ago, it was a completely dead battery. The wire at the starter relay shorted melting the wire coming from the R/R. Without that wire the battery won't charge and the bike will die as soon as it's drained. You can check the condition while you are waiting by just popping off the seat and looking at the wires running to/from the battery and starter relay. If you hook up the battery like you are going to jump start it off a car, you might get enough charge to get a few more miles down the road. Or you might get lucky and find a wire that burned through or got disconnected. In my case I replaced the starter relay, then went with a Gixxer R/R, and replaced all the wires including going with larger gauge wire from the R/R to the starter relay. That was the first electrical resurrection over the course of ~250K miles on my 4G. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer mello dude Posted December 27, 2015 Member Contributer Share Posted December 27, 2015 Hi -- go buy a multimeter if you havent already.... Do the "Drill" and come back and let us know what you find..... Sorry for your electrical troubles. Well, looks like you gotta do…. “The Drill.” Go through all your connectors for burnt leads, dig deep. Crispy wires? Not good. Your gonna have to fix that! Then---Go through this starting point quick list. You will need a multimeter too. Steps: - Recharge battery overnite - then to take it to Autozone, Batterys Plus or similar to load test. -- Good? Bad? – An iffy battery can fake you out and act like a bad R/R. Buy new if needed. - With good battery fire it up, warm up for a minute or two. These are R/R quick checks--- --- With voltmeter at battery get voltages -- idle volts? 5000 rpm volts? What’s the numbers? Should be in 13ish min idle and in 14s at revs. If in the 12s at idle, try at 1900 rpm. (It’s not unusual for the system to be in discharge or no charge at idle.) - Check stator - 1. Pull connector apart. Set meter to resistance. Check pin to pin stator side, 3 yellow wires, A to B, B to C, C to A. What’s the numbers? 3 separate readings --Should be less than 1.0 ohms. (Engine off) - 2. Check continuity from each A,B,C pin stator side to ground, -- -should be infinity - nada nothing. no continuity. -- 3 separate checks. (Engine off, again connector is apart) - 3. Crank it back up. Do another pin to pin thing, but set meter on AC volts. idle and 5000 rpms. What's da numbers? Should start 15 -20ish and climb 50ish and more. Again – 3 readings stator side connector and still apart. - Repeat hot. This quick list will catch the obvious stuff, but if you need to dig deeper check this chart. (Some guys like this chart, my taste, I don’t care for it.) http://www.electrosport.com/media/pdf/fault-finding-diagram.pdf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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