Never bump start an old bike as a way to get it going unless you are stranded and there is no other option.britaxcooper wrote:Hi all,
I'm thinking I have a reg/rec problem with my NC30 but perhaps someone can give me an opinion.
Over the last few weeks the bikes been showing symptoms of a poor battery when firing from cold, So I've bumped the bike off and its runs fine. Recently now it seems to struggle to hold a charge at all, as in if run it wont crank over very quickly to restart it after standing 30mins.
Now today I fitted a volt meter to the bike so I can keep an eye on it while riding, I'm getting 13v at idle and when riding at a steady 8Krpm it's showing 20v! If I switch the lights on it drops to 13v.
Any thoughts?
You have a failed reg/rec there. It should limit the voltage to no more than around 14.4v, which is the safe level for batteriers.
Anymore and boil the battery away, much more and you can explode the battery. Also this extra voltage will kill fragile electronic components like the ignition box (seen a few on here melted away by over-charging reg/recs).
How old was the battery?
Usuaully a poorly cared for / end of life battery wont take a charge well and this puts extra strain on the reg/rec which causes it to fail and either go dead or worse output too much voltage.
Get a new battery and new-reg rec. check your generator hasnt bitten the dust and all connections are clean and in good condition.
Keep the battery fully charged, and always charge up if not used for a couple of weeks.
Cheap copy units fail more quickly and cant take abuse.
Fitting a beefier unit will let you abuse it more, a lot of people on other sites recommend stuff without knowing why it works or how.
Truth be told the original reg/rec on the NC30 is ok if you keep all your connections clean, always keep the battery fully charged and replace it before its end of life.
It's so compact thoguht any extra stress will cook it, and lets be fair most 400s have had hard life, battries not replaced / maintained, not kept fully charged etc.