Hesitation/engine Blubber and Electrical Problem

[Herb]

On a return home a week ago, I noticed a hesitation(is this called blubbering?) when I was accelerating from a stop and then a sudden racing catch up and so forth mostly in 2nd and 3rd gear. The next morning, I discovered a dead battery which I assumed was coincidental to the problem just described but I dealt with this first buying a new battery and everything ran fine for a couple of short trips. Today, it was back to the blubering/hesitation racing. It got particularly bad going up a hill. The best I could do was about 3000 rpms in 2nd gear and then my dashboard disappeared in a power outage!!! And then it reappeared and everything ran fine for the rest of my trip to work. On the way home it was mostly fine but more occasional hesitation but no electrical black out of dashboard. What the heck!!! I need help figuring this one out.

Ah, the plot thickens. Just put a voltmeter on my new battery and it reads 12.2 after a ride home.

 

[ARKNT]

Herb I assume it did not set any codes or turn on the check engine light since you did not mention it.
I would start going through the electrical. Charge the new battery, verify it is good, look closely at connections esp in/out of the rectifier/regulator and at the battery. Do more voltage checks and see where it leads you.
I just repaired a bad connection on the connector coming from the stator going into the rec/reg. on mine.

Good Luck,
Brad

 

[mikesim]

Check the voltage at the battery with the engine running. You should have a reading somewhere around 14VDC. If the reading is still in the 12's then you have a charging issue and your erratic running is likely caused by low voltage.

Mike

 

[Miairhead]

How old is battery? You could take it in to have it checked once fully charged.

 

[DirtFlier]

Most home chargers designed for motorcycle use are capable of maintaining a fully-charged battery but incapable of bringing a battery in a low state of charge back to normal.


If you're going to clean/grease the connector between the alternator and the reg/rec, you might as well do a running check of AC volts between the three sets of yellow wires. This is the only test that means anything because checking for ohms of resistance is often times meaningless.

 

[Brillot2000]

Check the voltage at the battery with the engine running. You should have a reading somewhere around 14VDC. If the reading is still in the 12's then you have a charging issue and your erratic running is likely caused by low voltage.

Mike

I am with Mike on this one. What you have described sounds to be related to the charging system and low battery voltage under a heavy load.

Measure the battery voltage with the bike running as Mike suggested. If the voltage is below 14 volts, then you will need to look more deeply in the charging system. You should start with seeing if the rectifier/regulator is getting warm to the touch. If its cold after the bike has been running a while, that would be your problem or you might have a broken wire leading to the battery, thus it not charging it.

Next you should check the AC voltages going into the rectifier/regulator, there should be a voltage of equal values on all 3 legs on the yellow wires (L1 to L2, L2 to L3, and L3 to L1), refer to the image below under the "Star Connected" for more clarification. The voltages shown in the diagram are irrelevant and should be ignored. If one voltage value is significantly different or missing, then the stator coil is bad.

 

[karl]

Computers need a voltage "signal" to work. mess that up and you have garbage in and garbage out... New battery should fix it.

 

[Herb]

Thanks for helpful feedback. It looks like it a problem with the connectors going into the rectifier. When I push down on the rubber boot surrounding the connectors the voltmeter dipped below 12. When I pulled it up it read close to 14. So this seems to be the source of my intermittent hesitation and charging problems. I have to take the left saddle bag housing off to get a good grip on the connectors and didn’t have time to get this done with the holiday busyness. I’ll get to it Monday and report back

 

[DirtFlier]

Have some electrical contact aerosol spray on hand plus dielectric grease. Also having an old toothbrush handy might help. Good luck!

 

[mikesim]

Thanks for helpful feedback. It looks like it a problem with the connectors going into the rectifier. When I push down on the rubber boot surrounding the connectors the voltmeter dipped below 12. When I pulled it up it read close to 14. So this seems to be the source of my intermittent hesitation and charging problems. I have to take the left saddle bag housing off to get a good grip on the connectors and didn’t have time to get this done with the holiday busyness. I’ll get to it Monday and report back

If you have never had your saddlebag housings off, you may find that the fasteners are extraordinarily (understatement) tight. It would be a good idea to have some sort of impact driver handy to get them loose otherwise you run into the danger of rounding off the hex. This is the voice of experience talking to you :wink:.

Mike

 

[DirtFlier]

Most of those screw holes go all the way through to the inside (not a blind hole) so the threads could be corroded due to water/salt spray. You might want to start by spraying your favorite brand of penetrating oil on those screws and do that for a couple of days or more. If may be difficult but going from the inside - between the tire and the inner wall of the saddlebag - might prove more productive.

And have that spray handy when you're actually unscrewing them.

 

[Herb]

If you have never had your saddlebag housings off, you may find that the fasteners are extraordinarily (understatement) tight. It would be a good idea to have some sort of impact driver handy to get them loose otherwise you run into the danger of rounding off the hex. This is the voice of experience talking to you :wink:.

Mike

My biggest problem is getting my Givi top case rack off to take off the grab rails, to take off.... to take off.... I can’t get a socket to grip the nut under grab rails. Might have to drill or hack it off. Right now enjoying grand kids in cold NH. Monday I face this task.

 

[ARKNT]

Here is a link to my connector thread. There are a couple pictures of my connector which had one of the three connections bad.
Don't let the grandkids wear you out too bad.
http://www.nt-owners.org/forums/showthread.php?12175-Stator-Connector-Corrosion


Brad

 

[dnktng]

My biggest problem is getting my Givi top case rack off to take off the grab rails, to take off.... to take off.... I can’t get a socket to grip the nut under grab rails. Might have to drill or hack it off. Right now enjoying grand kids in cold NH. Monday I face this task.

Whoa, whoa, whoa! Just put that cutting torch down slowly and no one gets hurt.
I've removed my rectifier by just removing the seat and side cover. I think I unbolted the rectifier first then moved it around to untwist the cables to make disconnecting the connectors easier. It was pretty quick and easy...under an hour.

 

[ARKNT]

Like Dan I got to mine without much plastic removal. Sometimes I do that and it is the harder way, for instance I remove nothing to remove the rear wheel but it gets tight in there.
Herb you may also gain a little extra wire and wiggle room by taking the wire coming from the stator out of a tie wrap where it holds it low along the frame tubes.

Brad

 

[Herb]

Like Dan I got to mine without much plastic removal. Sometimes I do that and it is the harder way, for instance I remove nothing to remove the rear wheel but it gets tight in there.
Herb you may also gain a little extra wire and wiggle room by taking the wire coming from the stator out of a tie wrap where it holds it low along the frame tubes.

Brad

Good news from you and Dan about accessing the connector more easily. Of corse the manual says remove everything. More billable hours? Also, Thanks for the previous thread showing your connector issue. Suspect I’ find something similar,

 

[Herb]

You were right about getting to the connector without removing the plastic. I found the problem. As the pictures indicate it was the battery charging connector. I know that Brad soldered his wires together. What do you think of longer butt connectors sealed with 5200? Also, if I replace the connector, where can I find one? I went to Vintage connector but wasn't clear which one to get? Finally how do I lengthen the wiring by rerouting? Thanks so much.

 

[Herb]

I removed the plastic connector body with a dremmel and cleaned up the spade connectors and reconnected, started it up and got good charging at the battery.... 14 plus volts. My question is can I just order a new plastic connector housing and reuse the existing spade connectors. Where can a get such a plastic connector housing that would fit these heavy duty spade connectors?

 

[ARKNT]

Herb I can't see your pics if you downloaded them. What I would wonder about is if the now cleaned up connectors will stay good or degrade quickly. I would think once the original finish gets tarnished it is hard to stop. You could certainly clean them up good, add grease to prevent corrosion, and monitor them pretty close for a while.

If you cannot find a connector body, (that may be difficult), you could add heat shrink over the spade connectors for insulation. Electrical tape could work but I like the heat shrink better. Of course if you heat shrink it you will have to cut it off to do the above mentioned monitoring and then more new shrink.

Brad

 

[dnktng]

My question is can I just order a new plastic connector housing and reuse the existing spade connectors. Where can a get such a plastic connector housing that would fit these heavy duty spade connectors?

Try these guys. Without seeing pics I can't be 100%, but they specialize in motorcycle terminals and may be familiar with Honda Rectifier connector problems. This may be the suspect. If you can't find what you need on their website, contact them with info from the bad connector. It may be helpful to send a good pic of either the male or female connector.

Here is another good source.