I have a 2007 600 that I bought last year. When I bought it the guy replaced the battery. I ride it everyday, well almost everyday. Normally my trips are 2-4 miles at a time. The weather here has been getting colder. Dropping down to low 30s. The bike has been getting harder to start, as in needing to crank more before firing. Today, after riding the bike about 4 miles or so, I parked my bike at this business I was going to and turned it off. After I found out I couldn't park there I tried to start the bike and it cranked for a few and then eventually wouldn't crank at all. The lights were still on but it wouldn't crank. I think the clock reset too. Anyways I left the bike there and them came back about 4 hours later and tried to start it again. This time after a few extra seconds of cranking it started up. I have it on a trickle charger for the night. Do you think its the stator or the battery? I'm not really sure how to tell which one it might be. Thanks.
The K6/7 are notorious for having rectifier issues, so chances are it's neither the stator or the battery. Either do a search and/or download a service manual and test the voltage at the battery with bike running at 5,000 RPM's. Voltage should be between 14-15.5V.
Pretty weird, i just posted a thread similar to this. Id do as samantha suggested, and check the rectifier and stator first. The stator is what keeps the bike running once its on.
If someone chimes in on my thread ill let you know and hopefully itll help you out too.
Pretty weird, i just posted a thread similar to this. Id do as samantha suggested, and check the rectifier and stator first. The stator is what keeps the bike running once its on.
If someone chimes in on my thread ill let you know and hopefully itll help you out too.
Did you get any other information on this? I have to let my bike sit for atleast an hour before starting it up. If I start it any sooner it will sound like its dying but if I let it sit for an hour it will fire right up. Which by the way is super annoying considering I haven't fixed it yet and had to walk home today.
I'm doing that right now. I did the flow chart on it but I ran a trickle charge on it the night before. I'm thinking that might've given me a false positive. I'm trying to figure out how to get to the stator and rectifier to check the connections. When I did the flow chart the first time that is where it led me too. We will see how it goes. I'm thinking I might need to pull a lot apart to get to them. Also when I start it right after running it sounds like there is very little "juice" in the battery. So I have to let it sit for a while. I'm not sure how to adjust the idle.
The rectifier is probably the easiest one. Id take care of that one first just to get it out the way. Unbolt it and lift the gas tank to remove the airbox. Its held down by a bunch of screws on the edge of the black airbox IIRC. Itll give you access to the wires that lead off from the rectifier. Then use a multimeter to test out the connections mentioned in the service manual.
The stator will work the same way, except youre gonna need to test it with a different setting of course, and with the bike turned on. You need both readings at idle and at around 4 or 5k rpm.
I took of the top of the screws to the airbox but I'm not able to get the whole unit off without loosing the screws of the 4 air intake valves. Is there an easier way to get to it? Should I take off the radiator? That's my next bet it is to try to take that off. I'm can sort of see the wires but I can't get to them.
Go ahead and remove the screws from the intake valves. I forgot to mention those. Just make sure you keep them very well covered as you dont want anything to get in there. I used blue painters tape to cover them up when i did this.
Can't get to the screws. They are a HUGE pain. I'm trying to remove the gas tank but I have no idea on if I remove some of the hoses if fuel will spill out. Do you know anything about that?
Also having a really hard time trying to loosen in the 2 inside screws for the in take valves. Is there a specialty tool that is needed for those? Do you think they could make the bike any harder to work on?
Got it off finally! it was a pain but I used a regular screw driver and just angled it with some pressure at the middle 2 and them came out. Thanks for the help. I'll let you know how it goes with cleaning the connections and trying it out.
Also to double check to make sure its not also the battery, charge it and test it as well under load, not just checking the surface charge..
Well the battery is only a year old and I have put the trickle charge on it. When I did that and did the test I get the same result as I did today when it wasn't on the trickle charge. So I assume that it isn't the battery. I just sprayed contact cleaner on the connections for the stator and regulator. So hopefully that is the problem. The voltage meeter I have is saying that I'm at 14.7 volts so it points to cleaning the connections. We will see.
Well I cleaned the connections. Took it for a 5 mile ride or so came home. I let it sit for 5 minutes and it wouldn't start. It did the battery isn't charged thing. I followed this test,
, and the outline I have, from earlier in the post, and I don't know where I went wrong. They stator checked out fine. Atleast from what the youtube video said. The rectifier is the one that keeps it running I thought? So maybe I should buy a new stator? I'm not sure where to go from here. Anyone else have any ideas on it?
The stator is the alternator that generates electricity, the rectifier converts from AC to DC and regulates the current. If the rectifier goes out one of two things happens, it does not charge the battery or worse, it cooks the battery, blows fuses and can damage the ECU. K6/7 have known rectifier issues and fried rectifiers are common as I previously stated. Maybe take it to a shop, you say the stator tested fine but you want to buy a new one?
Last edited by Samantha750; 11-30-2012 at 01:41 AM.
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