XJ600 charging problem.

I was riding my XJ600 (1991) home from work the other day when it
developed a rather lumpy idle about half a mile from home. I got a
further quarter mile and was about to turn into my street when it died
and would barely turn the starter, never mind the engine, over. Not a
long push needed thankfully!

On inspection with a multimeter the battery was only giving out 11.7V
so I charged it and it has held a charge. I haven't yet got around to
putting the battery back in the bike, that's being done over this
weekend so I don't know what the charging rate is.

What I need to know at the moment is, is this a common occurence on
XJ600's? All I ever heard about these bikes was their super
reliability! Do they burn out alternator's or rectifier/regulators on
a Suzuki style basis. ie:- every two weeks! Sorry, Suzuki owners.
Been there, done that.

I have read reports of earlier XJ's having duff connectors and this
regularly causing overcharging in the circuit. Does this happen?
Does anyone know? As I said, I haven't checked the charging rate but
I have made the assumption that if it was an overcharging problem it
would have boiled off most of the battery acid and the battery
wouldn't have held a charge for too long.

Is this right or does it only kill the battery over time? Have I
caught it early enough?

 

<snip>

How long is your usual journey? you may be taking out more power than you
put into the battery with short runs, lights on etc.
When you connect up your charged battery and run the engine at ~4000rpm with
all the lights on, what is the voltage across the battery then? If it's less
than 13.8-14.4V your charging system may indeed be at fault. If this voltage
is ok, you probably have a knackered battery. It may hold charge, but you
look at its voltage with a load across it.
HTH,
JB

 

These suffer badly with regulator failures - I had to do one on my
Diversion.

 

Totally different bike, YTC.

(Mind you, you're probably still right)

 

Indeed, it's probably fair to say they may have used a lot of identical
components. Although I think a lot of the failures of these were more to
do with the silly positioning of it.

 

Yes. If anything, it will increase the charging rate.

 

What's the shop manual say about RPM to voltage? 17.5 volts >4K sounds
too high.

 

No shop manual needed - it's way too high.

 

Charging voltage ..................................... 14 to 15 volts at
5000rpm
Nominal output ....................................... 14 volts, 21 amps at
5000 rpm

Details copied from Haynes Manual.

 

hah

Good luck with cheap and I would stay away from used electronics. The
regulator on my SV650 quit working. One shop wanted $200 for a new one.
Another local shop wanted $150. An on-line parts house wanted $119, but
had to order it from Suzuki with a 2 week delivery time.

 

Would that on-line parts house happen to have been azmotorsports.com
by any chance?

 

No.

http://www.ronayers.com/main.cfm

 

Ooh, I like ronayers.com. They've been straight up with me about delivery
times, unlike the c*nts at azmotorsports.com.[1] I just ordered *cough* a
new right side fairing for the SV from ronayers... right now I'm trying to
decide if I should order the 'SV650S' decal for $19 or take off the LHS
decal[2]. SWMBO says "leave it off, you're the only one who'll know".

[1] Took almost three weeks to deliver an OEM Suzuki rear sprocket for the
SV, ignored two emails, and failed to follow up to a telephone call asking
for the status of my order, despite promising to.

[2] My sense of symmetry is overdeveloped, I fear.

<comic book store guy> Worst...service...ever. </cbsg>

 

And just *why* does one need a new right-side fairing? Shoulda had a
naked SV, I've lobbed mine down the road twice and the most damage was a
busted mirror. $19 for a decal? Leave the fecking thing off, take the
rest off and paint it black.

You are not the first I've heard that had problems with azmotorshite. My
mate saved a bundle on bits for his SV1000 when he low-sided it.

 

I did a bit of off-roading when the car in front (single occupant) of me
took the carpool/motorcycle onramp, when I *assumed* he would take the
non-carpool ramp... not quite enough tarmac for both of us, although there
was plenty of sandy soil on the soft shoulder. I thought I could ride it
out, which I did for about 20 feet then it thumped me down. Not much
damage, other than my ankle feeling a bit wonky due to the SV falling on
it. I dusted off the bike, picked it up (using the butt to the seat
method) picked up my now-spare mirror, and continued on to the office,
where the piss-takes began in earnest. Tailpiece a bit scuffed, muffler
also (but the SS can will polish out fine), no damage to indicators or
controls, but the fairing support frame is a bit tweaked so I'll have to
straighten it once the new fairing piece gets here.

Thank God for my Aerostich Combat Touring boots and my Roadcrafter suit.
Without the boots I wouldn't be able to walk right now.

Re: the decal, I plan on removing the decal from the intact LHS fairing,
I practiced on the cracked fairing last night, the decal came off easily
with the application of a little heat from SWMBO's hairdryer.

 

[snip dual sporting on an SV]

I have discovered that bastards will always do what they are not
supposed to.

I lost a pair of Alpinestar gore-tex boots to the medics.

How did the suit hold up?

We don need no steenkin' decals.

 

If only you could count on them doing just that, but the problem
is, sometimes they do it one way, and sometimes t'other way...

I'd be liable to (at least try to) give someone a good kicking if
they tried to snip off the Combats.

Beautifully, it didn't suffer anything nearly like what it did in my
previous pavement surfing episode on the CM400T, just a goodly amount
of dirt and some grass stains on the right side from lower leg to
shoulder. 'er indoors attacked it with all sorts of stain removing
witches brews and multiple trips through the Maytag, and now it looks
positively poseur-like, it's so clean.

Yep. Today I replaced both mirrors (for symmetry, don't you know)
with pattern parts (EMGO) intended for a '98-on ZX-6 or ZX-6R, they
actually provide slightly better view to the rear than the OEM mirrors.
And the pair cost less than the price of a single OEM mirror.