Electrical problems
 

So most of the winter my bike has been sitting. about a month ago i put on some heated grips, checked the valves, and cleaned the carbs. after that i took it it for a little ride, but not long since it was still cold. everything checked out fine.

last week we had a nice mild day and i wanted to go for a ride, but it wouldnt start. thought it was a dead battery since i had forgotten to hook the tender up. so i jumped it and it started right up. except once i removed the jumper cables all the lights and dash would go out, but the bike would stay running. Seemed like a r/r failure as ive had this happen on an old vfr. so i got the volt meter out, nothing more than 13v when the bike is running, tested all the wiring and it all pointed to the r/r.

just got a r1 r/r and all new wiring from eastern beaver. got it all hooked up and... nothing. im kind of at a loss. any ideas?

Have you done the tests on the stator?

havent tested the stator but the wires from the stater all checked out. even if the stator was bad, why would i not get any power at all? nothing happens when i turn the key.

Yeah, I agree just roller blade everywhere.

It does sound like my R/R failure. Everything shut down one by one, first the tach, then the turn signals etc.

Also, if you jump start a mostly dead battery on a car or a motorcycle, you can easily fry the charging system. The charging system was designed to maintain the charge on a functioning battery, not to charge up a dead one.

You should charge it until you have at least 12.5 volts at rest, when checked about an hour after the charger is disconnected.

One of the killswitches perhaps? It's happened to others before...

Edit: Didn't read fully again... wouldn't be that if the key didn't turn anything on. I blew a main fuse once hooking the bike up to a car battery and no power anywhere... could be this perhaps?

Simple stuff first, fuse, connections etc. Might have hooked a wire up backwards somewhere?

I blew the main fuse just changing the battery once, did everything right, just was it's time I guess..

Ok I'm confused... you haven't checked the stator but you have checked the wires.....

Anyways I'm looking at the following facts
The bike was fine.
Installed heated grips (you could have a short here or also could have overloaded the stator as this bike only puts out 280w)
Now the bike won't charge and replacing the R\R made no change.

So at this point why not start eliminating things instead of guessing. Which would mean the first and easiest thing to check would be the stator.
Check for continuity between all three legs and you should have between .2-.5 ohms on each leg. The number itself is less important than all three being the same value 9or very close to it)
Then check each leg to ground to check for shorts.
Then fire the bike up and check for AC voltage. it should be somewhere between 30-60 VAC

After you do these tests, then you can move on and try other things but until there are done you will just be guessing.

sorry, that what i did with the stator (followed the haynes manual). didnt check the ac voltage.

its hard to work on the bike right now since i have 2 jobs, working 60+ hours/week.

i unplugged the heated grips, got the battery on the tender til it was charged. turned the key and i get very dim lights and nothing when i hit the starter. had a car battery laying around so i "jumped" it with that. with that battery hooked up the dash would come on normally. but it wont start. its cranking very slow. started relay is clicking like normal, fuses are good, all connections seem to be good. guess i need to check the starter motor?

wish i didnt have to be at work at 4am!

i hooked the volt meter to the connector on the starter and am getting only 8v max when i hit the starter. would this be a problem with the relay?

Hailing from the drunken Midwest, I think it's supose to be higher. I have very little cred right now. As Cypress Hill is cranked as well.:) All hail multitasking...even if it is sadly dark here.

My guess is actually something simple: dead battery, as in no good, dead cells.

could be wrong, but that is my guess.

its possible its the starter relay,mine has a temper.one time the bike shut off at a light.messed with the mail relay in the tail and power came backon.
take it off and clean it good and uce electrical grease.it will help.if its not dead battery or anything else.

It is absolutely a dead battery - Lazn is right. The battery will read right on a meter, but not with load. Change the battery and you will likely have solved the mystery

well i dont know what the hell i did but its running now.

i got a new battery in there and all the wiring fir the new r/r hooked up, still nothing. took the starter relay out to test it, it tested good, so put it back on then it decided to work again. i guess there just wasnt a good connection somewhere.

at least now i have a huge R1 r/r wired directly to the battery, putting out over 14v. now if it would only stay warm...

I had a situation where a starter relay was crapping out, sometimes would work othertimes it wouldn't and I chased phantom problems for a bit till I replaced the relay for good. get a new one. this was on a RC51 btw

Coulda been a bad ground that hooked up again after all that rattlin around