About a half mile from work on my 50mi. commute sitting at a red light and rpm's start to die. Just as I go to bring the revs up light turns green and bike dies. Push it into a parking lot and wont start, wont even turn over. Take out battery and charge it while at work and it holds charge good. Drop it back in after work and fires right up. Forklift mech. hooks up his fancy reader and showing around 12.2-12.7 but wont move while idling or when revving so obviously not charging. Risk riding it the 50mi. back home and to nearby dealer and ask if they can check if its charging. Get same reading. Immediately says its the stator. When I ask how much the fix is he says around $500 parts/labor! Then goes on to say once they put it in they'll have to fire it up and test it again and if still not charging have to replace R/R(voltage reg.). This is my main transpo to work as I cannot stand the thought of having to drive! Tells me I'm essentially just running off batt. and if I continue to ride it could die at any time, even while doing 80 down the fwy!!!! So I ride it home and park it for now (ran perfectly fine this whole time BTW after charging batt.) and start researching this forum and am now wondering if its just the R/R and the dealer wanted to do the more expensive fix first knowing damn well that its the R/R?! But then some threads say if the R/R goes out it fries everything?? So if the stator is good but the R/R is bad would it have fried? Or do you think the stator is bad?

 

When the R/R goes out, it doesn't "fry" everything.

W/ limited info, it *sounds* like the R/R. In one of my old threads somewhere, I explained how the old F4 R/R was superseded w/ the newer finned verison (part #'s were given). The older version was very prone to overheating. Yes, w/a bad R/R, it will seem that your battery is the culprit.

The stator usually doesn't go bad unless its been thru some sort of trauma, like a crash or impact, etc. The R/R is way more likely to go bad than the stator. That's not to say that your stator isn't bad...just that its generally more likely that the R/R will go bad first.

 

agree with gotcbr... more than likely its the R/R. plus that is relatively easy to replace... pull the tail off and its right there... and its cheaper... and add the fact that you more than likely have the original or original design on the bike so the replacement will be better off anyway...

JMO
Adam

 

OK, new r/r is on. Factory Honda one but newer finned version. Now what type of meter/reader do I need to tell if its charging or not? I tried the auto parts place to see if they would check it (its Sun. so no bike shops avail.) and of course they were dumbfounded.

 

You need a digital voltmeter ohmmeter... check DC voltage.. 20v scale...

I was just at Advance the other day.. they have a Dorman one for $15 and an actron for $20...

Adam

 

OK...duh!!!! Just a simple voltmeter. Just borrowed neighbors and showing 12.7 off, 13.4 idle, 14.2 @5k rpm. Perfect! Now for the sucky part: dealer whom I thought I could trust wanting to replace the stator and then the r/r. Most likely would've cost $700 or more had I left it there Thur. after work! Not to mention being without my main transpo for about a week!! Happy I took the chance taking it home and searching this forum first!!! Thanks everyone