RiderSite.com - Motorcycle Forums

Falc wouldnt start this morning, or this afternoon when I got back from work.
Tried all the usual tricks,all plugs sparking, injection system tested with lamp,

The clocks keep re stting to factory, then the rev counter fluctuates from rest to 1 with a ticking noise.
Maybe an ecu fault ?

All other related things look ok, ecu was swapped a few months ago when I swapped eprom
All ideas welcome as Im reliant on Firstbus now

Battery, Battery, Battery amigo.....

And check the terminals are tight

GregD-UK wrote:Battery, Battery, Battery amigo.....

+1

Well, loose negative terminal, where the terminal bolts on the the Motobatt ery !

Whistles softly

Out for a little ride today, stoppedfor fuel, switched ignition on....
the rev counter needle instantly flickered, speedo to kph ect.
Popped up pilot seat, both battery connections tight enough to wobble bike around when on sidestand.
Will swap ecu over when I get chance

Think of a word ....
It begins with "B"
and ends in "attery"


There is a chance it might not be charging well or not being ridden far enough between starts but the chances are it's knackered

Deffo a weak battery. In my experience, buying a cheap battery is a BIG no-no. The Falco needs a fair amount of cold cranking amps, which the cheaper batts often cant supply. Result: constantly struggling battery til it cant struggle no more...

Tis a Motobatt, 6or 7 months old.
After failing to start 2 mornings and evenings, i gave up as the motor was turning over a bit too slowly, then I found the trickle charger connection had come off the neg terminal, the battery was still showing 12.2.
Voltage to battery on tickover is 13.45.
Would be surprised if it is the battery but its not impossible.
Any other checks I can do to validate battery ?
Bike does around 15 miles a day, plus warm up time on fast idle.
Had done around 10 miles yesterday when it weirded out on me

Hi all,

I would suggest covering the terminals in silicon grease and fitting those seratted washers for security. The battery for our start-up needs a FULL charge. It is not the standing voltage that is paramount (But required), it is the pushing of CCA to the heavy sprag that is important. A weak battery causes the symptoms that have happened to your bike.

Suggest you ride it for more than 10 miles a day. Sounds like it has slowly been loosing it's power over time. The extra miles will allow the engine stator to recover the battery somewhat

I have taken out the lower round connector block off the stator and soldered those wires. Also, have got rid of the two blocks off my new yamaha R1 rectifier and soldered those wires as well. My dash reads 14.3V and steady

Hope you get it sorted amigo...

fatboy wrote:Tis a Motobatt, 6or 7 months old.
After failing to start 2 mornings and evenings, i gave up as the motor was turning over a bit too slowly, then I found the trickle charger connection had come off the neg terminal, the battery was still showing 12.2.
Voltage to battery on tickover is 13.45.
Would be surprised if it is the battery but its not impossible.
Any other checks I can do to validate battery ?
Bike does around 15 miles a day, plus warm up time on fast idle.
Had done around 10 miles yesterday when it weirded out on me

Well .... a good place to start is the Workshop manual.

section 6.3 tells you how to check the charging system (pp159 et seqq in the OCR version)

For the battery itself, you could do a load test.
For a DIY method, charge the battery, and with a multimeter across the battery hit the starter button and see how far the voltage drops.

Thanks D-R, i cant search my download manual, I have a Haynes RSV manual so will see what it has to say on charging system.

What is an acceptable voltage drop under starting load ?

fatboy wrote:Thanks D-R, i cant search my download manual,

Download the OCR version of the manual from Martin Poll's website.

Assuming you are using Adobe Reader to open the pdf, click EDIT and choose Find.
You should be able to then search for any term you want to in the box that pops up - and click for next and previous occurrences using the forward and back arrows.

In any case you ought to be able to go the the page numbers and section numbers by advancing through the document or putting the page number into the page number box.



As to how low the battery voltage should drop .... well it'll depend on a number of things .... the smaller the drop the better.
This time of year with a cold engine it'll be lower.
I'd like to see it drop not much below 10v but you might get away with it a bit under 9v.
Let us know what you see.

Oh btw I'm talking about loading it by trying to start it but not letting it fire. Kill switch off (but don't do it for too long or you'll flood it)

thanks D-R, will rely on the checks in the Haynes joke book for now.
On a good day left click works on laptop !
Will have to wait till saturday,time to check everything over, bike wont even start on fast idle now, will look @ charging/rectifier/starter/battery then vacuum hoses/ fuel pressure regulator