Electric Headaches :(

[ggavin]

Hey guys, let me fill you up with some background info on the problem here.

Couple of months after I bought my NC35 about a year ago it suddenly wouldn't start anymore. No light, nothing. It was a dead battery. Got that replaced and everything was all fine (not really ).

Couple of weeks later one of my dipped beams stopped working. Then not long after both dipped beams stopped working. So I would always run the bike on high beam at night. Eventually, one of the high beams went out too. Indicators were always working. So I was riding around with one high beam at night. Not the safest, I know.

Then a couple of weeks later, the very first problem came back to haunt me. The battery died once again. I figured it probably was something else causing this and replacing the battery again is not really a solution, so I went to investigate.

My reg/rec was knackered, the plug was melting and all charred and fucked up. I suspected this to be the problem of my battery dying and read somewhere that faulty reg/rec caused bulbs to blow. Checked the bulbs and one was blown and the other was getting there. Fuses were all fine.

So I stopped riding and took some time off to source the parts I needed to replace. Got an r6 reg/rec, new connector plug and spades. Got that all replaced and fixed up. Change the bulbs. Lucky the previous owner gave me spares, they are 12V35W Halogen bulbs. Here is a pic:

http://postimg.org/image/rwkrim3o3/

http://postimg.org/image/518exlztz/

I'm hoping these aren't the H4s that supposedly causes the switch overheat and go?

Anyways, I replaced the bulbs. Started the bike and both dipped beams went on. Happiest day of my life. Then I turned on high beam. Fuck. One side was not on! It was the right side. Then I tried the indicators, left was all good. Fuck celebrated too early. Coincidentally , the right indicator did not work, just the tail indicators. Front was fine. Could the right high beam and right tail indicator failure be related?

I checked the output from the battery:

12.3v - Bike off
~11.8v - Bike on

Seemed very low when the bike was on. So I speculated that maybe the battery isn't outputting enough to turn both high beams on or the right indicator? I don't know if this is even possible. Charged the battery and tried again.

12.45 - Bike off
~11.9v - Bike on

Still low and again, same problem with the lights. I concluded that my reg/rec also fucked up my battery. So I am about to replace it but I do have my doubts that it would fix the issue. What do you guys think??

Any help or opinion is much appreciated!!

[bikemonkey]

http://www.electrosport.com/media/pdf/f ... iagram.pdf

Do a full charging system check first.

Then check all your lighting wiring and switches for anything obvious.

[ggavin]

Will do as soon as I get home.

Forgot to mention, I have not started the bike yet since it last sat. When I said 'started' or 'bike on', I actually just meant turning the ignition on.

[ggavin]

Change of plans! I will do the charging check when I get a new battery. I believe it is faulty with such low output after I charged it, so any readings will be misleading. And hopefully the new battery could fix the lighting issues too. *fingers crossed*

[ggavin]

Couldn't rest in peace with all these problems So I decided to fiddle with the bike. And holy shit, after about an hour of fiddling around I realised that I loosened one of the plugs as I was removing the bulbs. Tightened it, secured it, and problem solved. Silly me. Thanks for your help anyways :D Now I just gotta mould the subframe and file the reg/rec fins cause its too fucking huge. WOOOOOHOOOOOO loving life. Still think I should replace the battery though.

[bikemonkey]

I would still recommend that you do the charging system check, might tell you something.

Also load test the battery once it is fully charged to find out whether it needs replacing or not.

Load test:

IGN on
DO NOT start engine
Put FULL BEAM ON
Measure voltage until it drops below 11V
IGN OFF

A good battery should last 20-30 mins before voltage dropping below 11.