the DR650 thread

[O'B]

Originally Posted by Jammin

Need your advice, fellow DR riders:

As you may know, I was having electrical problems with my bike in western Tanzania (she's a 1998 with 74,000+ miles). She was dying after a few minutes of running and a reworked carb, a newer CDI, rectifier and ignition coil didn't solve the problem, so I figured it was the stator. I got a new stator shipped in, the 250W uprated one and installed that along with slightly-newer parts from parted DRs: a CDI from a 2006 and a rectifier from a 2001. After those parts, she fired up and sounded really good. I did 50 kms of test rides and was confident the problem was solved, so got back on the trail heading south.

But now, after 400 kms (250 miles), the problem is back. She died on me today in the middle of muddy roads. It felt like a loss of power. I let her cool, we rode a bit more and then she died again. I figured since I didn't replace the original ignition coil, maybe it was acting up now. I put in the coil from the 2001 bike and she died again in a few kms. Then I unplugged the generator and we ran for a while before same failure. Then I unplugged the rectifier and we ran fine for a few kms before she died again. The longer I let her cool down before trying again, the longer she lasts before dying again. To me, this sounds like something is heating up and causing the loss of power. It doesn't feel like a fuel (carb) issue. It feels like something is cutting power to the spark plugs. I limped her back to a small town.

I'm running on the Shorai battery and have a voltage monitor and after unplugging both stator and rectifier, battery was holding charge at 13.45 and after two starts with no stator, it dropped to 13.35 V.

I have a replacement wiring harness from the 2006 bike. Is mounting that on going to help? That's all I can think of now. I'm close to throwing in the towel and putting her on a truck and heading back to a good mechanic in Nairobi. Argghhh!!!!

Sounds like an electrical component of some type. How would you know you ask? Years ago I worked in an electronic factory producing pcb boards for use in computer printers. We would trouble shoot down to the component level and my job was testing and repair of the boards before they went into the printers. a common problem was defective chips that would fail after they heated up during the runnin test. These were pretty hard to locate so we would use canned freon on the chips to cool them down as the board was running and almost a 100 percent of the time when the freon was placed on the correct chip the problem was found as the device would start running correctly and when the freon was removed and the chip was let to heat up again the device would start to fail again. I don;t know what it could be but it could even be a defective fuse,spark plug,ect. One thing that was common was the more you ran it the worse it would get. Depending on the degee of defectiveness you start with when a total failure occured it would have a tendancy to take out ajoining components. Start with these simple solutions change all the fuses, Revist all the grounding points on the bike and get a good battery to test with. Also check all the wires for abrasion, Then test. If it still fails move to the component level. Start with what you haven't changed yet. I know you will say I already did this but you should start over step bt step. If you can get a can of freon it may help. Just my two cents.

[opium89]

I hesitantly and rather expensively ordered it from the dealer. I'll post the specs when it shows up. I found some rather inexpensive options in a 45 and 46mm...Be a shame if they turn out to be a match as they're about 1/12th the price!

Originally Posted by DRT

I am also interested in the dimensions of the ring nut. I believe you can make one by starting with a large socket and doing some machine work. does anybody know what size socket to start with, or what the diameter of the ring nut socket is?

[P-P]

Okay, okay, so there IS flex! Wrong again, my bad!

Originally Posted by Rusty Rocket

[neo1piv014]

Originally Posted by P-P

Okay, okay, so there IS flex! Wrong again, my bad!

That's more like "sag" than flex. Someone ride it hard over a speed bump and put it out of its misery.

[Team Longriders]

Originally Posted by Team Longriders

So when I was removing the charcoal canister, I broke the fitting on the bottom of the carb that the hose goes to. Am I screwed? Can I epoxy it tojust plug it or am sol. I fired it up and it doesn't seem to suck any air. But the fitting is brass and has a hole through it.

Any help would be helpful. just need to know if I broke a vent fitting, or a vacuum fitting.

[NordieBoy]

Originally Posted by neo1piv014

That's more like "sag" than flex. Someone ride it hard over a speed bump and put it out of its misery.

It has no misery left.
It was parted out by a member here...

[neo1piv014]

Originally Posted by NordieBoy

It has no misery left.
It was parted out by a member here...

Tell me it was built as a joke, right?

[Mongle]

Originally Posted by Team Longriders

Any help would be helpful. just need to know if I broke a vent fitting, or a vacuum fitting.

I'm not sure what you have there- never worked on a Calif. bike.

BUT, looking at the shop manual diagram: If it is the port on the bottom of the carb toward the front I believe that is what they call the "purge port". It takes the charcoal canister vapor and sucks it back through the engine. It may only have vaccum when the engine is picked up off idle (throttle blade is opened). Have somone rev the engine while you put your finger over it. It may be light and hard to feel with your finger.

[P-P]

It is a vacuum fitting. If you're abandoning the system, then at least plug the hole to prevent foriegn matter intrusion.

Originally Posted by Team Longriders

Any help would be helpful. just need to know if I broke a vent fitting, or a vacuum fitting.

[ER70S-2]

Jessepitt took a great pic of his non-Kalifornia BST, it looks like you can just epoxy it shut.

Photo from here:
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showp...5&postcount=71

[Adv Grifter]

Originally Posted by Jammin

Need your advice, fellow DR riders:

As you may know, I was having electrical problems with my bike in western Tanzania (she's a 1998 with 74,000+ miles). She was dying after a few minutes of running and a reworked carb, a newer CDI, rectifier and ignition coil didn't solve the problem, so I figured it was the stator. I got a new stator shipped in, the 250W uprated one and installed that along with slightly-newer parts from parted DRs: a CDI from a 2006 and a rectifier from a 2001. After those parts, she fired up and sounded really good. I did 50 kms of test rides and was confident the problem was solved, so got back on the trail heading south.

But now, after 400 kms (250 miles), the problem is back. She died on me today in the middle of muddy roads. It felt like a loss of power. I let her cool, we rode a bit more and then she died again. I figured since I didn't replace the original ignition coil, maybe it was acting up now. I put in the coil from the 2001 bike and she died again in a few kms. Then I unplugged the generator and we ran for a while before same failure. Then I unplugged the rectifier and we ran fine for a few kms before she died again. The longer I let her cool down before trying again, the longer she lasts before dying again. To me, this sounds like something is heating up and causing the loss of power. It doesn't feel like a fuel (carb) issue. It feels like something is cutting power to the spark plugs. I limped her back to a small town.

I'm running on the Shorai battery and have a voltage monitor and after unplugging both stator and rectifier, battery was holding charge at 13.45 and after two starts with no stator, it dropped to 13.35 V.

I have a replacement wiring harness from the 2006 bike. Is mounting that on going to help? That's all I can think of now. I'm close to throwing in the towel and putting her on a truck and heading back to a good mechanic in Nairobi. Argghhh!!!!

Man, that's bad luck! You've replaced just about everything it seems. Hard to know where to look. I suspect a bad Pick-Up coil (ignitor) ... within the stator. Maybe swap in another from the other stator? They can be intermittent, from what I've heard. Maybe heat related?

Got to be heat related issue as she starts after cool down, no?
Could also be Rectifier/Regulator ... but I know you replaced that too.
But using 2nd hand donated parts ... its sometimes not possible to know if they are "known good". Not an easy situation ...

I know you wired in a bunch of switches in your dash. Could anything there be shorting or in anyway screwing things up? Also ... when you modded your dash, did you mod the ignition switch? I was thinking of that little hidden resistor (anti-theft) under the switch. It interfaces into the harness and goes to CDI ... if shorted or missing ... bike won't start. I doubt it is intermittent though. More mystery.

When you swap out the harness ... take care that little resistor.

But I keep coming back to the Pick-Up coil (ignitor)

Good luck ... I hope you solve it!

[C/W]

Sounds like you have a short somewhere. Look at the existing harness and check for any frayed wires.

In particular, look at the wiring of the ignition switch (where your key goes) and where the wires bends around the steering stem. You have an older bike so any areas of flex (steering) may pose a problem purely because of wear. I had a cb750 that occasionally died & restarted right away. The problem was a worn connection into a molex connector that disconnected when turning slightly left.

The obvious areas of shorts are ignition switch, kill switch, clutch switch, side stand switch.

There's not a lot of wiring, may as well take a good look at it all.

Originally Posted by Jammin

Need your advice, fellow DR riders:

As you may know, I was having electrical problems with my bike in western Tanzania (she's a 1998 with 74,000+ miles). She was dying after a few minutes of running and a reworked carb, a newer CDI, rectifier and ignition coil didn't solve the problem, so I figured it was the stator. I got a new stator shipped in, the 250W uprated one and installed that along with slightly-newer parts from parted DRs: a CDI from a 2006 and a rectifier from a 2001. After those parts, she fired up and sounded really good. I did 50 kms of test rides and was confident the problem was solved, so got back on the trail heading south.

But now, after 400 kms (250 miles), the problem is back. She died on me today in the middle of muddy roads. It felt like a loss of power. I let her cool, we rode a bit more and then she died again. I figured since I didn't replace the original ignition coil, maybe it was acting up now. I put in the coil from the 2001 bike and she died again in a few kms. Then I unplugged the generator and we ran for a while before same failure. Then I unplugged the rectifier and we ran fine for a few kms before she died again. The longer I let her cool down before trying again, the longer she lasts before dying again. To me, this sounds like something is heating up and causing the loss of power. It doesn't feel like a fuel (carb) issue. It feels like something is cutting power to the spark plugs. I limped her back to a small town.

I'm running on the Shorai battery and have a voltage monitor and after unplugging both stator and rectifier, battery was holding charge at 13.45 and after two starts with no stator, it dropped to 13.35 V.

I have a replacement wiring harness from the 2006 bike. Is mounting that on going to help? That's all I can think of now. I'm close to throwing in the towel and putting her on a truck and heading back to a good mechanic in Nairobi. Argghhh!!!!

[BergDonk]

In addition to the other excellent suggestions, check the white 2 pin conector to the coil under the tank. And are you absolutely sure its not running out of fuel in the carb when it stops? How about the kill switch contacts?

[DRT]

Second the checking of fuel flow to the carb.

In particular check the filter sock that is right at the junction of the fuel line and the carb. My was clogged once and was doing something pretty close to what your symptoms sound like.
As the float level got too low the power would cut out so abruptly that i was convinced there was an electrical problem.

[johnkol]

Originally Posted by dljocky

I've got a 2009 DR650 with 40,000 miles. I'm feeling/hearing a "clunk" when I get on the front brakes hard, I'm thinking I might need to replace my steering bearings?

Not necessarily.

Do you have the Service Manual? The only thing you may have to do is tighten the steering stem nut (page 5-20, item 7). After you do this, check for any tight spots as you rotate the triple clamps; if the bearings feel smooth, then you're set. Double-check for play in the bearings -- follow the cautionary note at the bottom of page 5-26.