Intermittent electrical failure on 99RSV

[BrentS]

Yesterday I participated in a charity event which included a parade followed by a poker run. During the parade portion we bikers would wave and honk our horns at the people lining the sidewalks. I first noticed a problem when I attempted to honk my horn and it just quit on me. The radio and radio display also quit, but then it came back on a few seconds later. Following that the horn wouldn't work at all but the radio continued to power off and then on again. When we arrived at the staging area for the poker run I was preparing to come to a stop and the engine just shut down.

Here is what I know so far:

The battery had to be charged before the bike would start again.

The battery in the bike is new and was installed 2 days before. The connections are tight.

While riding if I turned on the signal (either right or left), the radio would cut out but came back on as soon as I cancelled the signal manually.

If I came to a stop and turned off the engine when the radio had already cut out, it would not restart. And the battery was dead.

From the last stop to my home I had absolutely no problems. I parked it in my garage, turned off the engine, and waited a few minutes. When I went to start the engine it started up normally. I waited for about 30 minutes, then went out to the garage. Once again it started normally.

This morning I went out to the garage and once again it started normally. Periodically throughout the day today I've gone to start it and it's working just fine, including the horn is now working.

I haven't performed any of the tests in the service manual yet but was interested to see if anyone else has experienced similar types of issues, and how they resolved them.

One final thing...the ignition has already been changed.

Any thoughts are appreciated.

Brent

[etcswjoe]

Just went through this last year.

 

Since it is intermittent it may be hard to find unless it quits all out.

 

1 check the connection at the rectifier make sure no burns or dirty connectors.

2 check the white connector going to the stator under the battery tray this is a weak point lots of people have just soldered the wires.

3 check your ground wires going to the battery both of them

4 if all of these are good check the stator voltage

5 if stator voltage is good check the voltage at the battery

 

 

Mine turned out to be the stator, however it is usually one of the connections.

[BrentS]

Thanks Joe. I will check the areas you've mentioned.

[etcswjoe]

If you need more detail let me know.

[BrentS]

It turns out the problem was the rectifier/regulator.

[etcswjoe]

Cool glad you got it fixed

[BrentS]

As it turns out the rectifier was part of the problem. But it also needed a new stator. So after replacing the battery, rectifier, stator, and clutch seals I'm hoping that is the end of things for a little while.