Nc35 charging prob

[Icemaestro]

Hi,

Bit of an odd one - looking at an rvf for sale about 900km away, guy says that the bike can only charge the battery on one headlight - after 2 it runs out or juice after about 200km. He says that the battery is 1.5y old, new alternator and r6 rr was installed at the same time. He doesn't have a multimeter to check charging voltages, but noted that when he last had it checked the alternator was putting out the normal 50v ac, and that he though It was the connections. Am I right in thinking It is likely to be connections between headlight, loom and switchgear? And is this going to be a major headache? It's not a small amount of money, rvfs go for around 4-5k (around 2-2.5k pounds), for a 50000km nice one, I've offered 4.5 due to this, and the front fairing is cracked before the mirror mount, and it's done 70000km. The rest is great -jetted for a nice end can, fork seals, air filter , valve clearances etc done at 60000, basic service 3000km ago, new gpr200 rear tyre (expensive!).

Thoughts? Am I wasting money? Only 4 or so come up for sale a year here in nz...and there is a lot of rubbish...thought about importing one but haven't gone any further...

[Neosophist]

Hmm.

Why do you want an NC35? Opent to criticisim on this but the NC30 is a better bike.

As for the charging system its most likely a problem with the genny / reg/rec battery but it could be something like a short in the headlight circuit draining but this is quite rare, either way shouldnt be hard to sort out if you know what your doing.

But, if its done 70,000km parts will be needing replacing soon or even now like bearings and bushes and what not, even thouh the engines are bulletproof other parts will wear.

Plus if this guy doesn thave the money or time or contacts to sort the headlight issue out what else isnt being mantained and fixed, especially on a high mileage bike.

For something that is priced high id want the best I can get

[Icemaestro]

Partly because they are more of a collector item here with a lot less of them, they are learner approved and so command a high price, and to me they feel a lot smoother down low. I like the colour scheme, rear tail shape, and the 17" rear means I could actually put rubber that would last a decent amount of time!

I agree with what you said, hence why I put it out there..it does sound like he has kept up services, so things should have been replaced, but the electrical thing sounds fishy...he said the wiring thing was what the auto electrician told him

[Neosophist]

I suppose it depends on the condition of the NC30's you've ridden vs the condition of the RVF.

The 17" rear is a direct bolt on part for the NC30 (and cheaper), I have one on my NC30.

Rubber that would last a decent amount of time? Like the BT92 sports touring tyre (availble in 150/60/18 for the nc30), most people fit 17" inches to go with super sticky rubber like the Alpha13s, Supercorsas or other tyres that don't last.

The stock size for the NC35 is also 150, which does limit the amount of tyres, although you can put a 160 on either rim without too much issue, occasional chain rubbing unless you go for a non-oring chain.

For what is essentiallly a downtuned road orientated nc30 it seems a lot of money to pay, but if its what you want then buy one, its sounds straight forward enuogh to fix but it could be a nightmare.

depends on how good you are with eletrics or if your willing to pay somebody to fix it then i wouldnt be put off buying it if its what you want.

[speedy231278]

I wouldn't say 70000kms is a recipe for the bike to suddenly start needing lots of bits replacing due to wear and tear. Mine's now over 50000kms past that, and in the ten+ years and 80000kms I have had it, the only wear and tear bits save the chain/sprockets and tyres was a set of front wheel bearings. The only other things of note were the exhaust having new petals welded on under the engine due to corrosion caused by daily commuting in crappy weather, likewise the front discs getting grotty for the same reason. It has different forks because of stone chips and pitting on the old ones, but all the bearings and bushes elsewhere are the ones I got it with. I dare say that in a drier, warmer country the corrosion wouldn't have been a problem. It all depends on how this bike has been used and looked after.

If it won't charge with both headlamps connected then the charging circuit is weak. These things don't have a great deal of spare capacity when new and stock, and as they get old, the wiring connectors tend to ship in all sorts of crap and corrode. if the seller has put a new alternator in and an R6 reg/rec, that should do the trick, but only if the wiring isn't crap. The battery isn't old, but if there was something wrong with the last reg/rec or alternator which were replaced, and that was while the current battery was fitted, then it could possibly have been compromised. Needless to say, there are loads of threads on this forum about how to fix/improve the charging systems.

[hawk2993]

Had the same problem, I replaced stator, reg, battery. Only working on one headlight.

Turns out I had 60/55 bulbs on, swapped them for the original 60/35 bulbs and everything's all good now. Check your bulbs man. Also wiring on the reg plug was crap so I fixed that up.

[Icemaestro]

Thanks for all the replies! :-) haven't taken it any further yet, the 70000km puts me off from a collecting point of view (and the bike is in Wellington), good to hear on the headlight bulb thing, it sounds to me like most of the major things were replaced around 60000km so shouldn't be a major from that point :-) I offered low anyway so will see!

[speedy231278]

It is of course true that a pair of 60/55s will use more energy than the 60/35, but if the charging system is solid, it should be more than man enough to cope with it. I've replaced the stator and reg/rec with units from Electrex (the reg/rec is the one they make for Rick O), and the stock wiring has been eliminated. The reg/rec is plugged directly into the connection on the stator, avoiding running the wiring through the 'v' of the engine, and the output from the reg/rec goes straight to the battery via a fused spur. The output of the system is capped as the reg/rec measures the battery voltage and disconnects it if the battery is measured to be at a certain level. The meter I have wired in usually tops out at about 13.8 to 13.9V, and I know it's reading a couple of tenths on the low side. At the age the bike is, nice new copper and connectors are just as important as nice new components on the ends of them!

[Neosophist]

Both sets of bulbs draw the same power on high beam, so they shuoldnt cause an issue unless they were faulty.

high wattage low bulbs without a low-beam relay can burn out contacts that were not made for the higher wattage though.