Hi All, I posted this over on VFRD, so I apologize to those who frequent both forums, but I'm still pretty stumped. Here's the situation: I went out for a ride last weekend, and after a coffee break, the bike wouldn't turn over. Got it bump started (push to the most uphill corner of the parking lot, push push push vroom). Made it home, checked the following: Battery voltage when I got home - 11.9V Battery voltage after being on the tender overnight: 12.7v Voltage at idle - 13.1v Voltage at 5k rpm - 12.7v Stator wires: .1ohm each. Checked all the grounds as well. The connectors for the reg/rec were a little toasted, but not too bad. I've ordered Tightwad's harness, and picked up a reg/rec from a '97 Suzuki TL1000, which turned out to be exactly the same as the VFR one, except that I had to extend the wires a few inches. Finally got it on today, hit all the connections with contact cleaner, dialectric grease in all the connectors. Checked resistance across the connecters and it was insignificant. Fired it up and got this: Battery voltage at idle - 14.1v (turned on the high beams, no sag in voltage. minimal sag when starting the bike) Battery voltage at 5k rpm - 13.2v Tested all the grounds and stator wires again, same values... When I get home tonight I'm going to take readings at higher revs and then pull the stator cover to see how it's looking. The regulator got really hot really fast, and the connectors were warm to the touch, but this may be because of their proximity to many other hot things... A friend suggested a bad coil, but I don't have a 'meter with max voltage capability so I can't test them per the procedure in the manual. Any suggestions on this? :unsure:
The "a little toasted" connections tell the entire tale. If the juice can't get to the battery easily, It will go through the R/R attended by too much heat. Poof! Frosted the R/R at some point due to poor connections. You fixed the trouble with the R/R repalcement and remaking the connections. Makes me want to go out to the shop and redo the connections and grounds right now! '-) Cal
R/R is not working as it should. Volts at 5K RPM should be 14.5 or better, even after your fix, and based on a similar experience, with the drop in voltage from 14.1 at idle to 13.2 at 5K, I suggest replacing the R/R and probably the stator as well. I had an R/R that finally went. I fixed all the wiring, and after that I had a similar charging situations, 13.5 at idle, 14.5 2K - 3K, 13.5 3K to 5K, wires to to the touch. I ended up replacing both the R/R and the stator as I felt wiring between the two was comprimised. I ran 3 yellow wires from the R/R to the new stator instead of using the OEM harness because I could not verify that the wires were in fact good. It was kind of like making my own harness. I even ran beefier cable to the battery and the ground point. This fixed my problem. Was it the R/R or the stator? I'll will never truly know, but for a little over $200 U.S. for both, I am not bothered by not knowing.
