Electrical WTF!!!!
 

Hey all... (sorry this is long, but I want to give as much background as possible)

After 4 months of flawless performance, my hawk finally gave me some grief yesterday, and I'm hoping someone can give me some advice...

Basically, I drove the bike 90 miles out to the Hamptons on Saturday.. no problems... coming home yesterday morning, about 60 miles into the trip I noticed my spedo started going nuts when I put my turnsignal on.... wierd... about 4 mintues later the spedo and odometer go out completely... everything else still working fine... 5 minutes later turnsignals, tach and lights go out... the marker light (above headlight) still working, engine seemingly running fine still.... 15 miles later, of course on a busy ass parkway in Sunday traffic the motor shuts off.

When the spedo went out I did figured I was probably running on the battery, I tried to get home ASAP before everything went out... which didn't happen of course. Needless to say I had to push the beast about 2 miles... most of it up hills to a gas station where I left it for the night.

I took the battery out, charged it, and went back this morning, put it back in, and everything came back up, every light, the spedo.... started just fine and I drove it straight home....

Other info.... battery before charge, it was at about 11 volts... after charging and sitting for about 5 hours, it read about 12.75 on the meter. So it seems the battery didn't get fried and still holds a decent charge.

OK... now after reading all things I could find on charging issues... I'm assuming it's either the stator or RR... causing the batt not to charge...

Would the bike run "properly" on a charged battery for the short time it had enough charge to do so if one of those were faulty? Or would it just die and stay dead untill it was fixed? If that's the case, I'd think I have some sort of crappy connection or something.

Anyway, if anyone has any experence like this and can point me in the right direction, I'd appricaite it... gonna dig into the bike this weekend to find it oe way or another... but want to collect all ino possible before I start...

Thanks in advance!!!

J.

Re: Electrical WTF!!!!
 

It sounds like you diagnosed part of the problem right...the low battery, but as to what's causing it, it could be a number of things.

First off, check the regulator/rectifier. You'll need a multimeter.
If the RR checks out, the stator is your next bet.

If that checks out fine, you've got a short you'll need to track down. Look for chaffed wires or loose wires in connectors.

From what you describe, and the history of Honda's with RR failure, I would start there first.

Re: Electrical WTF!!!!
 

My plan is to first check the RR... I was pretty hot the day i drove the bike out to the Hamptons, and I did spend some time in some nasty traffic, so who knows if that thing fouled up a bit... if that passes, then I'll check the stator (I already have a pretty good multimeter, so I'm set there.)

I also bought a brand new battery I'm gonna put in just to make sure the current one isn't faulty in anyway, I guess it's possible even being down a little voltage could make thing screwy...

And finally I downloaded the testing instuctions from the Electrex website on how to check the RR which is seems very well written and easy to follow... they also have a flow chart for testing your entire electrical system... seems much easier to follow than the Honda Manual for anyone else out there having electrical woes...

Let you all know how it goes on Saturday.... Hopefully I won't be pulling my hair out by Sat night!!!!

J.

Re: Electrical WTF!!!!
 

Hey all...

Spent a couple hours yesterday figuring out what's up with my electircal woes.... Seems to be the RR which has 2 diodes failing... big suprise there!!! Anyway, I'm now looking for a new one and have done some research looking for the "best" and "cheapest".... if anyone has replaced theirs and has any info about where they bought it, how much, and what the RR was like (finned, not finned, direct plug in, etc.) I'd really appriciate it... I'll list what I've found below....

Dyno Humm (OEM replacement) $125 (no warrenty listed)
Electrex (Their design) $155 (1 year warrenty)
Rick's Motorsport RR (I believe their design) $120 (1 year warrenty)
Dennis Kirk Catolog (I think it's a Rick's motosport design) $113.99 (no warrenty listed)
EBAY (Tour Master brand) $91.99 (6 month warrenty)

J.

Re: Electrical WTF!!!!
 

I understand that the recently redesigned '94-'97 VFR R/R, which sports a HUGE set of heat sink fins, will work on a VTR, direct bolt on, plug in. I have not heard of a single R/R problem on a VFR fitted with one of these updated R/R's (and they used to have more problems than VTR's seem to have with the old one), so the heat sink (and possibly redesigned internals) must be doing their job.

While you are pricing the stock VTR R/R, check out the cost of the VFR one as well.

Re: Electrical WTF!!!!
 

It's worth noting that if you own a VTR you best install a small computer heatsink onto it asap or be prepared to fork out some bucks when the battery starts to go and cooks the existing RR.

I used a huge CPU heatsink with heat sink compound under it and then used JB Weld to perminently attach it to the RR.

Some VTR owners are using CPU/Fan heatsinks also.

Re: Electrical WTF!!!!
 

Thanks for the replies...

I actaully ordered the Rick's Motorsport RR a day ago... it's supposed to be finned, and comes with a 1 year warrenty... I wish I new about the VFR option before I ordered... I guess if this doesn't workout (hopefully it will) I'll look into that next time...

As for the CPU heatsink... do you glue it to the top (outside surface) or onto the underside metal part which grounds to the subframe? Just curious incase the Rick's model doesn't look "finned" enough...

J.

Re: Electrical WTF!!!!
 

Yes you glue it to the out side surface around the edges. You need to place heat sink compound (white stuff at Radio Shack) under heatsink before gluing the edges. You also need to put heat sink compound where the RR contacts the frame. This help the heat transfer from the RR to the frame and to the Heat Sink.

Re: Electrical WTF!!!!
 

Hey all....

Thanks for the info there Thumper.... I finally got the time to work on my bike and got it running agian... I didn't go the extra heatsink route becuase the Rick's unit looks fairly well finned, and I didn't think adding one to the top of it would do much good, but I did use the heatsink compound on the frame connection like you recommended.. thanks...

As for the Rick's Motorsport unit... I was fairly pleased with the product.. I can't give an opinion on longevity (only time will tell me that)... but it provided the voltages exacltey where they are supposed to be, and drop off right where they should according to my multimeter and the electrex trouble shooting guide... overall the people were a pleasure to deal with.... The unit comes with a 1 year warrenty, it was fairly well finned and packaged well, the $120 price tag included the shipping charge... I ordered the unit on my lunch break... it was delivered to my parents house the NEXT DAY... (they're in New Hampshire I'm in the NYC area, so that's pretty good)... so overall I'd recommend them, if I have any issues with the unit I'll make sure to post.

One thing you will need to watch though... when I spoke to them on the phone and asked if the unit was finned, they told me that some are (item's they build in house) but some aren't (some they get from outside vendors)... I specified that my order was contingent on reciveing a finned unit, which they were fine with, and is exactley what they shipped me.

Below are a few pics on the Rick's unit and the original RR... easy to tell which is which...

J.

Re: Electrical WTF!!!!
 

Squid,

Thanks for the comments and pics of the new RR. I will definatly keep this in mind in the unfortunate event mine fails on me.

Re: Electrical WTF!!!!
 

Hi!
I recently mounted an '04 R1 R/R. Has run great for the last 1K miles. Here are some pics.

Re: Electrical WTF!!!!
 

I bought a regulator/rectifier from a 200? GSXR 750 off eBay for less than 15 bucks. I did have to adapt the wiring to fit the connector on my Superhawk, but that cost about 1.50 at the local hardware store. Any 5 wire r/r should work. The Suzuki unit looks to be of much higher quality than the Honda part and works great so far. I'll post pictures if anyone is interested.

Re: Electrical WTF!!!!
 

Hello, I want to thank you all for this discussion! I have a '98 and have had the same problem....and I may have fried my R/R already. I have cut and pasted all discussions (into a word document) and will begin tomorrow to fix my problem! Starting w/ going onto the Electrix website. Wow, I really feel much better now!! Thanks again! muaddib. :P :!: