30 amp fuse blowing?

[evo360]

Right long story so ill keep it as short as I can. Riding home the other week from work the bike just died on me, waited for RAC they replaced the 30amp fuse, and happy days the bike was fine. I have used the bike on numerous occasions since and it has been fine. The battery had died since due to lack of use and no optimiser, so I charged the battery for a few hours and hey presto the bike fired up like a good un. I decided to give the bike a bit of a run while the sun was shining, kept her ticking over in the garage for about ten minutes before I got on her, got five hundred yards down the road and it completely died again.

Now the obvious one would be the R/R, but I have had a meter on it after the RAC replaced the fuse. Tick over it read about 13.5 volts and at five thousand revs it rose to about 14.5v and held steady. So I presume the R/R is ok.

Now as soon as I replace the 30amp fuse it immediatley blows, regardless of the ignition being off.

Any ideas?

[sirch345]

I would have said the rectifier could be the problem as you thought, but those readings you took are fine, so it was working OK then. Have you tried unplugging the rectifier before replacing the fuse Also does your rectifier have fins on it If it doesn't and it has failed you can sometimes see burn marks on it if you look closely.

Other than that there must be a wire shorting out somewhere. A good place to start checking for a bare wire earthing out is around the head stock.

Also check connections on battery etc, for a lose connection.

Chris.

[Pete.L]

It should be easier to find the problem now it's blowing the fuse all the time.
Use the continuity setting on your meter and check from ground to the live side of the fuse. Then you can start disconnecting things until the short circuit is removed.
Happy Hunting

Pete.l

[evo360]

If I was to take the fuses out one by one and try the bikes ignition then presumably it would start if I isolated the the problematic area? Ie the lighting circuit could be the blame, taking the fuse out would eliminate the issue

[evo360]

right looks like I have found the problem. One of the connections in the r/r plug has burned out completely. So it looks like the r/r has seen it's last ride. There is continuity through four of the five blades on the r/r itself. Can anyone tell me if this means it is definatley shot

[Stratman]

If you've got that far then change it anyway, pennies permitting. I didn't use a R6 one but from these people http://www.electrexworld.co.uk/ which fitted straight on with no odd wires.

[Pete.L]

Yep!
If you are testing it correctly, it's shot.
Put you meter on diode test and you should only be able to read through each diode from pos to neg and across the bridge. If any of the diode are reading both ways it's definitely a goner.

Pete.l

[sirch345]

Here's the link from our Knowledge Base posted by Beast for fitting the R1 or R6 rectifier:-
http://vtr1000f.wickidnet.com/

Chris.

[evo360]

I have just fitted an R6 R/R to the bike, took about fifteen minutes and the bike seems to be spot on. The quality of the yami unit seems to be so much better than the stock Honda item, cant really understand why they got away with such a rubbish component in the first place? Seems strange, I have a background in cars and I am used to honda leading the way in terms of quality within that price bracket.

Anyway fingers crossed thats it for now, and after postponing the new chain fitment with the shop about four times it is now ready to go in tomorrow.

[Pete.L]

Good find Evo, Welldone

Pete.l

[evo360]

Cheers guys, I just bought the cheapest one I could find on eBay. £29 to the door, bargain!