Pushed the button, no start. Help!
 

So I rode out to my parents house tonight, about 15 miles one way. I've been riding a lot of miles lately. No issues whatsoever. When I was leaving, I pushed the starter button and it turned over slowly, then did the infamous clicking. Battery not charged enough to start. Damn. I did get it push started and was able to ride home. When I got home and had it in the garage, I shut it down. When I tried to restart it, same thing....dead battery. This was a new battery a couple of months ago when I bought the bike. So what's the deal? I have it plugged into the trickle charger now....but is it likely that something in the charging circuitry has gone south?

Please help, gurus...and thanks,

Warner

If you have access to a multimeter, get the bike started and measure across the terminals, you should see around 13.8 volts when running. If the voltage is more excessive or an odd value you could have a reg/rec problem. If there is no increase from the charged battery voltage value (around 12.5v) then it sounds like the stator or wiring may be fried.

Well, I get 12.8 volts at the terminals with the bike running. No change when I rev the engine. It did start when I pushed the button, so the trickle charger overnight got it charged enough to start and the battery is probably ok. Is this a FOR SURE indication that the stator is bad, or do I need to do some additional testing? And how the hell difficult is it to find a stator? That's the ONE part that I have come to believe is really difficult to find.

Thanks in advance,

Warner

Here's the other weird thing. If it's not charging, and my battery was essentially dead, how did I have working lights on the way home last night? Something is not jiving here....

Warner

I think the manual has a procedure for testing all that stuff.
You can find an electronic version on here easy enough.

Yeah, I found some procedures....same ones I did on my DRZ when I thought I was having issues with the stator. I just need some time to troubleshoot....just ran out before work and got the voltage reading off the battery this morning before work. I hope it's not the stator.....I hope it's just the R/R. The stators seems near impossible to find.


Warner

Would a Blackbird one fit? Is it worth checking part numbers?

Sounds to me like the R/R went belly up. Like Exuptoy says, you need to be getting 13.5 to 14 volts at around 3,500 rpm with a factory R/R. If the diodes failed, they may let just enough juice pass through to get you home but, when the bike is shut off, they leak back. That's like having a load on the battery when the bike is shut off.

Also if the R/R failed it wouldn't rectify the current and the lights don't care if its AC or DC, so the stator would push AC to them. However the battery needs DC to charge.

It could be the stator but if the R/R is a factory one, its going to need to be replaced at some point, they do fail. The factory ones are garbage.

I'm sure the Shendingen Mosfet ones as fitted to the R1's would fit.

Search for Shindengen FH012AA Mosfet. I know the lads on the Triumph website swore by them. I fitted one when mine played up. Not sure if the cable layout is the same but they seem to be common.

That sounds like a reasonable explanation. I'm doing some troubleshooting now...just got home from work. I've been thinking about this all damn day....

Warner