starting problems

[Guest]

850 has been giving me trouble with the battery being dead if not started for a week or so. If I charge battery it starts right up. Took battery in today and had tested, showed battery was good even under load. Put it back in bike tonight and started right up. Decided to do stator paper tests and first two reading at 2500 rpm and 5000rpm indicated it is charging fine. But just shutting it off for the test a few times and it wanted to drag and not start. I'm thinking maybe my starter is going bad and when it's dragging it's draining battery fairly quickly. Cleaned positive and starter cable connections on solenoid and made no difference. Any thoughts or suggestions and I would be grateful. Haven't been able to ride due to some health problems, so would really like to hit the road.

[terrylee]

Add to this, rode bike to work this morning and it started right up and ran great till I went about 10-12 miles and all of a sudden it seem to loose half its' power. Kept going to try to get to work went a couple of blocks, it backfired out the left side and all the power was back. Drove another 1/4 mile and power dropped down again. Limped into work and as soon as I stopped bike died. Restarted but wouldn't stay running. Tried it again and battery was too low to turn it over. Felt battery- wasn't hot to the touch. I again thinking maybe bad stator, although my test volts on battery check last night were in range of good. But don't have a clue as to the loosing power and then it's back after a backfire. Brought charger to work so will charge today and hopefully can make it home. Then I'll do all the tests from the stator papers and see if stator or r/r is problem with battery. terrylee

[BassCliff]

Hi Mr. terrylee,

Hmmm, nothing is jumping out at me as one definitive cause. It almost sounds like you may have two or more intermittent issues.

Depending on what piece of equipment is being used to load test a battery, I've had them test good but still not really be able to hold a charge. How old is your battery? A couple of years ago, when I was still having weird charging issues after installing a new stator, I had my battery tested and it tested good. But when I checked the date I found out it was over three years old. I bought a new AGM battery and it's been working great ever since.

By the same token, I've had a stator go intermittent before it went completely out. About a year after the incident above, I started having charging issues again. I noticed the lights were getting dim and the blinkers were acting funny. I got home from work that day, tested the battery and it was low. I put it on the charger that night and performed the Stator Papers tests the next morning when the bike was cold. The stator tested OK. So I rode it to work again for a couple of days but by the time I got there on the second day I was having the same electrical symptoms. When I got home from work that night I tested the stator while it was hot and got bad readings. It's almost as if the windings would move around and short as the part heated up.

Also have a close look at your entire wiring harness to make sure you don't have an intermittent or partial short to the frame somewhere. Ensure there's good connections to the starter, good ground on the solenoid, etc. Could a faulty r/r unit be causing a battery drain? Anyway, I guess more testing is needed before you start throwing parts at it. Sorry I can't be of more help.


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

[terrylee]

Thanks for the response. The battery is about a year old, and I took it back to the battery store where I got it and they even tested under a load. Tried yesterday to get bike home from work after charging battery again, bike started and ran fine for about 20 blocks and then lost half its' power and died as soon as I stopped. It restarted once (barely cranking over) but wouldn't stay running. Finally push started it down a hill and kept it running long enough to get back to work. Wouldn't turn over and start when I shut it off again. I replaced all the connectors to the sig. gen. and ignitior earlier this week, checked all those last night and they looked good. I have only had the r/r from Dungree a short while. I suspect the stator. Would a battery drain that fast (20 blocks) if stator is not working? If so that might explain the half power issue as well. Hope to get bike home tonight and work on it this weekend.

[cowboyup3371]

Would a battery drain that fast (20 blocks) if stator is not working?

Terry, when I got my bike running I had the same type of issues but I wasn't even going 20 blocks - just from the house to my gate which is about a 1/4 mile. The bike would die and not restart unless I let it sit for 20 mins and even then would not stay started. Finally after replacing the R/R with one from Duaneage I drove it 5 miles, stalled it, and never got it running again. Checked the stator again and it was fried.

Your best bet is to run through the stator tests again and replace if necessary.

[terrylee]

Thanks for response, I hope to get it home tonight and do stator paper tests this weekend. I would be surprised if it is not the stator. Replace r/r few months ago and replaced all connections to any thing to do with either. Connections aren't fried again but were fairly warm when it was running recently. I'll actually be happy if is just the stator and not a second problem too. terrylee

[terrylee]

Trailered bike home last night. Put recharged battery in first and seem to run fine. So will start testing tomorrow. terrylee

[terrylee]

Help!

OK got a few tests done before having to recharge battery again. Got 13.8 volts at 2,500 rpm and 14.5 at about 4,800 rpm (most choke would do) Which seem to indicate it's charging? Put red tester lead to red on r/r and black to positive on battery, at idle (just saw revised stator papers) got .3 (will redo at 5,00 rpm when it will start).Also cleaned the main ground to the battery on both ends. Can I connect the red lead from the r/r directly to battery, thinking maybe wiring from r/r red connection once it goes into the wiring harness is the problem. If I can connect directly should I splice in a fuse?

[terrylee]

Went out and did some testing again. After cleaning up fuse box and checking all connections and wires I could I'm now getting 14.8 volts at 2500 and 5000 rpms. Checked red wire from r/r at 5000rpm and getting .4 volts. Didn't want to hook direct to battery till I get some advice. Also noticed noise coming from the area where the stator is when I gave it throttle. So will be replacing that. Thanks! terrylee

[terrylee]

Anybody have a idea weather or not I can hook positive directly to battery??? terrylee

[BassCliff]

Hi,

Yes, you can connect the output of the r/r directly to the positive terminal of the battery. But you should install an inline fuse, no more than 15 amps. Something like this:




Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

[terrylee]

Thanks so much for the response!!! I thought I could and as you indicated with a fuse inline, but just wanted to make sure. thanks again! terrylee

[terrylee]

still having charging problems!!!

Put in new stator today, charged battery and it started after a few tries. Checked battery at 2500 got 14.5 volts, at 5,000 rpms got 15.5! Let it run for a while and checked volts at red r/r connection as in stator papers and got .08 volts, I have the red(positive) from r/r connected directly to battery with inline fuse. So checked it by touching red lead from tester to one side of fuse connection. I also have ground from r/r directly to battery neg. Checked all connectors and wiring and everything looks ok. I know I should know this but, stator papers says to set tester to diode test position to test r/r further. I have digital tester and I don't seem to have a diode test position?? Any one know if this is called something else. I'm really starting to think the honda r/r I got from Dungree may have gottten fried. terrylee

[terrylee]

Ok put recharged battery back in and now I'm getting 15.4 volts at 2500 rpms! I also noticed when I push the brake light on all the lights dim some. I just thought about the fact that the honda r/r has a sensor wire hooked up to the back brake light switch. When I got the r/r it had bullet connections, so I just hooked up them to the old bullets on the brake light switch. I will try changing those to spade type, but I have to lengthen the wires some. Any thoughts? terrylee

[Steve]

Are you hooked up to the correct side of the brake switch?

If your sense wire is connected to the "dead" side of the switch, it will only sense when the brake light is ON.

Move it to the "live" side of the switch where it will sense whenever the ignition switch is ON.

.