Honda 2002 CBR 954rr - UNKNOWN ISSUE!

[scarface]

Let me tell you about my ordeal. It might help out some peoples issues.

riding home one day earlier this summer from work. Stop and go traffic, bike getting pretty hot, i notice that the throttle response was uneven after finally coming out of traffic and gaining speed. pull up to the lights, the idle was fine didn't notice anything. pull into the garage and i see my HID light strobing ( indication that voltage is low).

turn the bike off, try to start again. can't start ( can't remember if it did turn over slightly or not).

leave the bike for an hour ( call my buddy to come by with a multimeter), give it a boost, fires right up, and put the meter on the battery terminals ( low voltage but charging). WTF??

thinking it's fine. i ride to work the next day. cool morning, no problem getting to work ( less traffic). bike starts no problem from work i get home, same issue after the traffic, and hot afternoon ( strobing light, throttle issue, bike won't start again).

long story short, after a lot of research and speaking to mechanics.

rectifier was overheating, and then cutting the current to the battery. rectifier can either fail by cutting off the current to the battery, or by not regulating at all and frying the battery due to very high voltage from the stator.

when the rectifier was cool, it would charge, when the bike would sit there and idle for a while ( or sit in traffic), it would stop charging.

i tested it this way.

start the bike ( boost if necessary), and put the multimeter on it. if cool, you should see the voltage at a normal level and charging. after the bike warms up, keep on paying attention to the voltage to see if it start slowly dropping. if so, then you know the regulator/rectifier is overheating and failing.

[scarface]

Hey, no problem dude. I figured you were joking, or I was going to find a way to set you to an "ignore list".

Cold=12.83, Right after starting=12.75, long ride=12.95, idle charging=12.65, idle revving over 5000=13.84. These are all approx numbers I remember from when I did some tests last week.

Since I've replaced the rectifier/regulator already, and I was having similar issue (but it just burned out on me in a weekend, literally starting smoking from the rear), I thought it could be the issue. But since I did the tests on it that the Service Manual shows you, and the results came back fine, I figured it wasn't. This is so intermittent that maybe I was testing it when it was in its working stage. lol.

A few people mention the kick stand or starter switch. Maybe I should try looking at those.

high 12's is a bit too low a voltage. revving it and getting the 13.8 may indicate the stator is failing as well.

[Phily954rr]

Okay!

After finally having some time to take apart my bike, I managed to find the issue.

It was both harnesses between the rectifier and the alternator! Both prongs were completely burnt. Melted! But it was only the prongs on the right side of the harness. That's why the bike seemed to still start every now and then.

So now, what do I do? Where the hell am I going to just get the harness for both? Can I just cut the wires, find a harness, and then strip the wires to connect the new harness? Or am I going to have to replace the entire wiring from the alternator?

Another question, why would it have melted? too much incoming voltage from the alternator? Or rectifier not regulating voltage to battery?

Thanks guys!

Phil...