From: Michael.Nelson@f20.n125.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Michael Nelson)
Newsgroups: rec.motorcycles
Subject: Re: this morning...
Date: 27 Jan 93 17:03:26 GMT
Organization: FidoNet node 1:125/20 - SeaHunt BBS, San Francisco CA

Monday January 25 1993 15:57, Masayuki Karahashi wrote to All:

MK-> here is where trouble began.  I pushed the started button and nothing
MK-> happened, absolutely nothing.  Not even the clicking sound the starter
MK-> makes when the battery is low.  Simply nothing happened, all the
MK-> lights that was on stayed the same broughtness, so the load on the
MK-> battery wasn't too high or something.  Besides, the battery is onyl 3
MK-> month old, and I had just charged it last week.

    I had a similar thing happen with my CBR900RR.  Here's the text of a message I posted to the CBR900RR mailing list:

===========================================================================

    Woke up yesterday to see something I hadn't seen in a LONG time... SUN!!
So, I went down to the garage to go for a ride on the CBR900RR.

    Bummer!  Seems that the past couple months of "short, dash down to the
grocery store in the rain" rides, coupled with having the burglar alarm on
while it was parked in the garage had drained the battery to the point where
it barely had enough juice to even light the little red "OIL" idiot light on
the RR's instrument panel.

    Luckily, I live on upper Market Street in the city, in the middle of a long
hill, so I just coasted down the street and bump-started it in second gear.

    Rode back to my garage to put on the rest of my gear, and I noticed by
looking at the headlights and instrument panel idiot lights that it wasn't
charging much at idle.  Revved it up a bit and saw that at about 1500 RPMs the
headlights brightened noticeably, indicating good alternator output... but at
about 2000 RPMs and above they were as dim as they were at idle.

    Hmmm... voltage regulator problem?  Dunno.  Got my gear on and rode down
280 to 92, up 92 to Skyline, and up Skyline to Alice's.  Before arriving at
Alice's, (while going 50MPH on a downhill straight), I pulled in the clutch and
killed the engine, so I could try an electric start with the assurance that if
it didn't start there'd be no problem bump starting it again.  It started fine,
and started fine several times after that.  My ride to Alice's and back put a
good charge on that puny little battery and all is ok now.

    But I'm curious about the behavior of the alternator/regulator when the
battery voltage was so low.  Why would I have good alternator output at 1500
RPMs and then have it crap out above that?  Now that the battery is charged
again, I can see the headlights brighten when I rev it, and they stay bright
all the way up.

    Is it possible that with the uncharged battery there was insufficient
voltage to operate the voltage regulator correctly?

                                    - Michael -

 *--------------------------------------------------------------*
 |                          |                                   |
 | Michael Nelson           | "A billion here, a billion there, |
 | DoD #735                 |  sooner or later it adds up to    |
 | 1993 Honda CBR900RR      |  some real money!"                |
 |                          |                                   |
 | nelson@seahunt.imat.com  |           EVERETT DIRKSEN         |
 |                          |                                   |
 *--------------------------------------------------------------*

--  
Michael Nelson
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"The views expressed above are those of Michael Nelson only."
Newsgroups: rec.motorcycles