'95 Died on the road this morning

I made it about 2 miles from the house this morning on my commute and my speedo needle went to 0. The RPMs were still reading at the time and I was moving along under power. I got out of the throttle some and all went dead!

Minutes earlier it started and ran effortlessly leaving the driveway.

Afterward the instument lights were low and I couldn't even get a click out of the starter. Bump start didn't work either. The battery was a new Yuasa put in this spring without long lay-ups.

It was a looooong push home!:frown:

I'm guessing I have a short that is sucking power away for running, and subsequently for starting and lights.

Is this the dreaded R/R? Other ideas?

I haven't done any troubleshooting yet as I needed to hop in the truck and get to work. I'll look for suggestions before digging in tonight.

 

Vlad:

Sounds like the RR, just went through this myself.

BZ

 

Be sure to check for shorted stator wiring as well, Vin had some problems with that if I recall.

 

Yeah, I hate r/r's. I ended up replacing the R/R, the stator, and the battery. Plus, I bypassed the harness altogether. I ran 3 yellow wires to the stator, and a red to the + on the battery and a black to ground. Seems to have fixed it.

 

Well, I spent some quaility time with my Fluke last night. Regulator is toast but the harness survived.
Looks like OEM runs around $160 and decent aftermarket ones are $100 to $120. Hope I can get shipment fairly fast. I'll burn that $100 in gas within 2 to 3 weeks if I need to drive the truck in this nice weather!

Thanks for the input guys.

 

I got my R/R from Rick's Motorsport Electrics.

Here's the link if ya don't have it already: http://www.ricksmotorsportelectrics.com/

 

Thanks VMan! I actually looked at Ricks but ended up a bit cheaper with ElectroSport. It was your link to Ricks I used from a search of an older RR thread. You've put some good info out.
My local Honda shop, Dreyer, wanted $218 for OEM!!!!
The aftermarket unit that looks like yours, previously pictured, was $109 shipped. The heavier finned unit required "longer bolts" which sounds easy until I remebered the bottom fastener is a stud + nut on my '95. Maybe I got lazy, but I just want plug-and-play so I can get on the road as fast as possible while we're in the meat of riding season.

 

Hey Vlad, I just went though this with my '97. I too didn't want to spend $200+ on a new R/R. I bought a used R/R from a 2000 Yamaha R1 off of eBay. Cost me $45. I used this page as my guide:

http://www.vlc.com.au/~justin/about/bikes/honda/reg_replace.html

It has to be off of a carbeurated R1 (2000 and older), the fuel injected R1 R/Rs (2001+) have six terminals instead of five. The only problem with using the R1 unit is that the Honda connector won't plug into the Yamaha R/R. Like you, my harness wasn't fried, either. So I *carefully* cut the plastic harness shell away from the female spade connectors inside with a razor blade. This takes a little while: go slowly so you don't nick the wires or your hands.

Once you have all the spade connectors free, plug them individually onto the appropriate terminals on the Yamaha R/R, as shown on that website. Make sure you remember which is + and which is - (it isn't marked on the R/R) or you'll blow your main 30A fuse.

Once you're all plugged in and taped up, use the long R/R bolt to bolt the new R/R to the subframe. The wires should be pointed downwards. The lower bolt won't line up, but honestly, the one bolt is fine. Just tighten it down and it'll be fine. If you want to go nuts, put some heat transfer paste between the new R/R and the subframe plate.

Ta-da! You should be idling at >12.5 volts, and reving up to 14.2 or so. You might want to install a volt meter, to keep an eye on the voltage from now on. I got stranded once, too. It sucked. Having the volt meter give me a constant reading is good peace of mind.

 

Check www.servicehonda.com, they're in NW Indiana, so it'll ship pretty quick to Indy. If you order over the phone you automatically get like a 20% or 30% discount off regular price.... no joke. I got my R/R from them a couple weeks ago.

The factory replacement R/R is way improved over the original one btw.