Electrical Issue Troubleshooting

Hey all,

'06 6th gen; 32,000kms; Australian. Non ABS.

I'm trying to troubleshoot an electrical gremlin. My battery is discharging. Takes about 2-3 days with normal about town use to go flat. I popped the voltmeter on it and at idle it's getting 11.2v; at 4000rpm it goes up to 12.2v. Not sure what i should be getting at idle; guessing 12.5 to 13?

I've had the bike about 4 months; it came with a trickle charger and plug fitted so I charge her up overnight every couple of days, which limits the inconvenience so far.

Main fuse bank (RHS below throttle grip) all fine. No noticeable burning smell. Already replaced the battery (the old one was fine though, d'oh); issue persists.

Done a bit of research already and the consensus seems to be either faulty regulator/rectifier or stator.

Before I start purchasing parts and swapping out I thought I might check with the knowledge bank here.

Is there anything else I should check first?
Should I replace the reg/rec first, then if the issue persists replace the stator second - or vice versa?
Is there anything I can do to determine if one or the other is causing the issue? If I take off the stator cover and have a look would a lack of melted wiring indicate the stator is ok?

Or could it be something else?

I have an electrical sparky mate who works on cars only who I can use for tools and brain picking; my mechanical expertise would only be 3/10 (but keen to learn heheh), so am going to have a go at fixing this myself.

Any advice or linky to similar issue thread on here before I start shelling out coin on parts would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

...faulty regulator/rectifier or stator. +1

There's a good troubleshooting step by step that someone will surely post up shortly so you don't just swap parts but actually diagnose the problem

Here's a thread to start with:

http://www.vfrdiscus...2-stator-tests/

Truewheel,

I'm not familiar with location of all the bits on 6th gen, only 3rd and 5th, however, you can test the Stator output and condition of wiring separately to RR.

Your voltage readings are definitely too low.

There are 3 yellow wires coming from the stator heading for the RR, the plug and socket in this wiring is a common problem and simply fixed by connecting wire to wire with crimp lugs or twisting and soldering any yellow in to any yellow out it doesn't matter.  The plug and socket colour should be a homogenous strawy-white colour, no brown or blacks nor smell of burning!!

If the plug/socket is not burnt up AC voltages can be checked here, yellow to yellow, not to ground, use a pin or paper clip poked into the connections.  There is also an open circuit test for voltages with engine running and resistance checks with engine stopped.  I seem to remember 50Vac being about right open circuit and less than 1ohm between each yellow wire to yellow wire, with almost infinity to ground, looking back to the stator.  The manual indicates tests towards the RR with a multimeter but I wouldn't put much faith in them.

If the stator checks out OK your RR is shot.  It's pretty basic, although there can be problems around the main fuse to the battery which can reduce the DC volts to battery.

Because of the inadequacies of Honda's electrical hardware VFRD member 'Tightwad' s VFRNESS is a very popular effective modification to make to any VFR, and possibly lots of other Honda's too!

I haven't gone into a huge amount of detail because it is all contained right here in VFRD, start searching in electrical first and then widen your search.  This part of a VFR is covered comprehensively.

Truewheel - your charging system is borked. Here's the basic step by step. Take care of the battery first by charging overnite and getting it load tested. 

Go through all your connectors for burnt leads, dig deep. Crispy wires? The stator connector is notorious to burn up. Not good. Your gonna have to fix that!  

Then---Go through this starting point quick list.  You will need a multimeter too.

Steps:

- Recharge battery overnite - then to take it to Autozone, Batterys Plus or similar to load test. -- Good? Bad? – An iffy battery can fake you out and act like a bad R/R. Buy new if needed.

- With good battery fire it up, warm up for a minute or two.

These are R/R quick checks---

--- With voltmeter at battery get voltages -- idle volts? 5000 rpm volts? What’s the numbers? Should be in 13ish min idle and in 14s at revs. If in the 12s at idle, try at 1900 rpm. (It’s not unusual for the system to be in discharge or no charge at idle.)

- Check stator

- 1. Pull connector apart. Set meter to resistance. Check pin to pin stator side, 3 yellow wires, A to B, B to C, C to A. What’s the numbers? 3 separate readings --Should be less than 1.0 ohms.  (Engine off)

- 2. Check continuity from each A,B,C pin stator side to ground, -- -should be infinity - nada nothing. no continuity.  --   3 separate checks. (Engine off, again connector is apart)

- 3. Crank it back up. Do another pin to pin thing, but set meter on AC volts. idle and 5000 rpms. What's da numbers? Should start 15 -20ish and climb 50ish and more.  Again – 3 readings stator side connector and still apart.

- Repeat hot.

This quick list will catch the obvious stuff, but if you need to dig deeper check this chart. (Some guys like this chart, my taste, I don’t care for it.)

http://www.electrosp...ing-diagram.pdf

Write down the numbers and get back to us.  ---- Also - what is  the mileage on the bike?

Ahh thanks all. Bit of homework to do heheh - I'll check the yellow wires connecting r/r to stator and test the stator as you suggested mello dude.

I have already replaced the battery last week so that's been eliminated as a cause.

BTW my mileage is 20,000. I'll need to bring in my sparky mate on this so will prob be next weekend.

Edit: Just had a read of the 'stator tests' thread. Mmm seems troubleshooting electrical issues can be a bit of a PITA!

Some in that thread suggested replacing the VFR r/r with one off a '05+ Yamaha R1. Does anyone know if it bolts straight into a 6th gen (on 4th or 5th it needs to have fins ground off etc I think)? Or would going down this path be unnecessary anyway as Honda improved the quality of their r/r's for the 6th gen?

Either way it seems I need to have a look at my stator for signs of frying first. If it looks ok and voltages check out I'll try fitting a new r/r as a first (and hopefully last) step.

Check this kit for a new R/R --

http://roadstercycle.com/

Hi again...just something I wanted to clarify.

I downloaded the 02 6th gen manual on here (thanks to whoever posted it up);  when I looked in the small system diagram in the battery/charging section it indicated the reg/rec had 2 connecting plugs: a 3 pin input from the stator and a 4 pin output (2 red, 2 green wires).

Yet when I look at the system wiring diagram in the same manual it seems to indicate a 5 pin output (2 red, 2 green 1 black) instead of the 4.

Looking online at r/r's both 4 and 5 pin options are offered for an '06 6th gen depending on where you shop.

Which one is correct?  Or should I just take off the fairing and have a look to be certain?  I don't know what type to order and I assume the 2 plug types are not interchangable.

Sorry if these are basic questions!

Thanks in advance.