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Intermittent electrical/starting problem


Tarkus

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I’ve owned my 2007 now for about six months and it has 23,000 miles on it. I replaced the battery about six months ago and I ride it ~daily. Parked it in the garage last night. Rode to the gas station this morning and filled the tank. Turned on the ignition to check the mileage and left ignition on without cranking for two or three minutes. Once I was ready to go, the bike would not start. It did not prime the fuel injection nor turnover at all. I got a jumpstart and rode to my nearby Honda dealership. They checked the voltage with the engine running and revving and said the charging system is working fine. I left and I’ve ridden it and parked it and started it three or four times with no problems.

 

This happened once before, which is why I purchased a new battery shortly after taking ownership of the bike. Does anyone think intermittent starting problems could be due to a faulty/failing voltage regulator/rectifier?

 

VFR Jon

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  • Member Contributer

Avoid random desperate shotgunning pile of parts at bike hoping something would stick. Without positively identifying problem-area using numbers, you'll have endless frustration replacing perfectly-working parts with brand-new perfectly-working parts and nothing changes.

 

Proper diagnostics require measurements and arriving at numbers. Then comparing these numbers to standards given in manual to determine what's wrong. Could be bad part, or corroded wiring or some adjustment needed. 

 

 

1. measure battery-voltage with everything OFF

2. measure battery-voltage while cranking

3. measure battery-voltage at idle

4. measure battery-voltage at 4000rpm

 

These numbers will give lots more insight into what's going on with your bike.

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Apart from doing the good tests Danno has suggested. A lot also depends on your riding distances. Are you doing a lot of short distance stop start?

It takes a fair amount of time for the battery capacity to recover from a single start. So a short hop to the fuel station then leaving your ignition on with headlights burning for three minutes or so will be sucking 10amps from the battery, Double That if Hi Beam was selected!

Its quite possible that a marginally charged battery might not cope with headlights burning for too long.

So if you are doing short hops then a good investment is an intelligent charger/maintainer.

Also make sure your battery terminals are clean and tight.

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Tarkus, to add to DannXYZ's suggestions you should also inspect and clean every electrical connection in the charging circuit. There's a 3-way connector on the three yellow leads between the alternator and the rec/reg that tends to overheat, it's behind the right side fairing panel.

 

Check the connections on the starter relay, pulling the rubber boot away to verify that everything is a-ok. It is under the seat near the battery. Fyi, power from the rec/reg goes through it en route to the battery. So a bad connection there can easily result in replacing batteries and rectifier/regulators that are perfectly serviceable.

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