So I was getting back from a trip today and there was a real high pitched sound coming from the bike. The sound was starting to quiet a bit, so I went to start the eggine and all I get was a clicky sound coming from the battery...not good. Then I see a very small amount of smoke coming from the battery area. I went to pull it out the battery and it was too hot to hold for more than a few seconds. I removed it with a towel and it felt like alot of perssure had built up inside.
Does this sound like the stator frying the battery or could it be something else? Could it have fried more than just the battery!?
I have had that multiple times. Mine was from the RR sending too much juice to the battery and litterally cooking it. There was a high pitched squeal coming from the battery when it was at its hottest. I could also get an acrid whiff of the acid. This sounds like the classic RR monitor wire problem. Basically, the monitor wire is supposed to measure the voltage that should be at the battery posts but it measures the voltage at the tail end of a circuit that goes thru the engine, and of course, there is some voltage drop. My RR was putting close to 15.5 volts to the battery and over time, it will boil the battery contents.
I made a mod to the RR back monitor wire ant put it directly to the battery post and no problem since. My rr puts out 14.3 max.
It is my belief that the new wiring harness recall should have corrected that problem but I left my mod in after the wiring harness recall on the 6'th gen.
[image: View Post]chonsey, on Apr 19 2009, 06:52 PM, said:
So I was getting back from a trip today and there was a real high pitched sound coming from the bike. The sound was starting to quiet a bit, so I went to start the eggine and all I get was a clicky sound coming from the battery...not good. Then I see a very small amount of smoke coming from the battery area. I went to pull it out the battery and it was too hot to hold for more than a few seconds. I removed it with a towel and it felt like alot of perssure had built up inside.
Does this sound like the stator frying the battery or could it be something else? Could it have fried more than just the battery!?
Sounds like the battery could have shorted out internally, or a short in the bike, or your bike is putting out too much charging voltage and overcharged the battery. Could be the rectifier or the monitor wire has too much resistance.
Is this a 6th generation? What year? Are recalls done? Electrical modification?
Sounds like your battery is toast. It will take a multimeter and testing. Get a shop manual for testing proceedures and specs. With a new battery test the voltage at the battery with the bike running at 5000 rpm. If the voltage is higher than spec. try a search on the "monitor wire fix". Look for toasted connectors. Hot wires. Tell us what you find.
[image: View Post]chonsey, on Apr 19 2009, 06:52 PM, said:
So I was getting back from a trip today and there was a real high pitched sound coming from the bike. The sound was starting to quiet a bit, so I went to start the eggine and all I get was a clicky sound coming from the battery...not good. Then I see a very small amount of smoke coming from the battery area. I went to pull it out the battery and it was too hot to hold for more than a few seconds. I removed it with a towel and it felt like alot of perssure had built up inside.
Does this sound like the stator frying the battery or could it be something else? Could it have fried more than just the battery!?
Sounds like the battery could have shorted out internally, or a short in the bike, or your bike is putting out too much charging voltage and overcharged the battery. Could be the rectifier or the monitor wire has too much resistance.
Is this a 6th generation? What year? Are recalls done? Electrical modification?
Sounds like your battery is toast. It will take a multimeter and testing. Get a shop manual for testing proceedures and specs. With a new battery test the voltage at the battery with the bike running at 5000 rpm. If the voltage is higher than spec. try a search on the "monitor wire fix". Look for toasted connectors. Hot wires. Tell us what you find.
It's a 2002 and I did not get the recall of the wiring harness done :mellow:
I had the same thing happen on my second superhawk. The high pitch sound and the smell of rotten eggs led me to the hot and bloated battery and a fried r/r connector. Replaced the r/r with a wired in gixxer unit, installed a new battery, and sold the bike about 4 years later still running 14.5volts. Oh yeah, it also took out the headlight but everything else was OK.
The 5/6 gen R/R's are much beefier and have lasted much longer than the previous gens. Maybe it's not getting to the point in time of seeing failures on the 6gen?
I would suggest the "beef up dem wires" mod, as well as the monitor wire fix (or buy my VFRness to fix both). Your battery may also be toast as well, but hopefully not!
[image: View Post]chonsey, on Apr 19 2009, 07:35 PM, said:
It's a 2002 and I did not get the recall of the wiring harness done :mellow:
The 2002 is among those with known electrical problems that the recall mostly addresses. As the wires age and buid up resistance with corrosion things go wrong. Do the recall or do the fixes you find in the electrical section here. Tightwad has some fixes you can buy. I had the recall done, beefed up the 30 amp main fuse, and ran the R/R monitor wire directly to the battery.
You should be able to take it to a dealer and have them fix this under the recall if it is a wiring problem.
A common problem is the R/R monitor wire which tells the R/R what the battery voltage is runs through the ignition and when all those connectors corrode the voltage drop makes the R/R think the battery is low when it isn't so it puts out too many volts.
End of thread · 7 posts recoveredWayback Machine snapshot 12 Apr 2010