FZRSupport: the FZROnline Archive

I'm lost and dont know where to start. I have the 95 fzr600. I think my battery might play a part in this but I'm not sure. The bike wont even start with a jump start. If I charge the battery for about 4-6 hours on a 2 amp it will hold a 12.6, than I put it in the bike and as soon as I turn the key it goes down to like 11v and than when I try to start it, goes down to about 7-9v. I know I probably need a new battery but this one is only 3 or so months old so what caused this battery to die so fast? I can also hear this bubbling sound which sounds like its comin from the carbs. Any ideas?

Sounds like it could be a bad voltage regulator.

Jshak07 wrote:I'm lost and dont know where to start. I have the 95 fzr600. I think my battery might play a part in this but I'm not sure. The bike wont even start with a jump start. If I charge the battery for about 4-6 hours on a 2 amp it will hold a 12.6, than I put it in the bike and as soon as I turn the key it goes down to like 11v and than when I try to start it, goes down to about 7-9v. I know I probably need a new battery but this one is only 3 or so months old so what caused this battery to die so fast? I can also hear this bubbling sound which sounds like its comin from the carbs. Any ideas?

In my experience (and I'm far from the most experienced on the board) the "bubbling" sound usually happens when the coils aren't sparking every time, which tends to happen when the battery is low, bad VR (voltage regulator) or not. The VR's tend to go out on these bikes quite a bit, and if not fixed, they can take the battery with them, and if left untreated for to long, I've heard they can take the Stator coil and sometimes the pickup coil, too.

I would say to replace the battery (again), and after it's charged, installed and ready to go, start it and do the electrical system check (I want to say there's a one in the "electrical mods/issues" subforum) just to be sure, but you'll probably have to replace the VR. Since yours is a 95, it's already got the plug and everything needed for the R6 style VR with the built-in heat sink, and some model R6 VR's can be used.

After you install the new VR, I'd test it again, just to make sure that there are no more hidden issues.

I'm sure someone else will chime in if I'm wrong, and can offer other pointers, too. Don't worry, though. We'll help you get her running again!

I'm going to guess that the bubbling you are hearing is the fluid in your battery "boiling" from being overcharged. This is common when the VR goes bad and starts letting too much voltage through. This will rapidly degrade the battery and it's most likely shot now (the voltage drop you described is a strong indicator of this).

You're going to want to run through the electrical system troubleshooting flowchart, which I oddly can't seem to find (why is this not in the wiki?!?) but I highly suspect you're going to be upgrading your VR and installing a new battery in the near future. I wouldn't run the bike much in it's current condition as the bad VR can fry other electrical components, potentially expensive ones.