Request to Forum Members
Any help on diagnosis would be appreciated. The regulator/rectifier is a prime suspect at the moment, but I have not yet been able to prove it guilty.

Problem
1996 CBR600 F3 (49k) did not start after a short, 15min ride. The battery that is in the bike is a brand new Shorai Lithium type (LFX18A1-BS12). It was purchased a month ago and has less than 30km of usage. The previous battery was a lead acid, Yuasa brand battery that came with the bike from the previous owner. I swapped in the Shorai because the Yuasa had poor cold-crank capacity and discharged quick.

Pre-Readings Done
Read IDoDirt's posts and several others on this forum on anything to do with start up and regulator/rectifier issues on the F3. I have also followed Electrosport's Electrical Fault Finding Diagram as well as Clymer's F3 maintenance manual.

Attempted Solutions
1. Battery Discharge Test
I charged the battery up to about 13.29v. Disconnected the charger at 01:00AM. Rechecked in the morning at 11:00AM and it read 13.24v. I believe this result is inconclusive as to whether there is an issue with the battery holding charge, considering it is brand new. This of course is a carb'd bike and there are no alarms fitted.

2. Leak Test
No amps (0) reading on leak test when the positive voltmeter lead was connected to the ground, and the negative voltmeter lead to the negative battery terminal.

3. Charge Test (readings done at terminal)
Started up the bike, full choke.
Cold engine idle: 13.5v at 1500 rpm (+/-100rpm)
Warm engine idle: 13.07 at 1400 (+/-100rpm)
Rev to 5000rpm with high beams on: 14.4v
Engine switched off: 13.23v

4. Regulator/Rectifier Test
Note: the unit in here is not OEM. The previous owner seemed to have replaced it with what looks like an Electrosport equivalent.
Disconnected the R/R wiring harness
Set the multimeter to xk ohms
Inserted terminals into the R/R side of the connections
Followed the Clymer manual for readings guide
Did not get any reading whatsoever. No 0,...cycled through all the ohm's to see if we could get anything.

Other Notes
Currently considering swapping out the unit with GXS'r R/R, but before spending the money, I need to definitively identify the problem.

If the R/R was fried, like how they notoriously are on these Honda F3's, then the charge test should have failed. When riding in stop and go traffic, I typically try to stay in 1st gear, no higher than 2nd, to stay in the 6000-7000rpm range to ensure I am not undercharging the battery.

It does not make sense that after returning to the bike, parked an hour away from home, that it would just decide to not start.

 

My r/r went out and gave me similar problems, if I could get it started the voltages looked good but after shutting it down it would barely crank over, the 3 yellow wires on the connector to the r/r we're brownish and crumbled as soon as I touched them, swapped in a gsxr750 r/r and have not had a single issue, best of luck

 

Thanks. R/R upgrade or swap seems to be the way to go with these electrical issues regardless of what the issue definitively is.

 

Fuel pump could of died ��

 

What year is the gsxr750? I have replaced the r/r a few times and would love to fix this ongoing issue.

 

How so?

Update

...after 5 days of non-use:
13.21v (engine off)

...after a few laps around a parking lot:
13.23v (engine off)

...after 6km ride around the block:
13.37v (engine off)

...after 50km ride on the highway:
*12.60v (engine off)

*After this 50km highway ride, I returned home and as I was approaching my underground parking spot, the CBR600F3 just died and shut off...! I was literally metres away from my spot. Thank god it did not happen on the highway.

This is strange. The battery and rectifier seem to be working. Why would the bike just die like that after a ride? This is the third time this has occurred.

I have already done a system charging test with the 2500rpm and 5000rpm checks. It read 13.3v at idle and 14.4v at 5000rpm. See first post for more details on the charging system test.

What could be happening?

 

I recently picked up the FH0020AA regulator/rectifier (upgrade to the FH0012AA model found on newer Yamaha's and Triumphs) with high gauge wiring. I will be wiring it to the CBR600F3 once the new stator comes in as I'd like to wire the stator direct to the regulator/rectifier all in one shot.

Will post an update.

 

So what year gsxr750 r/r did you use?Im in need of one immediately!!! My bike died on me yesterday and im pretty sure the stupid r/r went bad. Again. So I would love to fix this more permanently. Please let me know asap so I can order the part today!!!

 

I honestly don't remember the year, I want to say it was a late 90's early 2000, just take a look on eBay, mine has the wires built into the r/r, the newer ones have a plug, someone correct me if I'm wrong but it shouldn't really matter the year as long as it is a 5 wire

 

I bought one from an 02 gsxr 600.