Need a little R/R vacation!

'98 electircal woes! 1st. time it pouched out on me was while parking after 1.5hr jaunt into the city. Raining, some traffic, stop and go. Just stalled before I turned the ignition off. Tried starting it, but not enough juice. The engine temp remained hi @ around 210 F. with air temp at about 80 F. Waited a few hours and it started up no prob. Next failure was a scorcher - 90 to 95 F. outside. Hiway @ 90 -110 mph for 2.5 hrs then 40mph for 30 minutes. Nearing my destination I began noticing rough idle and the clock reset. Temp guage at 210 +F. Fan on I think (if there was even enough juice to run it. Once parked, I tried to restart. Nothin! Guage lights, fuel pump, and a couple of starter clicks, but not combustion. 2 hrs later and a cool engine/ r/r. Still not enough charge to spark. Other possible contributing factor is a header leak at the left rear pipe closest to the R/R. Got a jump and was off making shure to keep the Temp below 100 F. , the point of no return. Have the original R/R SH579a-11. Installed new battery,cleaned and lubed all connections and grounds. At 5000rpm with lights on Hi, still not getting above 13.6V. Re*umFr*er very hot with only 5 minutes running time and engine tem at 170 F. My concern is that I don't want to replace all electrical of I can help it. Whats the possibility that the stator is damaged vs. the R/R vs. the battery? Or is the additional heat causing the R/R to over heat and be the culprit. Any ideas anyone? Appreciate any words of inspiration and wisdom. Thanks!

 

Rott, I just went through similar probs on my 98. The previous owner unknowingly burned out the rr with a bad battery and installed a new one before I bought it then I needed an RR. Anyway, there are a few diagnostic tests you can do to pinpoint the problem. Get yourself a DIGITAL multimeter from a hardware store or auto parts store and follow the flowchart troubleshooting guide from Electrosport (They make aftermarket RR's and stators, of which I don't recommend because the plug connectors are incorrect. Spend the extra $100 on the OEM Honda ones, which are better than the original 98 and the Eletrosport ones. The Honda one is bigger with more surface area for cooling and the plugs are correct!!).

http://www.electrosport.com/Images/fault_finding.pdf

Use the "fault finding" diagram from them in conjunction with your Haynes manual and you will get to the bottom of your problem.

OH, Get your battery load tested (charge it up and take it to an autoparts store) to see if may be bad, becaue it could fry your RR when it goes.

 

I was gonna say sounds like a faulty r/r and it should be checked. I agree with ZonaMan about doing the troubleshooting to see wher eth eproblem actually lies and tohave the battery tested.

Vinny

 

More R&R

Thanks for the replies. Took a break from pulling my hair out to let some grow back. Just ordered new RR from Arizona along with a header gasket to fill the hole that was heating everything up. I put a thermometer on the leak area and it was reading up to 400+ degrees while the RR was soaring close to engine temp at 170 F. New battery installed. Volts @ 14.2 at idle then drops to about 13.6 at 5000rpm. Shouldn't it go up to between 14 -14.8V ? Just want to make sure the stator is OK, but not sure how or if necessary?

 

Mine does the same thing/has the same readings, but you can do an Ohm reading on the stator wires to see if your stator is ok. Again see Electrosport's flow chart on how to do it....very easy and mine checked out fine. If your voltage on battery goes above 14.8, you have a problem. I think the readings are reasonable, however the Haynes manual says that your voltage should be 14 - 14.8 @ 5000 rpm.....13.6 isn't that far off. :-0