Bike died while riding. Help!

I've looked throught some of the past posts but hopefully I may get some advice from you guys. Tonight I was riding when my bike suddenly shut down. Luckily I was coming down from an off ramp and pulled over safely. The lights still work but it won't turn over when attempted to start.

I got a whiff of ozone/electrical near the right side of my 1996 VFR750, and the r/r seemed really hot. I guess I got the dreaded failed r/r -- at least I assume that. I got the bike towed back to the house.

What should I be looking for in the morning to fix the problem? I guess I should buy a replacement r/r...what wiring should I check out? Also, could it be the battery? I bought the bike about three weeks ago and haven't had any problems. But I did start smelling something strange (like burning) while riding earlier this evening.

Thank you in advance for any help/wisdom you give...

 

If the lights still work it doesn't seem likely that the battery is the culprit. I don't know much about the 5th gen, but could it be a side stand cutoff switch? I know on the 6th gen if you put the side stand down while the bike is in gear, the engine cuts off and you can't restart it until you either put the bike in neutral or lift the side stand.

 

I got a new battery, hooked it up and the bike started right up. When I took off the rear plastic, the r/r had a small slit in it and some metal shavings were evident (or miniscule metal balls, for the lack of a better description). There was also some dark stains around the r/r and near the wiring plug in. I rode the bike for a few minutes and found that the r/r was freakin' HOT. Bike still rode fine but I was kinda worried I was pushing my luck and didn't want the r/r to overheat again to the point of messing my alternator up...I also unhooked the battery so there wouldn't be a drain (if there is one...)

So...I guess my next step is that if the wires near the plug-in point are fried ( I did half-heartedly try to unplug it but to no avail...I guessed it was fused from the heat) I need to cut off the damaged part of the wires when replacing the r/r and solder them to a new plug-in? Or can I buy a new wiring harness with new plug-in for the new r/r?

Stuka, thanks for the link. I will still email him and see if it's possible he can help me out...I'll probably order an r/r from Mike's in NH.

 

That stinks. Hope get it up and running soon.

 

What I found while looking at the regulator...couldn't unhook the plug-in. Seems to be fused to the r/r. Some detail shots show a slit...

 

I'm not familiar with 96 Vfr, but just changed out the r/r on my 98, the replacement is apparently an upgrade because the fin surface area is a lot greater. Someone , I can't remember who , has a good testing writeup posted. Sure sounds like its's fried.

 

"Shindengen" : it means "you're screwed" in Japanese.

 

I bought a Honda replacement r/r from Station Park Honda. Took 3 days. All online parts were backordered 2-3 weeks. Honda has dropped the price on '98 model replacement r/r by 40 bucks. Don't know about '96. Never seen Honda drop a price before. Run a test on your r/r first, then maybe give Station Park a call. I'm not sure where yours is located on the bike, but mine needs the extra fins, it's tucked up under the tail fairing.

 

Yeah, that R/R is fried. Will make a nice paperweight now.:biggrin:

No need to be nicey-nice with the connector, either. Break the R/R black plastic off from around the white OE connector. More likely than not, the white connector is also toasted.

As I told you in a PM, you should upgrade the wiring to the stator connection on the right of the bike behind the mid-fairing. The wiring I used was marine grade 12 gauge with very few strands. The primary fault of the OE Honda setup is the puny wiring that builds resistance too quickly once it warms up. A heavier grade wire will flow current more efficiently, and be less likely to fail.

You don't have to go the route of cutting out the wiring from the loom - it won't hurt anything to leave the fried OE wiring behind. But I do suggest that you learn some quick soldering skills, and create your own charging circuit on your bike.

Also, as concerns my PC fan mod you referenced - I would have not attampted that except that a less than reputable online company did a "bait and switch" deal wth me and sent me a non-finned R/R when the R/R on their website was an upgraded, finned unit. Even though I am less than happy about that, the R/R has held up for 2k miles without issue. probably my pro-wiring job.

 

i had a '95 (4th gen) a couple of years ago and read about the predictible r/r failure so i replaced the stock one immediately with a "finned" version. i also bought a small 2" 12v computer fan and glued it to the top of the r/r to help better keep that sucker nice and cool. i wired it to the rear light so it came on with the key. there's plenty of room between the r/r and rear hugger plastic for a fan.

 

Ok...my hopefully-soon-to-be-ending saga with the r/r/bike dying issue...

After replacing the battery (but still with the original POS r/r) the bike ran (just in the garage) until it suddenly just died. No lights. No solenoid clicking while attempting to start. Nothing. Thanks to nvoges, I was able to check out the main fuse (man, it was a pain to get off the cap...) and voila! Broken fuse...
http://vfrworld.com/forums/red2black/attach/jpg.gif

Then finally, was able to extract the plug-in from the r/r (thanks VT Viffer) and found the connector in the plug-in burnt and melted...
http://vfrworld.com/forums/red2black/attach/jpg.gif

VFRworld out the stator plug...seemed ok.

http://vfrworld.com/forums/red2black/attach/jpg.gif
Checked the stator male...seemed ok, too. Opened up the stator casing on the alternator...this is what I found...aside from some oil coming out (i hope that is normal) the stator seemed ok. Nothing blackened..

I do have a stator on order as well as a new regulator/rectifier...I guess my next dumb question is...if I replace the five wires from the r/r to the stator plug...does the red/white and green go to the battery terminal or can i put the green (or red/white) wire to a grounding bolt on the frame? (And I hope I don't have to open the huge snake of a wiring harness that the original 5 r/r wiring goes into. Also, VT Viffer mentioned a charging circuit...what is that exactly. Excuse my ignorance.. But thanks to all you guys' feedback. I'm really learning a lot here...and it's a cool feeling, being able to diagnose this thanks to the invaluable resources here at VFR World. I mean it!

 

The Stator doesn't have any obvious flaws by looking at it, but you should do a resistance test across the three yellow wires. You need to test the resistance of each wire against the other two wires. The resistance should be between 0.5 – 2.0 ohms.


Also, yes, there should be oil in the case.

 

Will do...what is the best way to do that with the multimeter? Sorry for the ignorance but all this advice really is helping me, though. The green ground wire was the one that took all the damage; the end was of the metal connector was toasted...the three yellow wires looked super clean as well as the red/white wire...think I should replace the green wire?

 

When I mentioned "charging circuit", I was only using a generic term to describe the Stator-->R/R-->Battery circuit on the bike.

That was the same exact terminal that was fried on my bike. D'oh! Now my bike does not have a plug - the spades plug directly onto the R/R one at a time. I marked the R/R and the wires with silver Sharpie dots for reference.

Some have actually wired their R/R directly to the battery, I re-wired everything in a stock fashion. I think that the ground wire from the R/R screws into the frame about a foot from the R/R. I haven't looked at my work in a while, so I don't remember exactly. Below is the only pic I have online of my re-wire job:


The three red wires are coming from the stator plug farther forward on the bike. The green is the ground (which had overheated and fried the plug, same as yours), and there is a black one that is almost impossible to see, but is the 12V+ wire.

 

VT Viffer...I see. Thanks.

Thanks for the additional info, too. I did buy some 14 gauge wire to replace the stock yellow 18 gauge stuff...if I need to. The pic helps as well.

Learning as I go. Sometimes it take me 2-3 times before I have it burned in my brain!

 

Set the multimeter up to measure resistance (ohms), and test across the stator wires at the connector leading to the stator. According to the '90-'97 Honda service manual, the readings should be between 0.1 and 1.0 ohms when the bike is cold.

You also need to check the windings to see if there is continuity between the yellow wires and a ground. Higher end multimeters have continuity checkers that emit a beep or a tone when continuity exists. Just hold the two probes together and switch the selector until it beeps, and the beep goes away when the probes are taken apart.

Even though wiring can LOOK good, it's best to check resistance on the wires to see if they are still good. I replaced everything in the charging circuit for piece of mind, even though the stator wires (yellow) were within the tolerance of 1-2 ohms of resistance.

 

The bike lives!! It lives!!!

Well, finally got a new r/r (after I checked out all the wiring, etc.) and installed it. Also installed a cpu fan per VT Viffer's modification (put the fan on the inside of the plastic fairing) and rode for a bit last night. When revved to 5,000 rpms, the voltage went to around 14.5 or so after checking the battery. Checked the battery this moring, a solid 12.85 or so. Everything -- fingers crossed -- seems to be in order. The new r/r still gets warm (I guess that is to be expected) but not near as scorching as the old one.

Hopefully this will last for a while...but at least I know a bit more about the bike's charging system now. And it felt good to fix it myself, rather than waiting 3 or 4 weeks for a dealer to see me.

Thanks to all those who posted here...this is a great site.