Battery Problem - Again?

[Dave]

Hi Guys

Wonder if you guys have any thoughts on this conundrum?

Left the mighty vara tucked up warm in the garage for 5 days - no sign of problems - did not put it on trickle charger. Went to fire her up yesterday morning and there was not enough power in the battery to turn the engine, When I thumbed the starter the display went blank and the tripmeter and clock reset themselves!

I put the bike on 'optimate' all day and night and this mornibg she started no problem - whats more the 'optimate' was showing that the battery was strong.

This evening on the way home I stopped the bike and switched the engine off and that was that she wouldnt turn over again and once more the tripmeter and clock reset themselves.

I pushed the bike half a mile and she's currently 'on display' in the local Hein Gericke shop where a friend is the manager. I thought it was a battery problem, then I thought it must be something else because the 'optimate' wouldn't have shown the battery to have been 'strong'. My friend the shop manager reckons it's the dreaded Honda reg/rec problem - is he right?

If he's right is there a better after market one available?

He says you cannot check the reg/rec - is this correct? Surely you must be able to check if it's pushing out too few volts (prefereable) or too many (expensive battery replacement as well!)

Any thoughts or guidance appreciated. Cheers

Dave

[StumpyFingers]

I would check the terminals, it sounds like a loose connection.

[Snaphappy]

I believe all Varas have the Reg/Rec mounted in the same place ie RHS behind the side panel. Crud can get to it so check all your connections,
Buying from someone else is a bit pot luck how many manufacturers are there of reg/rec, Honda certainly dont make them

I take it you have nothing on that could cause a drain, nothing as daft as a corroded lighter socket, dont ask why I know

[Boris]

I would check the terminals, it sounds like a loose connection.

Sound advice. I would also stick a volt meter across the battery terminals (the actual post of the battery and not the cables) and check the voltage when attempting to crank the motor. If it's low you are looking at a discharged battery and need to dig further. If it's normal look for poor connections in the thick cables.

I believe all Varas have the Reg/Rec mounted in the same place ie RHS behind the side panel. Crud can get to it so check all your connections,

The ABS models have it mounted right behind the shock as one of the pumps is behind that cover. It really gets crudded up there.. However in this case a few mins with the volt meter would prove or disprove before you start exchanging things.

[Jackdaw]

My experience with reg/rec failure on my 99er suggest that this is not the problem. When reg/rec goes its total breakdown (appears to overheat and something inside melts, blows main fuse and everything stops) On all 5 occasions there's been no warning symptoms. Make sure there is good clean contact between component and frame mountinng as this is where the excess heat is lost.

[davsato]

doesnt sound like battery or rectifier, as has been said the rectifier usually just goes and doesnt come back. an old way to check used to be to put lights on, face a wall and rev from idle. if the reg/rec works the lights get slightly brighter. dont know this would work though with a bike like the vara with electronic voltage regulation, the voltage remains exact whatever the engine is doing.

if the battery charges and stays charged overnight then its fine.

[jasonbc]

Hi Guys

Wonder if you guys have any thoughts on this conundrum?

Left the mighty vara tucked up warm in the garage for 5 days - no sign of problems - did not put it on trickle charger. Went to fire her up yesterday morning and there was not enough power in the battery to turn the engine, When I thumbed the starter the display went blank and the tripmeter and clock reset themselves!

I put the bike on 'optimate' all day and night and this mornibg she started no problem - whats more the 'optimate' was showing that the battery was strong.

This evening on the way home I stopped the bike and switched the engine off and that was that she wouldnt turn over again and once more the tripmeter and clock reset themselves.

I pushed the bike half a mile and she's currently 'on display' in the local Hein Gericke shop where a friend is the manager. I thought it was a battery problem, then I thought it must be something else because the 'optimate' wouldn't have shown the battery to have been 'strong'. My friend the shop manager reckons it's the dreaded Honda reg/rec problem - is he right?

If he's right is there a better after market one available?

He says you cannot check the reg/rec - is this correct? Surely you must be able to check if it's pushing out too few volts (prefereable) or too many (expensive battery replacement as well!)

Any thoughts or guidance appreciated. Cheers

Dave

What you need to do is find out whats causing it to drain so you can start looking in the correct place. Get your multimeter out select 10A to start with disconnect the battery negative and place one probe on the negative battery terminal and the other on the negative cable. With everything turned off you should be drawing milliamps as it will only be powering the clock and the alarm with everything turned off.
If it pulls amps what you need to do is pull each fuse out 1 at a time and see if the reading drops to milliamps once all the fuses are checked if the problem still shows its ugly head then you need to do the same with the relays. Once you found which ciruit is causing the problem you can then start to trace the fault ( which will no doubt be something stupid and simple)

[AlanH]

He says you cannot check the reg/rec - is this correct? Surely you must be able to check if it's pushing out too few volts (prefereable) or too many (expensive battery replacement as well!)

Yes, he is wrong.

You can check the entire charging system by following this guide:

http://www.electrosport.com/technica...ng-diagram.pdf

If the reg/rect is getting out of spec, it can damage the battery which then won't hold charge properly giving the symptoms you have. Alternatively, as others have suggested, it could be a power drain although I'd suspect a charging system fault based on it not restarting after a journey.

[jasonbc]

Yes, he is wrong.

You can check the entire charging system by following this guide:

http://www.electrosport.com/technica...ng-diagram.pdf

If the reg/rect is getting out of spec, it can damage the battery which then won't hold charge properly giving the symptoms you have. Alternatively, as others have suggested, it could be a power drain although I'd suspect a charging system fault based on it not restarting after a journey.

I find it difficult to beleive that the regulator / rectifier would fail on a 2 year old bike. When mine went tits up on my firestorm it just died and left the bike immobilised. After about 45mins when it had cooled down it would start up with no problems and then die again when it overheated.

[AlanH]

I find it difficult to beleive that the regulator / rectifier would fail on a 2 year old bike.

Electrical equipment has a mean time to failure - basically an average of how long it lasts. Some units will fail almost immediately and some units will last hundreds of years but it averages out. It may be unusual for a reg/rect to fail in a couple of years, but, based on experience, I'd say it's far from unbelievable.