My baby is mad at me.

[artyldr01]

Good Evening,  I have a 94 VFR with 88k miles.  Unfortunately she sat idle for about a year but I got her re-tagged, charged the dead battery and headed out last Saturday.  As I was riding along appreciating how she is such a good bike for me, I look down and see the speedometer at zero.  Shortly after that, she dies, no sputter, just dead.  I coast to a stop.  Thumb the starter, nothing.  Indicator lights dim when I press the button but nada, not even a sound.  Dead as a door knob.  I just hooked up the jumper cables and she fires right up.  As soon as I disconnect, dies.  I know electricity is fairly simple, sounds like charging system.  Any quick troubleshooting recommendations before I have to find a mechanic and dive deeper?

 

Thanks!

Niels

[superfunkomatic]

Sounds like dead regulator-rectifier and/or stator to me. My bike did exactly the same thing when it packed those in - floppy speedo, stalling and not restarting, would run with a boost until completely killing the battery (permanently). There are plenty of tutorials on this site for checking your voltage to see if one of these components has failed.

[Cogswell]

If the battery sat for a year uncharged, it probably needs a replacement.   Most likely sulfation over that span of time has shorted one or more of the plates and it is not going to hold a charge.  Take it to Autozone, Batteries Plus or similar and have it load tested.    Once a known good battery is in place, check that you're getting at least 14 volts across the battery while running.  If not, check out Mello Dude's "The Drill" for going through the charging system. 

[Conedodger]

50 minutes ago, Cogswell said:

If the battery sat for a year uncharged, it probably needs a replacement.   Most likely sulfation over that span of time has shorted one or more of the plates and it is not going to hold a charge.  Take it to Autozone, Batteries Plus or similar and have it load tested.    Once a known good battery is in place, check that you're getting at least 14 volts across the battery while running.  If not, check out Mello Dude's "The Drill" for going through the charging system. 

I'm betting with Cogs.  I bought my '04 in '07.  It only had 600 miles on it and was sitting in the owner's garage un-ridden.  It would start and run with a jump, but died when the jumper cables were removed.  Put a new battery in and all was fine.

[artyldr01]

I will definitely look up mello dude.  I thought the battery was likely bad, took it to O Reilly, they tested it said it was good, likely because they don't want to replace it while it is still under warranty.  I told them it sat for a year.

 

 

[artyldr01]

Good Morning.  So, I did a couple checks this morning.  First, Battery is of course dead, 7.69v.  I removed the R/R and checked both directions on both leads.  Bear with my ignorance but when looking at the connectors I had it in the shape of a "U," two up top, three on the bottom. When checking the left/top I started with black/round top, red on the three bottom.  The readings were: 1 / 009 / 008.  Reversed the connections and it was 531 / 010 / 009 (seems wrong to me).  Then I tested the right side.  black top, red bottom three = 534 / 491 / 492, reversed = 1 / 1 / 1.

 

I suspect the inconsistencies listed indicate a bad R/R? 

 

It will run perfectly when being jumped but as soon as the cables come off it dies.  I presume I can check the stator when it is jumped?  Unfortunately I can't find my shop manual, I'm sure in a box somewhere from the last move.

 

Thank you all very much. For your help.

[RC36Rider]

8 hours ago, artyldr01 said:

Unfortunately I can't find my shop manual, I'm sure in a box somewhere from the last move.

 

Here's where VFRD's download section comes to the rescue. 

[RC36Rider]

You could also just replace that stone cold dead battery and simply check the voltage across terminals at idle and 5000 RPM.

 

If it reads above 13.8 at idle and below 14.7 at 5000, you have a healthy charging system. 

 

You can still clean and check the connections for tightness to prevent future problems but if your voltage is OK, nothing's gone (just yet anyway ).

[artyldr01]

I had the battery recharged and full last Friday.  I took it for about a 1/2 hour ride.  Then Saturday another half-hour or so in it died.  I do want to replace the battery for sure.