Viffer barely made it home tonight

So I stoped at the grocery store on my way home tonight and when I came out the bike tried to start for a second then nothing, no lights or anything. I looked at a couple of the fuses in the dark and didn't see anything wrong with the ones I looked at. I push started it and it fired up, but the RPMs were going funny and the lights were kinda flickering. I only live like a mile away from the store so I jumped on her and headed home. She didn't like it very much. It wanted to stall the whole way and the lights were barely working. I rode on the shoulder with practically no lights. I made it home and checked the battery, it's got a full charge. The battery's new and I've got the VFRness and R/R from Ricks Motorsports. I had the gas tank and all the fairings off the other day and had a hard time with the front fairing and the headlight (it was the first time I'd taken that part off). So I'm thiinking mabey I pinched a wire somewhere or somethiing. I've riden nearly 100 miles since then though. Does this sound like a wire shorting out or something else? Thanks

a quick check is to put a volt meter on your battery terminals and rev her up. If it stays at 12, you can investigate the charging system. (and hopefully find that it is just a wire)

I know you said you have a new battery and R/R but that is exactly what mine did about five years ago and it was a bad R/R that fried a brand new battery. I hate electrical gremlins!

The battery reads 13.something with the bike off, and the lights wont even come on.

I'm nearing the end of my depth here, but one last thing:

Check the grounds espescially the battery to groung strap along with the battery terminals themselves. Other than that, I dunno....good thing there are some many talents out there to help.

Dont fret.......one of them will be along to help you soon. Have a beer.

Just a comment.
Almost all my weird mechanical or electrical problems can be traced back to the last thing/area I worked on. It's the first place I check anymore.
Front fairing and headlight area wiring might be a good place to look.

[image: View Post]lray, on 12 March 2011 - 10:36 PM, said:

So I stoped at the grocery store on my way home tonight and when I came out the bike tried to start for a second then nothing, no lights or anything. I looked at a couple of the fuses in the dark and didn't see anything wrong with the ones I looked at. I push started it and it fired up, but the RPMs were going funny and the lights were kinda flickering. I only live like a mile away from the store so I jumped on her and headed home. She didn't like it very much. It wanted to stall the whole way and the lights were barely working. I rode on the shoulder with practically no lights. I made it home and checked the battery, it's got a full charge. The battery's new and I've got the VFRness and R/R from Ricks Motorsports. I had the gas tank and all the fairings off the other day and had a hard time with the front fairing and the headlight (it was the first time I'd taken that part off). So I'm thiinking mabey I pinched a wire somewhere or somethiing. I've riden nearly 100 miles since then though. Does this sound like a wire shorting out or something else? Thanks


Sounds to me like the R/R overcharging the battery...that is what mine did when mine went south.

Good Luck

Gary

[image: View Post]V-FORE, on 13 March 2011 - 12:52 AM, said:

[image: View Post]lray, on 12 March 2011 - 10:36 PM, said:

So I stoped at the grocery store on my way home tonight and when I came out the bike tried to start for a second then nothing, no lights or anything. I looked at a couple of the fuses in the dark and didn't see anything wrong with the ones I looked at. I push started it and it fired up, but the RPMs were going funny and the lights were kinda flickering. I only live like a mile away from the store so I jumped on her and headed home. She didn't like it very much. It wanted to stall the whole way and the lights were barely working. I rode on the shoulder with practically no lights. I made it home and checked the battery, it's got a full charge. The battery's new and I've got the VFRness and R/R from Ricks Motorsports. I had the gas tank and all the fairings off the other day and had a hard time with the front fairing and the headlight (it was the first time I'd taken that part off). So I'm thiinking mabey I pinched a wire somewhere or somethiing. I've riden nearly 100 miles since then though. Does this sound like a wire shorting out or something else? Thanks


Sounds to me like the R/R overcharging the battery...that is what mine did when mine went south.

Good Luck

Gary

+1 Sounds right to me !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[image: View Post]Switchblade, on 13 March 2011 - 07:17 AM, said:

[image: View Post]V-FORE, on 13 March 2011 - 12:52 AM, said:

[image: View Post]lray, on 12 March 2011 - 10:36 PM, said:

So I stoped at the grocery store on my way home tonight and when I came out the bike tried to start for a second then nothing, no lights or anything. I looked at a couple of the fuses in the dark and didn't see anything wrong with the ones I looked at. I push started it and it fired up, but the RPMs were going funny and the lights were kinda flickering. I only live like a mile away from the store so I jumped on her and headed home. She didn't like it very much. It wanted to stall the whole way and the lights were barely working. I rode on the shoulder with practically no lights. I made it home and checked the battery, it's got a full charge. The battery's new and I've got the VFRness and R/R from Ricks Motorsports. I had the gas tank and all the fairings off the other day and had a hard time with the front fairing and the headlight (it was the first time I'd taken that part off). So I'm thiinking mabey I pinched a wire somewhere or somethiing. I've riden nearly 100 miles since then though. Does this sound like a wire shorting out or something else? Thanks


Sounds to me like the R/R overcharging the battery...that is what mine did when mine went south.

Good Luck

Gary

+1 Sounds right to me !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!





If the battery is reading 13 something then the lights should work. it sounds like a wring or grounding fault to me.

[image: View Post]DaveB, on 13 March 2011 - 08:28 AM, said:

[image: View Post]Switchblade, on 13 March 2011 - 07:17 AM, said:

[image: View Post]V-FORE, on 13 March 2011 - 12:52 AM, said:

[image: View Post]lray, on 12 March 2011 - 10:36 PM, said:

So I stoped at the grocery store on my way home tonight and when I came out the bike tried to start for a second then nothing, no lights or anything. I looked at a couple of the fuses in the dark and didn't see anything wrong with the ones I looked at. I push started it and it fired up, but the RPMs were going funny and the lights were kinda flickering. I only live like a mile away from the store so I jumped on her and headed home. She didn't like it very much. It wanted to stall the whole way and the lights were barely working. I rode on the shoulder with practically no lights. I made it home and checked the battery, it's got a full charge. The battery's new and I've got the VFRness and R/R from Ricks Motorsports. I had the gas tank and all the fairings off the other day and had a hard time with the front fairing and the headlight (it was the first time I'd taken that part off). So I'm thiinking mabey I pinched a wire somewhere or somethiing. I've riden nearly 100 miles since then though. Does this sound like a wire shorting out or something else? Thanks


Sounds to me like the R/R overcharging the battery...that is what mine did when mine went south.

Good Luck

Gary

+1 Sounds right to me !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!





If the battery is reading 13 something then the lights should work. it sounds like a wring or grounding fault to me.


The battery reading is probably taken right after it has been running (overcharging). My battery lasted two days before dying completely...Leaving Laguna Seca to come home Monday Morning :angry: ,

Let us know what you come up with...If you get it fired up again take a reading while running, that should let you know what the issue is.



Gary

It may seem obvious, but also check your battery terminal connections. My VFR did that to me 2 years ago, and I thought my R/R was going bad, and I was screwed. Once I got my seat off, I doscivered that the negative battery cable had come off. The nut/bolt combo that normally held it on had vanished. I replaced the nut/bolt combo, and everything was fine, until my VFR spit up a spark plug, but that's another story...

you need to do a load test on the battery. The r/r could have fried it. Check all the wiring near the r/r, melted contacts/plug assemblies can make for funny current routes! Mine did the same thing (my 90). A few times. By the 5th or sixth one, I knew the signs earlier...
Cheers!

With the key on, do the gages work? High beams? Turn Signals? Break Lights?

Try making sure the terminal bolts are tight. If they're even the slightest bit loose, then they will act up.

Check all your fuses again, including the main 30amp fuse.

Do you have a powerlet? I'd plug something into it and see if it draws any power from the battery.

Thanks for all the responses. I just took all the plastics off this morning and started going over wires, connections, fuses. I get the stuff about the charging system messing up, but if my batteries got a full charge shouldn't I see the lights come on with the bike off? regardless of weather or not the charging systems messed up. I've already had a bunch of problems with that and it never affected the current going to the lights and dash, starter, if the battery had a good charge, especially if the bikes not running. I'm kinda at a loss right now. I don't see anything obvious , wires frayed, bad fuses fried connections. would it have made a diffrence if I puged the lights in backwards (right to left, left to right)? The battery terminals are plenty tight and no corrosion. I did find something interesting. I put some pictures bellow. This is the connector that comes from my ignition switch (where the key is) It's a six prong plug, but it's missing one of it's wires. The female end has a brown wire in the slot that's missing on the male end. Not sure where that goes. I'm looking at the wireing digram trying to decifer it. But I've put like 3,000 miles on the bike with it like that, so if it is a problem it seems odd that it would be acting up now. Any one know what that brown wires for? And why no lights with bike off and full charge on battery?

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So..... I just decided to plug in that ignition switch plug and turned the key to on. Walla It's alive! I guess I just need to clean those connections up a bit and make sure their together tight. wierd, mabey I loosened it up or something when I had the front fairing off. Hopefully that's the problem. At this point it sure seems to be.

I am always glad when things kinda fix themselves after rumaging around :blink:

[image: View Post]timmythecop, on 12 March 2011 - 11:12 PM, said:

(and hopefully find that it is just a wire)

woot.

You were lucky this time, better make it a yearly maintenance to inspect electrical connection !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

All back together. She's out in the driveway runnin right now. Gonna take er for a test ride. Everything seems to be in order. I went down to the store and got a can of electric parts cleaner and some dielectic grease and went over a bunch of connections. Thanks for the help. Still not sure what the brown wire missing from that one connector is, and there's another plug behind the dash that was missing the male end. I think they may be for a clock or something. I'll be back in there to replace a couple of burnt out bulbs. I was gonna get some bulbs from the auto store, but they didn't have the right size. The bulbs in the dash are 12 volt 1.7 W. The smallest they had at the store was 14 volt 3.something W. Anybody know anything about that? Will they work or should I get the right bulbs from Honda?

I say get the correct bulbs from Honda. The other bulbs "may" work but you know the Honda ones will certainly and you can usually find decent prices online now-a-days so go with the factory fit ones. But that's just my opinion. :cool:

[image: View Post]lray, on 12 March 2011 - 11:19 PM, said:

The battery reads 13.something with the bike off, and the lights wont even come on.

That sounds like the battery wasn't actually connected to the bike!

Did you ever test the voltage at 5,000rpm?

Ciao,

Battery's definetly connected to bike. It did it again today! I had to leave it down town, go and get my tools, and come back to try to fix it. Jiggling the connector to the ignition didn't work this time. So the bike is stranded tonight. I'm pretty frustrated with it. It sure seems to be something to do with the ignition, as the battery still has a charge, but no lights or nothin when I turn the key.

[image: View Post]lray, on 14 March 2011 - 06:52 PM, said:

Battery's definetly connected to bike. It did it again today! I had to leave it down town, go and get my tools, and come back to try to fix it. Jiggling the connector to the ignition didn't work this time. So the bike is stranded tonight. I'm pretty frustrated with it. It sure seems to be something to do with the ignition, as the battery still has a charge, but no lights or nothin when I turn the key.

Forgive me if someone else has mentioned this, but give the ignition switch a good going over. Mine did that to me when i picked it up, it had been standing for a few months at the time though.