I have been trolling the garage forums for a few hours but haven't come up with anything that describes the problem I'm having.

Here's the situation I'm in:

1. Own a 1998 BB; I'm the original owner. Have serviced it myself at the minor maintenance intervals & have gotten it serviced at the dealer for the major service intervals. It has 25k on it.
2. Lived in California for 10 years & rode in Idaho for the past year. Have only ridden it in the rain 4 times and have washed it using the Honda Pro Cleaner all but a few times. (Corrosion shouldn't be an issue)
3. Started riding the bike in mid-March after 2 months of garage storage. Kept the battery on a tender while it was stored.
4. No problems up until today.
5. While riding to work I had the speedo drop from 65-70 to 0. Kept bouncing for about 5 miles then returned to normal (or appeared to, I was off the freeway by then).
6. Trolled the forums and saw that I should check the battery connections for looseness due to the speedo fluctuation problem. Did that when I left work; tightened connections (they weren't loose)
7. Turned the ignition on. The headlight & instrument panel powered up OK & stayed on for 20 seconds.
8. Started the bike. It fired up OK for about 5 seconds then died. All the panel indicators & the headlight were dead.
9. Checked all fuses --- all are OK.
10. Checked battery connections again. I disconnected both terminals & reconnected them again. Turned the ignition on again --- No lights on panel or headlight.
11. Had a co-worker connect jumpers to the battery from his truck. Turned ignition key & no lights on.

I didn't have a meter on me so I couldn't check the voltage on the battery, but the fact that nothing came on even with jumper cables connected leads me to believe that there's a major issue with the wiring harness or electrical system (???fusible link???).

Has anyone had a similar issue or heard about one? A co-worker is going to truck the bike home for me tomorrow so any suggestions on troubleshooting the problem would be appreciated. I don't want to take the bike to the dealer & get raped if I can absolutely avoid it.

Today is the 1st time that I have had any electrical issues with this bike since it rolled off the dealer floor in August of '98.

I took a quick look at the manual for my 01.
There is a 30 amp Main fuse. I see a stand alone fuse between the battery and the relay panel. It may be the one.

I would suspect R/R or battery from the initial symptoms, and what I have read on this board. Maybe you had enough load that the fuse finally blew.

I would try to get a DVM and check the battery voltage. Then ohm out the fuses. With my old eyes, I can't even trust the meter sometimes.

Oh yeah, Welcome to the board.

If the fuse is OK... I'd sure be suspicious of the grounding (the other end of the ground cable - since you've already checked the battery end) and/or the integrity of the negative cable itself...

Thanks RED..... I can U give me a clue as to where the MAIN RELAY PANEL might bet. I see 3 rubber booted connections to left/right of the fuse panel (if I'm standing on the left side of the bike). Didn't have my meter on me @ work (as I said before) so I can't check them.

Can U send me an e-mail PDF version of the electrical layout to cbuckholtz@yahoo.com? I know that eBay has them but would like to save some $$$ is possible. Have checked out BikeBandit, but the schematics there are rather basic.

Again, I appreciate everybody's help to get my Bird back on the road...

Chris



BTW - I don't have any additional after market accessories that would add to the standard electrical load.....

The bouncing needles on the gauges makes me think it's the R/R... that's what happened with mine when it fried. But my system didn't go dead, it still ran once I jumped it, it just didn't charge the battery.

+1

Regulator time. My 97 R/R quit around 22k on the bike, exact same deal with the bouncing guages.

I brought a meter with me to work this AM. Checked the battery voltage -- 12.5V.

Checked voltage from positive terminal to chassis - 12.5 as well. This indicates that there isn't an issue with the main fuse or the grounding cable.

The bike is still totally dead - No headlight or instrument panel when I turn the ignition.

I'm stumped...


BTW RED, I found the shop manual in the sticky threads....

OK it's really early in the morning so forgive me if I'm wrong but measuring voltage from Positive battery terminal to the frame doesn't tell you anything about the fuse. It does tell you that your ground is making contact, but not always a good one. Just because you can measure voltage between two points doesn't rule out a bad connection.

You need inside the circuit. Sounds like you got power.

Under the 30 amp ignition fuse module on the left side of the battery is another 30 amp hidden fuse covered with a pinkish rubber boot that goes in sideways and you can only get to it if I rememeber correctly buy taking the tail section off (you might be able to get the module up and out of it's mount). It may need to be checked as well. I thought I had some pics on here but I cant find them.

I had a very thing happen and this was the fix for me.
http://www.cbr1100xx.org/forums/index.php?...p;hl=electrical _ check here....the cover is on the one 30 amper above the other and the you can see in the pics that there is another hidden (kinda) ubder thqat mess. Hope this helps!

Fack I'd like to get one in the win column for somebody!

Dunedain, looks like U da man!!!! After I got it hauled home by a co-worker it turns out that that 30A fuse was toast. I haven't started it up again yet (charging the battery & have to go pick up a 30A fuse tomorrow [the NHL is on]), but I'm pretty sure that you're tip was correct.

As expectd, due to my riding environments/cleaning procedures, I didn't find any corrosion on the contacts that I inspected.

If the bike starts up tomorrow AM my next question is "Why Did It Happen???" Do fellow members believe that it is a R/R problem or just an old fuse [the bike is almost 9 years old after all]?

I don't want to be screaming around up in the mountains of ButtfVCK Idaho and have it crap out on me again, but I don't want to deal with tearing off the Corbin Beetle Bags/Seat Cowl/Spend the dough on an RR if I don't have to.

Thx 4 You're Input,
Chris

SELL IT!!

Chris,
Great news about the fuse.
I haven't had this problem yet, but previous garage threads always point to R/R or battery.
Check out this thread on the charging system. Charging troubleshooting

Craig --- Looks like I'm not outta the woods yet. I tried to charge up the old battery & it wouldn't charge to 100%.

Bought a new one yesterday AM and charged it up.

I got power after replacing the fuse, but it blew as soon as I tried to turn the bike over.

I'm planning on pulling all non-essential fuses and disconnecting the alternator to see if that will allow me to fire it up.

Disconnect the alternator.

There's a chance you overcharged and ruined your battery or regulator.....then the current dropped, and you got the bouncy needle -> dead in the water syndrome.

This AM disconnected the negative connection on the battery & replaced the 30A fuse. As soon as I connected the negative cable back up the 30A fuse blew (didn't even turn over the bike or turn on the ignition).

Pulled all the fuses & disconnected the R/R. Reconnected the battery. Replaced the fuses in the fuse box one at a time & didn't have any problems.

I followed the Charging System Troubleshooting guide that Craig gave me a link to. The stator is reading 0.5 ohms on all poles so I'm hoping this isn't an issue.

Based on the troubleshooting guide the R/R is the root cause (it's reading -0.00V to 0.003V depending on which poles I'm testing).

I'm going to order a new R/R (plan on searching the forums to find out where I can get one for a decent price). I will update my post after I receive it.

Much thanks to all those that have responded to my post (especially redxxrdr & dunedain).

Chris