My name doesn’t pop up normally but I read here a couple of times a day and now I’m going to ask for some help please. Best I try and give you as much as I know ( not a lot) in order to get to the bottom of my problem. Owned this bike for 2 years and love it. No issues until recently. No power commander or added bits and stock apart from tail tidy/end can and Indicators swapped out. Wiring has never been butchered as far as I can see and it’s generally in very good condition. Very recently she developed an issue though. Hard to describe but it’s like it would cut out or stutter for a split second. Something random for you to think about (if your still reading) is that when this occurred I pushed the horn and it did what I described again. When I got her home I checked my voltages and they were all good. Top end but good. At that stage my thoughts of a charging issue were gone. Then 2 weeks ago she wouldn’t prime when I went to go out. Brought her back into the garage and everything was back perfect. I decided I couldn’t trust it like that and went ahead a sourced a 2nd hand fuel pump which I installed. Key in, prime, blast. All good. Today, went to go for my usual Black Mountain run and she felt nervous at below 4k. Higher rpm better but I could feel something wasn’t right. Then, after having to stop in traffic, I went to pull away and she just died. I switched it off and back on, pressed start and off we went. Thirty awful miles later I was home and glad to get here. Bike was unpredictable on pick up, it was only in the higher rpm that I felt safer but it’s home. She’s up my garage now, with fairing sides off and tank up and I’m going over her with my meter but not sure where to go really. Battery/ reg/stator all have good readings and would like some input if you could please. It would be nice to actually get to the bottom of this and have a valid post to help others out as all I can find are similar issues but no solution. Anyways, I’d be genuinely grateful for any help. Cheers
Have you checked the stator with the bike fully up to temperature aswell? I've never owned an 04/05 but most of the chat about them is how the stators get fried regularly until an 06/07 stator/flywheel combo is fitted. Sounds like they quite often take the reg/rec and or battery with them aswell which can cause whacky issues as I'm sure you're aware. Typical Honda basically . Outside this I guess you're down to checking wiring, bad earth's, kill switch, side stand switch and plugs. Good luck.
Appreciate your response cheers. I’m aware of our trust worthy Hondas charging woes. I’ve a 95 blade in my garage that has had my meter out a few times in my 20 years of ownership. I will say that my running voltages are top end of spec and it did cross my mind that this could effect maybe some of the more fragile parts of the system. I’m going to check as you have suggested tomorrow and I’m also going to try and get at my coils to test as well. I’ll post my findings and continue till she’s running right. Thanks again. Can’t sleep coz my bikes not well
My side stand pivot area was not clean. I have taken the switch off and cleaned the dirt and oil off. As it’s always best to be honest when trying to solve things, to my surprise I did notice that the stand itself was not tight. The connection to the stand was good. Did that yesterday as it went up on paddock stand. As far as the kill switch goes, I never ever use it. Never have used them in 40 years. Still, I’ll check to eliminate all possible causes. Thank you for your help and I’ll post my findings as soon as possible. I’ll be working on it every day after work till it’s done. Cheers again
Without knowing for certain the maintenance history of your bike I would grab the workshop manual and work through the troubleshooting process step by step, ignore nothing, assume nothing. If you don’t have the full fat manual you can get it here https://carlsalter.com/download.asp?p=1973 good luck and keep us posted, as you say it may well help someone else in the future.
Got to the coils and plugs this evening. What a faff !! I’m showing images of coil test results if anyones interested and they are all very similar. The only noticeable difference was that when one came out it had a very small amount of clean oil residue on it. Very little but noticeably there. I’ve also included a couple of plugs obviously. To be honest I was hoping one of the coils would be out but at least seeing as I’m there I get to install fresh plugs. Cheers for the manual link as well. It’s going to prove it’s worth I know.
Fresh plugs installed and bike back together. This time I paid much more attention whilst dropping my tank. I didn’t throw it back in the last time but was more mindful of the pipes and how they were behaving during the drop. The last 4 inches are pure luck as your blind, no matter how you try to get a view. Like I said, not much difference between the two drops. Just wanted to get it right. There was a difference when I turned my key on though. When the prime had finished there was a secondary noise. The only way to describe it is like a hiss. This lasted for around 2 seconds and it did it twice. It has not done it since. If I could guess where the noise had come from I would say it was either the lower part of the tank or the fuel rail area. I presumed this was because the fuel had been disconnected as she was doing what was required to complete the first prime. It had never made this noise before. She fired up straight away and sounded fine. I let her idle while I grabbed my lid and off we went. I took her round the block a few times but I had too much hanging off the bike to go over thirty. Back home lower fairing on. Out again for 30 mins. More speed and no lower rpm hesitation. Totally back together yesterday and out again keeping it very very local. Running absolutely fine, too good really. Ran for 30 mins with duel carriage way riding and my home 20 mph zone included. I’m going to try a longer run today and we’ll see how she goes. Oh yeah…. and the plugs….the mrs doesn’t pay much attention to anything I say but she actually looked over at me half way through when I was telling her how much they were. Looking and listening to me at the same time !
I hold the tail end of the breather hoses as I lower the tank to maintain some light pressure. Since doing this I haven’t had any issues . It’s way too easy to pinch them and create a problem.
So after about an hour in total of local riding with no issues at all I decided to go for a Black Mountain run to Llandovery. First issue. Went to pull away from traffic lights 10 mins into the ride, and it stalled as I let the clutch out. Not my fault, as soon as I applied the throttle she just cut out. Restarted immediately, pulled away no issues. No further issues for 45 minutes at all. This was free riding on empty roads. Second issue. As soon as I arrived in Llandovery, when I was forced to stop start in traffic, the bike began to play up. I had to try and keep her from stalling but ultimately I failed. I coasted to a stop where she restarted immediately and 2 minutes later I’m at my destination. I parked away from the crowd so when I did set off again, it would be less embarrassing as I tried to pull away. Coffee downed, and off I went. No issues. Rode for 40 mins on open roads with no stopping. Almost home now so decided to push on a little. Third issue. Whilst exiting a roundabout and accelerating there was a big flat spot for a second then off she went. From then on she was like a dog at lower rpm. It stalled on me once and then, on restarting and putting into gear she cut out as if the side stand switch was operating. I’m confused really, I can’t join the two issues, the what seems like a faulty side stand switch cutting my running and my lower rpm issues. After fitting replacement fuel pump and plugs, carefully reseating the tank she seemed to be free of her issues but obviously not. Prior to plug replacement and after the fuel pump was installed, the issue of cutting out whilst pulling away occurred once. Any ideas ?
Have you checked the connector blocks that go into the ECU, and made sure they are properly home and not loose? The only other thing I can think of (if the sidestand switch is ok) would be a fault with the ECU. Might be worth ruling out the sidestand switch, disconnect it?
Cheers for the reply. I’ll fudge the side stand switch as you suggest mate. Everything is worth investigating to get to the bottom of my issue. I’ll check ECU plugs as well. Whilst riding home a few things crossed my mind. In my first post here I mentioned that when my issue started I was limping home and decided to use the horn. After many years on a 95 blade it was a good way of checking how my charging system was doing. Good loud horn ok, shit note, rr probably on its way out again. As I said, pushed the horn and got to replicate the stutter. At that exact moment precisely it stuttered ? I’ve obviously checked my rr and stator readings and they proved good. I’m at a loss and it’s difficult when she seems to run so well then bang …. TPS ? As a side note my clutch lever now has a moan when I use it. What does the switch on it actually do ? Cheers for the help
Cheers for the reply mate. Unfortunately I only did it once. I was in the middle of the Brecon Beacons and didn’t dare do it again. Just bugs my thinking why. Another thing on reflection is that during my test rides it was cool and I ran free. No issues at all . The issue today when at its worst, was not far from my home. Slow moving traffic and my temps up. The same when I entered Llandovery, caught up in traffic and temps up. Thank you all for your help with this.
Stator. Even though I checked mine out with a meter could part of it be breaking down when it gets hot. Would my ohms test have registered it when cold. See I’m just guessing now…. Should be sleeping for night shift
Stator could very easily be breaking down when bike is fully upto temp. Whip the stator cover off and look at it, if the windings aren't all uniform in colour you could have a problem. Also you need to test it when upto temp as I mentioned above. I still think this could be stator / reg-rec related. It's probably the biggest known issue on the 04/05 and it can give whacky faults. Would have thought you'd have been left with a flat battery by now though which is making me doubt myself. Have you got any history with the bike that shows its had stator or R/R changed?
