Electrical issues...(long)
 

Alrighty fellas! Havent been online in a while but i decided to work on the hawk all day today because its been running like ass so I parked it for a while till I could work on her all day.

Well I pulled the carbs, checked everything over, and took it for a ride and i barely made it home... Was missfiring popping like crazy lol..

So pulled carbs, changed out the clips on the needles to 3rd, and installed it all. Before finishing up I went to crank it over because i was conserned about the APEs being too tight. Well it wouldnt crank after a few tries... Battery dead. I charged the battery for an hour at about 6amps and started right up!! No stumbles nothing... Drove the bike and ran fantastic!!! Never pulled like this before... or that i can remember anyways lol...

So my question is would simply charging the battery change the performance of the bike because i sure as hell know it wasnt changing one clip on the needles :-0 How much battery voltage is required to fire the ignition coil?

Thanks guys!!

Motor needs spark right? The battery completes the entire circuit. I would check to see what kind of voltage at the battery you are getting at 5k rpm.

Yeah, maybe you are short on power, and the fresh battery sorted it. That would indicate a possible charging problem.

Check your charging rate, and if it is no good, look suspiciously at your regulator/rectifier.

put a voltmeter on it and check it at 5k rpms.you should get 14.1v I believe?

Well I checked the charging rate and it was within specifications. I also left the charger on it all day and it never got up to full charge on the battery. Thinking the battery is going... Where can i get a replacement other than at honda?

do an ebay search for 'YTX12-BS' or 'YTS12'. several people have them listed. cost you around $32-$35 shipped with an acid pack. you want to be sure you're getting an AGM (advanced gas mat) battery, they are sealed and spill-proof.

I would be sure to do that testing right after a ride, or at least at operating temperature. R/R's often don't show symptoms when not hot.

Also, I would think the battery, if going bad, would be unlikely to affect electrical systems on the bike, if the motor were running and everything else were working properly.

Battery failure is often symptomatic of the Reg/Rec failing.

Geoff in Almonte
99VTR

Well its the original battery and i just moved down here from colorado so every winter i would store the bike and i know for a fact the previous owner did the same so im sure that the plates have become sulfated to an extent to prevent full charging. Which is what i am seeing with the charging test. I dont know if I have a bad R/R but do plan on testing that as well. But i do know that the battery is probably on its last leg.

Thanks for the information on getting a new battery.

It doesn't take much voltage to make the bike run well. Most will run well fresh off a jump start. More likely you had a vacuum leak in one or both of the carb/manifold sealing points and when you reinstalled the carbs correctly you corrected the lean condition.