...Now we just have to get together and fix ATCguy's leak. :thumbup:
Ha! I wish.
Thanks for the thought... but I've come to the conclusion that the bike just has some type of an intermittent slow drain on it somewhere that ain't gonna be found.
It all began not long after I got the bike back in '05. Same symptoms throughout... just not on any type of consistent basis.
If I ride the bike everyday... no problems. She starts right up, and I have a nice day. But if I allow her to sit for a few days.... sometimes a week, but it has occasionally been as few as 2 days... it's dead as a door-nail.
Now anyone who knows me is aware that while I'm pretty good with a wrench... I'm dumber than dog chit when it comes to anything past simple electrical work. That said... I've managed over the years to install a number of aftermarket electrical gadgets all over my bike.
However, all of those gadgets have been placed on 2 fuse blocks with appropriate relays: 1 with constant power... and 1 with switched power.
When diagnosing the bike, we... the person who actually knows something about electronics & myself... have removed both of those from the equation, and yet the majority of the time, we still haven't found any parasitic draw. I've had certified electricians look at it... certified aviation A&P electricians look at it... you name it.
Finally, last summer... I happened to be taking a trip down to Fontana Village for a week. So I called Lewis and scheduled a day to ride over to Knoxville and have him look at it in his shop. After a couple of hours of crawling over the bike, digging into manuals, and a couple of phone calls to trusted associates... he had found an occasional draw, the culprit of which he felt was the voltage regulator inside the alternator. Since we didn't have another new alternator laying around, and I only had 1 day there... we buttoned everything back up, and I continued my trip.
When I got home... I took it over to a local Honda dealer, and had them check the alternator for replacement under my extended warranty. Well, you can imagine how that went. First off, their 'good Wing mechanic' was supposedly on an extended leave of absence for legal troubles. So the other guy looks at it, and of course, he finds nothing wrong. I explain to him exactly what was done... and even get Lewis on the phone for the guy. Miraculously at that point, he says he found it. Whether he really found the draw, didn't wanna deal with me anymore, or just didn't want to talk to Lewis... I'm not sure. But they agreed to order a replacement, and schedule a time to install it after it arrived.
Yada, yada, yada... it arrived, I took the bike over... they screwed other things up when putting the bike back together... a comedy of errors. It took 3 days, but they said they did in fact install a new alternator. When I asked to have my old one back, the guy blinked... looked sheepish... and said they didn't have it. That because it was a warranty repair, they had to send the old one back to (wherever) for verification so they could get paid. Sounded like rubbish to me, but I left.
So as soon as I got home... I had to remove the top shelter anyway from where the idiots at the Honda dealer had left the 2 large stereo plugs unconnected when they put the bike back together. (did I mention the comedy of errors?) While I had the bike apart up top, I figured I may as well look at the 'new' alternator to see if they had really done the work they said that they did. Well... the one that was in there looked new. Nice, shiny silver case, and what appeared to be new labels. If if wasn't new, they'd sure gone to a lot of work to make my 5 years of use old alternator look good.
The first week, all seemed well. I left the bike in the garage for 3 days... and it started right up. Great!! Well, that lasted for about 2 weeks.
I go out one day to ride to work, after it had been sitting for 3 or 4 days... turned the key... nada. Nothing. Completely dead.
Thinking maybe the old battery had just been drained/recharged one time too many.. I ordered a new battery, charged it for an entire day, and then installed it. About a week later I go to ride the bike after letting it sit for a few days... Dead again.
Since then, every time I park it in the garage... I just automatically hook it up to the battery tender. And it hasn't given me a problem since. But then again, by hooking it up to the tender, I haven't given it a chance to.
Gremlins...