Hi guys

My name's Kevin and a few weeks ago I picked up my first bike, it's a 95 cbr600F3...

Got a decent deal on the bike and it came with two brothers exhaust, flushmount front signals, integrated (97-98) tail (still has 95 tail fairings though) f4i gauges.

the bike supposedly had 25k kms on it, but with the gauge swap who knows so it's mystery mileage.

Anyways, the slight issue I've been trying to search around to find any similar cases is a charging system issue.

the story goes, when I went to check the bike out for purchase the previous owner had a fuse removed for the headlights, so to get them working he just popped it back in. (I was curious why it was out and wondered if there was possibly a draw involving the lights) I bought the bike and decided after a few days of sitting connected I'd see if it would fire up and it did no problems, and then to be honest I forgot all about it and never got around to checking anything.

I rode all last week up until Friday where the weather turned bad and I didn't touch it again until today, went to start it up and it cranked slowly and wouldn't start as it was too drained. This is my first bike, so this is only an assumption but I assume it shouldn't be too drained to start just from sitting for 8 days.

I am aware of the R/R issues and while I had the seat off I snapped a pic, judging by the fact that I still have a connector I'd assume it's the stock one. But usually the symptoms of a dying R/R are not the same as mine.

I've tried searching for headlight fuse and draw issues here on the forum and haven't found anything similar as of yet. Are there any common things I'm missing, I'm not too worried about it, worst case scenario I'll take the time and do the diag time, just seeing if there are any common things you guys might know.

here's a pic of the R/R which I plan on replacing just to be safe in the future but I don't think is the culprit.

 

disconnect the positive and negative sides on the battery and then check the positive post to ground (on the bike) that will tell you if you have some kind of parasitic load, you can also check the positive to neg wire to see if there is a short in there somewhere. also, charge the battery and then unplug the headlight fuse and let it set for a few days and see if the battery is dead. a good way to check your charging system is to take a battery reading, it should be about 12vdc, then start the bike and rev it to 5000 rpm and take another batt reading, it should be about 14-14.5vdc with the bike @5k. hope this helps. let us know if you get any more details or when you have done all this.

 

Jeason15 gave you some good ideas to check on. You should be aware however that the R/R that is on your bike is not the original one that came with the bike. I suspect that a previous owner might have had problems as well. Not to worry though, we'll help you get to the bottom of it.

 

oh that's not the original R/R? I was just assuming since I hadn't noticed where it had been spliced in.


Thanks alot for the tips sometime hopefully this week a few parts will arrive that I want to replace, so I'll bring it to work with me swap my parts, change all my fluids, service chain etc and I'll do the testing on the charging system.

Thanks alot guys, I will keep you updated on what I find.

 

IDo is correct, it's an aftermarket one.

Before you change the battery check to see if there's any dead spots, it's quciker to check that before replacing what could be a good battery.

Take a voltmeter at the battery while bike is NOT running, should read about 12-13, then start up the bike while looking at the voltmeter, if it drops below 9.5 (if I remember correctly) battery probably has dead cells. If it's above, battery is probably ok.

 

yep I'll be checking all of that sometime this week if the weather is good I'll ride my bike to work.

I'm expecting to find a draw somewhere since the guy had the fuse disconnected, I'll do all the checks on the battery and R/R to see what state they're in anyways and go from there. The bike had no issues starting up today after sitting overnight, I took the tail panel off to try and look closer at the R/R , only thing I noticed is the plate it mounts to gets pretty hot.

 

it getting hot is normal

 

just to keep you guys updated, I've been really busy with a few things and haven't had too much time to take a look at it. I did bring it in to work and avr tested the battery, and found it had 24cca, not sure with motorcycles what the normal cca rating is but that seems super low.


As I mentioned earlier I was getting slow cranking then once it would run it would be fine for the day. the weather went bad again so I knew it would be sitting for a couple of days so my plan was to ride it a bit before parking it to charge up the battery and then pull the headlight fuse out to see if it would still have the issue, but now the battery is too weak to even turn the bike over at all, even after riding it.


I'll be getting a new battery tomorrow or thursday, my new bar weight and bar ends, brake lever came since I'm replacing bent and broken pieces from the previous owner's little mishap, once I have the battery I'll take it to work with me do all the fluids, install my frame sliders etc, slap the battery in and do some testing looking for the draw if there is one, and testing the things you guys pointed out.

Just letting you know I'm starting with a battery anyways. Thanks for the advice, and I'll keep you posted over the next week or so.

 

After I had my bike a few weeks I had a similar issue, had the battery tested, and it was junk. New battery, and I haven't had a problem since.

 

thanks for the input, Battery didn't come today sadly, should have it tomorrow along with a couple of other things I'm waiting on.


for today though I decided to replace the bent lever, and install bar ends.

couple of pics anyways of the bike...

Here it is the day I went to look at it. it was advertised as having 25k kms (but it has f4i gauges so I can't be sure) and a two brothers exhaust

When I showed up I noticed it also had an integrated taillight but the 97-98, smaller front turn signals and a tinted windscreen.

Notice the bar end is missing from the right side and there is some scuffing mostly on the side cover, and the brake lever is bent out to lunch which is pretty annoying lol.

sorry for the annoying sideways pics







my baby with my cbr and my daily beater


broken bar weight from the drop previous owner had



comparison of the old and new brake levers (spot the difference?)





much better, with new set of bar ends



last time when i removed the tail fairings I found the R/R which you guys let me know was aftermarket, this time when I removed the front fairings to take a look for my frame slider install I found this. I'd assume a manual to replace a failed or failing auto?