Weird Electrics

[MattyGee]

Hello All

I posted a thread a while back before I went on a trip to morocco...which I have now been and done...which was bloody great...and from which I shall post some pics up at some point. But first I have a more pressing problem which just don't make sense.

The bike was amazing, 5000 miles of thrashing the bollox off it through wind, rain and sand, on and off road and for the most it part didn't skip a beat, apart from:

After being in the desert the speedo/odometre packed up, not in one go but faded over a few minutes. I presume that is just a load of sand and dust round the front wheel and as soon as I have a minute I plan to take the wheel off and give it a clean... but I don't know if it is connected to the following.

On my first motorway stint for a while I put my headlights back on. I pulled into a garage to fill up, and then couldn't start it again, the battery was as flat as a pancake. It seemed totally dry so I chucked some water in it and we then tried to bump it to no avail. We then got some moroccan jump leads (two bits of thin electrical wire held onto the batteries with thumbs) and tried to jump it....but I screwed up. After a while (far too long!) one of the many helpers asked if we were connected up the right way...'yes , yes' I said, but after scraping off the dust over the battery we saw it wasn't. The rubber caps over the battery terminals had been put on by the previous owners (the police/ambulance service!!) the wrong way round and I hadn't bothered to check the actual battery, '****, that's my electrics gone' I thought. The engine was also completely flooded by this point.

We waited for a bit and had resigned ourselves to chucking it on a flat bed/tractor to get us to the port...when I gave it one last try. It fired up spontaneously, first time.

I held off using my lights again as much as possible, but coming back through spain I had crap weather and had to put my headlights on again. Sure enough I drained the battery and it wouldn't start. I waited for about 45 minutes, tried again and it started up first time.

This doesn't make any sense to me whatsoever and before I start buying new bits and bobs I wondered if anyone had any idea what the **** is going on!

Sorry for the long post, thanks for reading.

Cheers

Matt

PS The fuses are all fine.

[YEN_POWELL]

Doesn't sound weird at all. My bike was exactly the same when my regulator went south and stopped sending enough charge to the battery. Get it started and turn the lights on. When you rev the engine up to say 2-3,000 rpm the headlights should get slightly brighter. If they don't then there's a good chance (it's quite common on ATs and VFRs) that's what your trouble is. At least they are a doddle to fix, two bolts and a plug.

[Whealie]

Or your battery is plain shot. Struggled for a year until I bought a new one and the problems just went away (until I let the levels run down again)

[GSPD750]

Your voltage/rectifier may be the culprit and going into an overvoltage condition. Put a voltmeter across your battery when it is running. Should not be over 14.5-14.7 volts...give or take. If you see anything over 15.0 volts...then that is not good and you are cooking your battery (possibly why it went dry) amongst other gremlins it can create. Do NOT replace your next battery until you know the status of your charging system or you risk cooking it too. If it's charging ok, then I would replace the battery as it's probably shot anyhow.

[BobA]

Matt

I'll ditto all the above comments regarding your electrical gremlins. Pay particular note to GPSD's comments regarding testing the charging circuit before fitting a new battery.

For your speedo problems, I reckon all that water/sand/heat has got into your speedo drive and caused it to either seize or strip the nylon gear. Here is a very good guide for a repair...Transalp Speedo Drive Repair
David Silvers, or Honda will have a new gear, but please check the part number before ordering, as I have a feeling I used the one shown in the artical and ended up with one that didn't fit my RD04.

Finally, some words and pics please about your Morroccan adventure, as I had it in mind to do something similar next year with a friend, who has now decided he wants to stay home and watch Coronation Street, so I'll be doing it on my own!!!

Cheers


Bob

[chronyx]

I had it in mind to do something similar next year with a friend, who has now decided he wants to stay home and watch Coronation Street

[MattyGee]

Thanks all for those tips, that should keep me occupied for a while.

I will put some pics up at some point but it wont be for a while as I shot everything on tranny, so i need to get them processed and scanned etc.... hopefully they'll be worth the wait.

A quick guide to our route was down the Atlantic coast, into the Anti Atlas, picked up a guide and then headed into the desert, back up through the Draa valley into the Atlas and then a beetle north along the motorways.

The best bit was without doubt the three days off-road with the guide. It cost us £250 for the priviledge but worth every penny, there is no way, unless I had had military maps and a lot of time, that I could of done the route we did... they take your luggage and pillion enabling you to enjoy belting it over the most surreal and sereen scenery within easy reach of Europe. Caning it over salt flats and then going arse over tit every ten minutes in the sand dunes is an experince I'll never forget....Would do it again tomorrow if I had the chance... but maybe on something a little lighter!

Thanks again

Matt