Chefmatt

Okay, here is the story....recently replaced steering bearings, fork seals installed Race Tech springs. Just got it buttoned up, rode 30 miles yesterday to test it out. Ran fine, suspension needs a little tweaking, will set sag later this week. Also did PAIR delete, new R/R about a month ago, new cluster.

Yesterday, saw my meter lights (backlight) LED's weren't working. Pulled cluster, saw one was burnt. Replaced back to stock light bulbs.

Went to go to work this morning, battery almost dead. Took off seat cover, and jump started from car. Fired right up but with loud backfire. This was at 4am BTW, woke the whole neighborhood up for sure. Tach/odo/brakelight wasn't working. and a fuse blown to cluster, so used spare 10 amp and was on my way. Running down the highway (I live in DC), the bike was backfiring regularly - never happened before, maybe on decel a bit. And then....tach/odo/speedo goes out again, bike started bucking a little, more backfire, then just dies. WTF?

Pulled over, started shining a flashlight around, saw the green wire on R/R was little burnt going in at the plug.

Again, recent work included a new R/R, but it has been working for a month. Rewired the front signals last night, just lengthened to wires.Where to start? Probably R/R, anything else I should look at? Any advice appreciated!

Wolverine

What kind of R/R did you put in there, mosfet or OE style replacement?

Chefmatt

O/E style....finned.

thedeatons

That is most likely the problem, now including a dead battery.

Get a mosfet r/r and a new battery and your problems will likely be cured.

James

Chefmatt

Would a malfunctioning R/R cause those blown fuses?

Chefmatt

I will get a MOFSET. The battery is new, probably less than 100 hours on it.

Wolverine

Agree'd! ^^

Aquasnake

It doesn't matter how new your battery is, when R/Rs die they can do a great deal of damage. You should also test your alternators condition as well as the wiring between all charging system components. Replace anything that is not in 100% condition.
When my r/r fried it took out everything in the charging system, battery, alternator, wiring, etc.
Good luck, hopefully, yours isn't as dire.

Meier Link

Convert over to the mosfet unit. I fried the stock R/R unit last year and ran into many simular problems as to what your experiencing. Luckily Mat had a spare that he sent to me and got me back up and running. I haven't converted over to a mosfet yet and I know I'm riding on borrowed time using the OEM.

thedeatons

I bought a zx10 mosfet on ebay for $30 shipped... Worthy upgrade for reliability.

James

Chefmatt

Checked output of spare r/r I had, varies from 13.5vdc at idle to 16vdc at around 6k rpm....16v sounds way to excessive.....?