Zim
06-01-15, 12:55 PM
Bike broke down last night and I had to be recovered by the RAC, the full bike strapped to a recovery truck and 2 hour journey saga.
Anyway, about 30 seconds before it went dead, the fuel light came on (it was full of petrol), and "FI" came up on the clocks and SOS CHEC (actually it might have been fave past five as in 5:05! Talk about unfortunate timing). While I was pondering if the bike had gone into F1 (formula 1) mode, and whether someone could really have drained the petrol without damaging the tank, Ftuuuuuuuummmmmmm and it was dead, a sad, lifeless metal corpse.
The bike wouldn't restart even though the lights were working. I suspected that the bike hadn't been charging and the battery was so low that the electrics weren't getting enough juice.
The RAC chappy said it was probably the regulator and had it been earlier (or should I say, perhaps if the RAC had got someone out quicker!) he'd have popped over the bike shop with me, grabbed a new one fitted it. Well that didn't happen as it was gone 7pm by the time he got out to me.
Anyway I've been doing a load of reading, and there's a lot not just here but everywhere on the web and I'm a bit perplexed by the sheer amount of possibilities from not just about testing batteries/stators/regulators, but also if it's the reg then replacing it with a new version of the same unit, to upgrading to a mosfet as they run cooler and blah blah blah blah
Couple of Q's though:
1: Given the sheer number of posts on diagnosing charging stuff, anyone have an opinion on the best one for a beginner and wannabe better DIYer pointy owner to use? (e.g. do I test everything methodically, or just go straight to the reg as they seem to explode with such regularity).
2: Wondering where the weight of opinion lies on whether upgrading the regulator to a mosfet based one is worth the time and effort
Anyway, about 30 seconds before it went dead, the fuel light came on (it was full of petrol), and "FI" came up on the clocks and SOS CHEC (actually it might have been fave past five as in 5:05! Talk about unfortunate timing). While I was pondering if the bike had gone into F1 (formula 1) mode, and whether someone could really have drained the petrol without damaging the tank, Ftuuuuuuuummmmmmm and it was dead, a sad, lifeless metal corpse.
The bike wouldn't restart even though the lights were working. I suspected that the bike hadn't been charging and the battery was so low that the electrics weren't getting enough juice.
The RAC chappy said it was probably the regulator and had it been earlier (or should I say, perhaps if the RAC had got someone out quicker!) he'd have popped over the bike shop with me, grabbed a new one fitted it. Well that didn't happen as it was gone 7pm by the time he got out to me.
Anyway I've been doing a load of reading, and there's a lot not just here but everywhere on the web and I'm a bit perplexed by the sheer amount of possibilities from not just about testing batteries/stators/regulators, but also if it's the reg then replacing it with a new version of the same unit, to upgrading to a mosfet as they run cooler and blah blah blah blah
Couple of Q's though:
1: Given the sheer number of posts on diagnosing charging stuff, anyone have an opinion on the best one for a beginner and wannabe better DIYer pointy owner to use? (e.g. do I test everything methodically, or just go straight to the reg as they seem to explode with such regularity).
2: Wondering where the weight of opinion lies on whether upgrading the regulator to a mosfet based one is worth the time and effort