VMAX died today!!!

[Vmaxgrizz686]

Well started out for a ride today nice sunny day but I guess it wasn't in the cards for a ride.About 6 km's from home idling at the lights rough idle starts then stalled tried start it back up but the battery was to weak :damn angry:.Call father-law for the trailer push the bike up on it.Time to go home and cry then figure out the problem.Well time for the R1 r/r mod.Here a pic of the dead soldier :confused2: oh well S**T happens I guess!!

 

[tugla]

good you figured it out soo fast and nothing totally catastrophic :thumbs up:

 

[naughtyG]

Make sure to check everything - stator output, crimp, battery condition, and wire up your new R/R straight to the battery with both + and - if you can.

 

[Vmaxgrizz686]

I was thinking of going threw the 30amp main fuse with larger wire of coarse unk:Everything else has been checked did the crimp mod today and stator checked out at .45ohm per all 3 three wires and the battery is on the battery tender as we speak and seems to be coming back up nicely so I believe I just need to locate a R1 r/r and good to go.unk:

 

[SpecOps13]

ElectroSport in California. http://www.electrosport.com/street-bikes/yamaha/vmx1200-v-max-98-07.html

 

[naughtyG]

Or buy from Sean for peace of mind - he has some of the newer (finned) ones for sale.

 

[mattness]

yep check everything.

remember guys ride with your brights on even during the day

 

[vmaxcruzer]

Is that sarcasm or do you really ride with your brights on for the draw?

 

[RaWarrior]

I always run highbeam during the day. It's significantly more visible to traffic.

You can go with the R1 r/r, but it's a big chunky thing and finding a place to put it can be difficult. I got one off a Ninja ZX10/ZX14. It's a very similar part, but the fins aren't nearly as high. $40 shipped off ebay. The gray connector takes the 3 stator wires in any order, the first pin in the black one is + output, the middle is empty, and the end pin is ground.

 

[Vmaxgrizz686]

thx for the info about the ninja r/r on ebay as we speakunk:

 

[mattness]

ya the electrical system on these is tight, if you have a voltage gauge you can see how close it is, at idle they are actually draining the battery when theyre hot after youve ridden them awhile.

 

[Vmaxgrizz686]

RaWarrior just so I am clear in the black connector the + output is the one close to the gray connector just like the R1 or are you saying that + output is at the other end of the black connector.I believe that all FH011AA r/r 's are same correct??? :confused2:The FH011AA r/r is in so many different motorcyles,atv's.and sleds it would be a very long task to count them all.I just assumed it was called the R1 mod so people would have a easy time trying to find one.

 

[vmaxcruzer]

So besides the obvious extra visibility from running the high beams is there any other benefit?

 

[mattness]

ive never seen a reg blow up like that. it prolly hasnt been working for a while. was your last ride on your vmax before this incident a long ride? was it hot outside? were your low beams on?

 

[mattness]

check your battery too. when the reg gets hot the resistance goes down.. sending too much voltage to your battery and boiling the acid out of your battery, causing your voltage to drop. id replace your battery too just to be safe. undercharging and overcharging have the same outcome.. youre walkin!

edit: did you smell rotten eggs by chance?

 

[mattness]

gen 3 magnas blow their regs every 5k miles in the summer until you relocate them away from the engine. they sit right behind the rear two cylinders and bake.

if you run your brights, blow your horn, and wire a halogen spotlight and stereo to your bike you can ride with an overheated reg

you can tell if your reg is bad or not right now, go out to your bike, turn the key on and see how bright your headlight is, then start it and rev it up, it should get a little bit brighter...

ok now after your bike(and reg) are hot after a ride check it again.

if your headlight is weak at idle and noticeably stronger (stronger than usual) as you rev it then it is bad. you just never build up enough voltage to boil it until a long ride. the acid in your battery will overcharge it every night that you park it.. so they go a very long time undiagnosed

a regulator is true to its name, it regulates your charging system. if your bike needs 13 volts to run and stay charged then thats fine, the reg will try to cancel out any voltage it doesnt need. but when it overheats the current cant be resisted and passes right through it causing the overcharge/undercharge.


an overcharging reg usually has no symptoms until it gets hot or your battery blows up. but ive never seen a reg blow before the batt like this guy.
an overcharging reg is very erratic in that when its hot it isnt working at all. at idle its low voltage and at speed its too much voltage

you should be making your peak voltage between 3k and 4k rpm, if your voltage goes up to 16-18... ya its blown

 

[mattness]

as someone posted above the newer regs have fins on them to dissipate the heat better.

 

[Vmaxgrizz686]

Well I took my battery to work with me today and load tested it.It is fine (I think I got luck lol) so I will use this battery still.I have seen a couple off times on atvs where for r/r was cracked/overheated and the battery not blown but the acid levels very low (boiled).Actually come to think of it I have never seen a battery in anything powersport,motorcycle or automotive blow up.I heard a battery blowing can be pretty nasty.Scored a r/r from a ninja ZX14 off ebay for 60.00 shipped.I decided to put ithe updated r/r under the seat so after work I did the wiring need for the upgrade and now its just the waiting game til the ebay r/r arrived. :clapping:

 

[mattness]

i have 2 friends i ride with all the time and one never believed me about running brights so he never did it. well his bike started to run like crap at high RPM and his headlight was super bright so we made him ride up front. sure enough his reg was fried and he didnt find out until his battery was boiled out and dead. it was an 04 gsxr600. im not saying that was the problem but im sure it cant hurt!! he rides with his brights on now too heh. if its fried its fired... but if u can take 1 volt off i bet it slows the damage down alot

he got another bike and got it all together and it ran fine unless you accelerated too fast. it would stutter and fall on its face.. everyone swore his valve tolerances werent right or his cam chain was too slack blah blah missing teeth in the engine... well he was having some electrical problems and checked the reg... it was cracked... so he put a new one on thinking it would help out his battery problems... IT FIXED EVERYTHING LOL. runs excellent now.
its a 91 fzr600

 

[RaWarrior]

|sss| |+ -|

That's a crude representation of how they wire. The pin in the black connector closest to the gray one is the + output. The other is ground. You can see this in the picture.

Here's a crappy phone pic of where I put mine. It's the plate where the two rear coils used to be...I have COP's. I drilled one hole in it and used a bolt to hold the r/r to it. As long as the bolt is "just" long enough, it won't stick down too far and poke the battery. The starter relay was kinda in the way, so I just pulled it out of it's grommet and shoved it to the side...there's enough wire slack to move it a bit. Wrapped it in electrical tape just to prevent it from rubbing or bumping around, but it's pretty snug in there anyway. The extra red wire/fuse sitting on top is for the horn relay. Even after cruising for 100 miles, the r/r is barely warm to the touch, so I'm not too concerned about it being "hidden" from airflow under the seat.

Another upswing to this location is you can use the stock length stator wires(no crimps/extensions needed), as long as you cut the original connector right off at the base. The + and - wires can also be very short since it's literally right on top of the battery...think my output lead is about 3" long. My + and - are wired straight to the battery with ring terminals.

The ZX10 part I got fits nicely, the seat goes on no problem...it's about as thick as the stock coils were. The R1 is considerably higher and probably wouldn't fit here. That and a new Rick's stator, I get 12.8V hot, 100w highbeam and fan on at idle....13 or so with just lowbeam. Above 2000 RPM or so I have 14.4 regardless of load.

Everybody thinks this is crazy, but I make all my electrical crimps with a big pair of channel locks. Diagnonal cutters can cut the metal connector, and the auto store crimpers I've never found to work well. Snap-on has a nice U-channel crimper, but it's also $50 for a uni-task tool...no thanks. Position the nose(fine tooth, before the big coarse tooth cutout) of it square on the "crimp zone" of the connector, and squeeze the piss out of it. You'll never cut it obviously, and I have NEVER had a crimp fail. Plus, it doesn't cut/damage the plastic coatings like crimp tools usually do. In fact once it ripped the copper out of the wire before the crimp let go. Works great, and everybody has channel locks already.:thumbs up: