Reason

Was out of town for a week and when I got back she would barely crank, had to rollstart. Rode 6 miles to town, got it on the freeway for a minute or two at 80+, then service streets, bank drive-through, total about 20 minutes. Went to the grocery store, was even harder to crank than at home, had to rollstart again. Got home, same.

24 hours later, it's about where it was, it'll turn over once or twice but then it's done.

Headlight is bright. Right before I left I noticed that my right rear signal was out. I thought whatever caused that that might also cause some load or something that's draining the battery. In between poking around looking for messed up wires (none found that I could see), the left front signal is also out.

It did cool off while I was out of town (brrrr, 60). The battery is no newer than late Jan 08, when I bought it. I've had intermittent issues with the right rear signal before but it usually fixes itself, and never either front one. It got knocked over on its left side 6 weeks ago or so but the signals have been fine.

Ideas? things to try before I shell out?

lazn

Your R/R is likely fried. If you put a volt meter across the battery and measure the voltage at different RPMs you can be sure. The testing procedure is in the manual, manual downloadable from the knowledge base https://www.superhawkforum.com/forum...ad.php?t=11365

It is a known problem part on our bikes (especially pre 2001). And if that is the problem there are a few options to deal with it.

Your best but most expensive option is one from http://www.bluetungsten.com/ as that is the only lifetime warranty R/R you can buy.

A viable option is a Yamaha R/R and conversion. https://www.superhawkforum.com/forum...ad.php?t=14380

You can get a cheap Chinese one off Ebay, one that works for a CBR-F3 will work on our bike. (they don't always list the VTR as it isn't that common)

Or you can get a "newer" one from Honda. (but they sometimes still fail too, well any can)

Reason

Thanks for the suggestion. Wouldn't it be completely dead if the R/R went out?

trevorh1

thats the same thing my bike done when my r/r quit on me, i stopped at the local bike shop to get some oil and filter and would only crank over 2 or 3 times when i came out. Not even 15 minutes later on my home i lost the head light and tail light first then all my gagues and then it started running on 1 cyl. then nothing,...done all the tests i could of think of on the charging system ended up be the r/r

FlamFlamMan

It doesn't complete die when the R/R goes; it rather dies one part at a time. On the bikes I've seen it happen to the different parts never seems to go in the same order. They all have the same trouble cranking though.
This Chart is pretty helpful for any electrical problems.

And if you have the money, I've heard some good things about Blue Tungsten.

Reason

OK, I'll give that a shot. I had actually gotten a R1 or R6 (same thing?) R/R off ebay for ~$20 shortly after I bought the bike, thinking I'd put it on as a preventative. Based on my skill and past luck, I figured I'd wait until it did become an issue. I'll swap it out this weekend.

Thanks for all the help!

Reason

Alright, didn't get around to it.

One reason is that my RR doesn't match the diagram in the link to wickid's page. Mine has 6 connections but only 5 are noted in the conversion. Do I just ignore the bottom center one?

I bought it long enough ago that the auction is no longer listed and I can't remember year/model. Can anyone visually confirm I've got the right piece here? Seems like it should be pretty straightforward but I'm always nervous about that stuff.

Reason

Bump for knowledge. Anyone have any ideas/suggestions?

Reason

Alright, finally got some time to work on it.

Googling "SH 678-11" says the one I bought is for a Yamaha XVS 1100 V-Star Classic, which is not what I was told and is what I get for buying off ebay.

http://www.rmstator.com/en/motorcycl...assic/5488.htm

I'd still like to use it but I'm not sure it'll work. Seems like, as long as I have three wires for the pulse generator and a + and a -, the only other thing I'd need to worry about is capacity. No point frying something unnecessarily.

So, new questions:
- What do I need to know about the "capacity" of the stock Honda R/R? wickid's conversion page mentions 40+ amps on the output side, and from what I can find on this one, it mentions 25 amps. But I don't know if that's apples to apples.

- Is there a way I can test this one to see which connections are the main + and -?
- - What would happen if I put it on backwards? Nothing, ie, dead bike? Possible fire or explosion? Wormhole?

So far, I've:
bought a new battery
took it to get gas, 2 miles each way. R/R was smoking when I got home and is slightly but visibly melted on the outside.
voltage across the battery posts is 12.2 after this ride without the bike running
Tried testing the R/R as described in the manual but it shows 0 mA. Did this with the bike not running as it wasn't clear to me which it should be, and I'm wary of burning something else up.