Ok, so I've been out riding a lot lately and she has been running great. But this morning on my way home I was rollin along and all of a sudden it started sputtering and I pulled in the clutch as fast as I could and it died. Pulled over to the side of the road and all my lights are gone. Turned it off and said a few choice words. Turned it back on and I got a dim oil light. No power at all. (I was on a hill) So I rolled it a bit and tried to pop the clutch and it started but if I dropped to below 2K rpm it would sputter and die. What the heck is wrong? Alternator? Rectifier? HELP!!

 

rectifier id say.

 

hi I would change the battery at the same time as the rectifier, if the battery has gone it may destroy the new rectifier when you re-connect it all.

has happened to me in the past with my blade,but new to cbr1000's so might be wrong

just a thought though

 

I'd first check the condition and state of charge of battery. Get a volt meter and check alternator out put at the battery. Looking for something over 13.5 volts with the engine above 3-5000 rpm. Take a GOOD look at all electrical connections. Are they clean and tight. Not just the battery terminals. Follow the cables to thier connections, open plug connectors and look for corrosion. Check ground cables for corrosion and tightness too. Our bikes are getting to the age where a little fuzz will be found on these bits. Section 14 of service manual gives the valuesand checks for the charging system. If you don't have a copy I thinkit's posted on the site.

 

A bad battery will kill the rectifier and vice-versa.

I've had a batter go short on me which helped kill my RR

These bikes seem to be very hard on batteries. I think the only way to go is for a Gel battery.

 

Before you do anything, or spend any money, make sure that this is not a fluke. Do not do as I did when I was confronted with the same situation months ago. I rushed and bought a new battery and a new rectifier.Looking back Inow know what I did wrong. I had idled the bike for a long time andthereby drained the battery.Any idling under 2500 rpm,even while in traffic,will drain your battery. So now what I do to avoid this situationis to revv when at the stop lights or in traffic. I suggest that you give your battery a full charge and see if it runs down again.

 

Ok guys, its gets even more weird. Yesterday I went out to move it and it fired right up! What the heck does that mean? I replaced the battery about 6 months before this happened so I don't think it is that. I'm going to check for loose wires, alternator, and rectifier per the manual.

 

i always have mine on a battery tender when not riding it. i chk fluid level once a month. don't forget to put a penny near postive terminal to be your sacrificial anode(our pennies are really zinc)

 

Hey MD, check the fuse in the starter soleniod ( in fact all of them). Mine was corroded and making contact for a while then it would stop which would shut down all the electrics. when the bike cooled all went fine. let me tell you finding that bastard was not fun.
when you put it back together get some non conductive "electrical" grease and squirt it down the holes for the fuses to prevent that happening anyway.
Phill

 

Ok, I thought I would bring this thread back from the dead to give you guys some tips that I found.

First, yes it has been a long time, I've had a lot going on blah blah blah, so I really didn't get a chance to take everything apart to even look.

ok, so when I did get everything apart I found that the black grounding wire going into the R/R had totally fried itself and melted some of the other wires. The ONLY thing I can link this to is the new "more powerful" headlights 65/55s instead of the stock 45/45s.

So... thats really not the whole story before I even got to discovering that I had gotten a call from my father who informaed me that my bike had fallen over in a storm and was leaking gas all over his driveway... well I was out of town and he said he couldn't get the bike back up by himself...... ok, so I got back and luckaly all that was messed up was the right side mid fairing and the right "frame slider" which I had to repaint after they had been nicely stripped by the 91 test gas running all over them for 2 days... BUT ANYWAY

So back to the main point, I have checked the alternator (which checked out perfectly according to the manual), replaced the R/R, and replaced the battery. Everything seems to be back to normal but she will be going into the shop to get a full tune up before I put the plastics back on (I'm sick of painting).

So, moral of the story here, listen to the experienced people in the forums before you go spending money... and, take things apart and look them over before you go spending money. And when in doubt, RTFM.

Thanks for everyones help