Brand new battery, now dead. Help?

Hi everyone,
I have a 1991 VFR 750F, my battery died about a month ago and I bought and installed a new one, which has now died on me. I noticed when I finished my last ride 3 days ago that there was a sort of high pitched screeching noise that sounded like a warning alarm going off, it seemed to be coming from under the seat near the battery. There was also a sort of eggy smell coming from the same area. Today when I went to go for a ride my bike wouldn't start, I took the seat off and looked at the battery and it seemed to be sweating a little bit.
Any ideas on what could be happening and how to fix it would be much appreciated!!
Thanks!

Jomon

 

OML not another one, sounds like the dreaded RR is toast, hopefully that will be all there is. Take off the rear cowl should show you the RR, double check the plug for burnt and corrosion too, hopefully there's not more to the problem.

 

So, you heard a squeal and then smelt a sulfur scent and then you tried to rode it again without investigating?! So which of those two warnings did you feel you could really ignore?

All sarcasm aside, the VFR has a habit of eating itself alive through the wiring harness. This issue shows itself by either melting wiring harness connectors or catching on fire! Basically you need to do as RVFR said and pull the body panels off and investigate the wiring in and around the RR, battery and pretty much anywhere where there is a connector. Then do a search for "The Drill" and follow the instructions. As mentioned, hopefully there won't be too much damage.

 

Here is "the drill" being referred to. See post number 9. Lots of good info in this thread that walks you through checking the charging system that is such a problem on these bikes.

http://vfrworld.com/forums/showthread.php/39277-How-to-fix-common-regulator-Stator-failures

 

Must be your lucky day because you weren't 3000 miles from home when you cooked it up , plenty have been caught out a long way from home. Battery is probably toast as it has been cooked, stator is probably fried and so is the R/R. All this damage has most likely been caused by having a crap plastic connector in the wiring loom that melts. When you get it sorted then fit a volt meter, this hopefully will give you a warning that something is not happy in the charging system before everything gets burnt up

 

Checking the charging system output for correct voltage should be done anytime a battery is replaced !! If the charging is too high or too low it might have ruined the first battery and will damage the second. :frown-new:

 

Mello, I recon the count of failed charging systems on the VFR's would be about 57,000 and rising:mad-new:

 

Thanks everyone for the info and links! I'm going to take a look at things tomorrow! I've done some reading up in the manual as well so hopefully things won't be too bad!

 

You may also be interested in my Electrical Loads thread where I show how to beef up your charging system wiring and prevent failure.

 

I had an electrician friend help me test the R/R and we came up with the following numbers (all in Kilo-ohms and all from negative-positive):
RW-Y1=44.7, RW-Y2=41.8, RW-Y3=42.7, RW-G=42.6
Y1-RW=infinity, Y1-Y2=75.3, Y1-Y3=74.6, Y1-G=39.2
Y2-RW=infinity, Y2-Y1=75.3, Y2-Y3=75.5, Y2-G=40.8
Y3-RW=infinity, Y3-Y1=80.5, Y3-Y2=80.9, Y3-G=45.1
G-RW=infinity, G-Y1=7.71, G-Y2=7.72, G-Y3=7.62 (these may have just been ohms, not kilo-ohms, I can't remember)

I've also done some more digging around and found some more issues at some of the connectors, mainly the Starter Relay switch, and the Stator connector. I know the Starter Relay switch needs to be replaced, and I think the Stator connector does as well. What do you think?

I haven't looked at the stator yet but that's my next step, is it worthwhile to take that apart and have a look? I think I will to the electrical tests on the connectors first though.

For getting new connectors and parts, is http://www.wiremybike.com a good place to go?