Bike Dies On Freeway WITH PICTURES

[Wister]

So most of you have seen the old thread, I will copy and paste the relevant information in the next post. Here I wanted to provide pictures. I think I may have found my problem, here it is:

Can you see it yet?

How about now? Looks pretty nasty to me.

This is the connector for the stator/rectifier, correct? I was trying to trace the wires but they disappear into nowhere (underneath the lower side cover where the transmission is). I am planning on soldering these guys and going from there, but I'm worried it may still be something else.

Here is another thing I noticed:


I am missing a plug, something goes here. I thought it was kickstand related, but my kickstand works fine, kills my bike if I have it down and put it into gear. Here is a picture of what its in place, the wires leading down off the screen are to the connector:


Can someone tell me what this is, just found it floating around:


If you notice, the MAX has two cables from the negative terminal to ground; on goes to the frame, one goes to the crankcase, what is the point? Please feel free to look at the entire album, use any pictures you like with or without citations, I really could care less http://rides.webshots.com/album/579927631Rhueqh?start=0. Only thing I ask is that you comment here if you notice something out of place or something I can fix. Thank you! And sorry for the sideways pictures, webshots does not let me rotate them.

 

[Wister]

Hi all, looking for some help. Twice now my bike has left me stranded on the side of the road, once while going 80 in traffic, pitch black outside and four lanes from the off ramp. To top it off, all the lights died. I replaced the 1999 battery with an Oversized Yuasa two weeks ago, did the crimp fix, and put in R1 COPs.

I will ride it, after the motor warms up the lights dim a bit and then the ignition goes. Just coasting while in gear will keep it running but obviously it is sputtering and slowing down. Once I pull the clutch in, it completely dies. Throttle has no effect. I park the bike and it won't crank at all. Thirty minutes later I hit the starter and it fires up like nothing ever happened. I live in Southern California and this didn't become a problem until the first day that we had temps in the 70s so it would seem to me that it's a heat issue with something.

To sum it up again, the bike shuts down after 10-20miles on the freeway when it's warm and won't turnover until it's cooled after 20-30min. Then it cranks like normal. This problem occurred before and after the modifications. Both times it has happened about 15-20 miles into a ride on the freeway with wrm ambient temps (70-80). It's not a charging problem or a hot start issue. I have taken longer trips of 30-40miles when the weather was cooler and had no problems at all; after riding 30miles to the airport and stopping for gas, the bike started back up with full choke and a little bit of throttle. The only time it doesn't start is after it dies from whatever gremlin is tugging on my wires. And even then it starts up after it sits for 30minutes.

The last time it happened, I was keeping it at 75mph/5000rpm and it still had problems. The temp gauge never even gets to halfway, so I am really lost here. Seems like something is not getting sufficiently air cooled. After it dies, until it cools, it behaves like the battery is dead. Hit the switch and the lits dim, tach swings to 4000rpm, and bike makes the sickening ticking noise. It behaves like any bike where the battery is not enough to turn the starter, but it tries.

Are there any good tutorial threads that explain bypassing the kickstand switch? Pictures would be great. Do you guys recommend soldering the battery grounding cable directly to the mounting bolt/case? Seems a little too permanent for my liking.

 

[[email protected]]

The unplugged connector under the scoop is for the boost controller. Someone removed it from your bike. You either have boost on all the time, or off.

The square black thing up by the faux is the diode assembly.

Definitely need to cut out the melted connector. Might want to test the stator.

 

[maleko89]

+1 to what MIke suggested. I would remove that connector, solder each wire (doesn't matter how it's wired...any white to any white), slips some heat shrink and be done with it. When that connector gets dirty it causes heat and can damage the stator, R/R or both!

 

[Wister]

Does anyone have a boost controller for sale? Does check the stator require major surgery such as removing a cover that is going to spill fluids everywhere and require me to fill back up? I feel like that is a stupid question but just trying to be sure

 

[SpecOps13]

Your first check should be to test the voltage across the battery with the engine running in Neutral. At Idle it should be somewhere over 12 Volts DC. At about 3,000 rpm it should move higher depending on the condition of the battery charge, it could be 13 to 14. XX Volts DC. Manual calls for running the engine at 5,000 rpm but it's not needed to be run that high...


The output of the stator is going to be a 3 phase voltage. You can get a reading of the AC Voltage coming from each phase by going to one of the white wires at a time to ground, engine running in neutral. If one phase is significantly different than the other 2 your stator is bad. If all 3 check alright and your initial test across the battery didn't reach more than 12 volts your Regulator / Rectifier is bad... Even if this reads good, the R/R could be going bad...

Note, you can also get an Ohm Reading across the Stator Wires (white wires), one at a time to ground with the ignition off. If one of the white wires to ground measures different, you have a problem with the stator...


If the stator is bad , you have to open the Stator Cover and oil will spill out. Not for the mechanically weak as there are a lot of things that could get screwed up by removing and replacing just the cover to look.


Oops, I see in the picture your controller is gone... it's the box at the rear under the left scoop..... It's gone. You need to do more checking before buying a Boost Controller. You need to know how the system has been screwed with and if anything else is missing....

Above All, Good Luck......

 

[[email protected]]

Before you buy a controller you need to check if the servo and butterflies are there. If all parts are missing it could be expensive to replace it all.

The bike will run fine with open boost all the time. Just needs tuned properly.

 

[PATMAX]

And no one mentioned it yet but the four or five inch wire harness correctly identified as a "diode" just floats there and is not connected to anything else. Just tuck it neatly up out of the way. It's quietly doing it's job.

 

[RaWarrior]

There are several tests you can do with the stator using a multimeter.

1. Set it to ohms, put one lead on ground and then probe the other to each of the three wires. There should be NO CIRCUIT on any of them. If so, the stator is shorted and needs to be replaced.

2. Set it to the lowest ohms scale(on mine it's 0-200). Probe all three combinations of the wires. e.g 1 and 2, 2 and 3, and 1 and 3 to test all three legs. Each should be around 1 ohm. If it's zero, or above 2, there's a problem. All three should be nearly identical also.

Still, these won't detect load-short issues, which is what mine had. According to the meter my stator was fine, but the bike wouldn't charge once the motor got hot. A new stator (as well as a new R/R) cured it.

The r/r lives behind the left side passenger peg. Trace the wires from it...there should be three connectors. One with 3 wires (stator), one black (ground) and one red (DC output). Eliminate all the plastic connectors. Cut them off and use butt connectors to rejoin them. I'd also run the red and black wires directly to the + and - terminals of the battery to bypass the notorious "crimp" in the factory harness.

Once you do that, start the bike and set the meter to DC volts. Put the probes across the battery terminals. At least 12.5 at idle. Ideally 14.4 revved up but that rarely ever happens with the stock charging system. 13.5 is okay and will keep it charged.

 

[Wister]

HELP! Got a Replacement rectifier from a 2007 ZX6R, one of the newer MOSFET types, FH016AA for super cheap. The problem is it has three wires, two are obviously power and ground, but one has me dumbfounded. See pictures.


Black with blue tracer, black with white chaser, and one really small one that I can't find a use for.

 

[Wister]

So it looks like it was the regulator/rectifier all along. And the replacement I got from the Kawi was shot too. Polo said when it dies, if it sits long enough, it has enough juice to start again, that's why it was confusing me.