DEAD battery twice.

Mikie'sST1100

Joined
Nov 9, 2009
Messages
20
Age
80
Location
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Bike
Honda ST1100 1995
DEAD battery twice. Updated with new information

I WILL ADD THIS TO THE POST AS IT IS THE MOST CURRENT INFORMATION.
My ST1100 needs and alternator. Being a 1995 it is the 28 Amp variety and the dealer says you can't get one from Honda. I told them that some people do an upgrade to the 40 Amp version.

I know there are posts on the forum that discuss this upgrade and the methods for doing the conversion.

If someone can point me to the best ones on the forum I would appreciate it.

I will forward the links to the dealer service dept.

Thanks,
Michael


My 1995 ST1100 has been trouble free for 43,000 miles. A couple of weeks ago it died north (up the river) from Pecos New Mexico. My wife and I went two up back to Santa Fe; purchased a new AGM battery (it is cheaper than a tow and my two place trailer is still in the Chicago metro area). Once installed we came back to Santa Fe. The next day we checked the battery place (who charged the original AGM that died) and the overnight charge brought the battery back to "as new" spec's.

There is not Honda dealer in Santa Fe so I made a service apt. at one of the Albuquerque, NM dealers. We keep the bikes on battery tenders and on the day of the appointment I rode the bike down I-25 to the ABQ dealer. My wife followed me the 65+ miles to the dealer. She had the second (fully charged battery in the Subadoo) just in case. SF to ABQ looses about 3,500 feet in altitude and I coasted, clutch in, when ever possible. I made the dealer without incident. I also brought MY copy of the Honda Factory Service manual too.

The bike was service and a new ($253 Genuine Honda rectifier was the only item on the repair order. Drove the bike home with no problems. Back into the garage and plugged into the Battery Tender for a few days. Sunday we rode NW out of SF to highway 4 and headed West from Los Alamos. Then north on until the road becomes gravel. Then back south on the road to NM 4 south to Jimenez Springs and then further south into the Jimenez Reservation. We stopped for gas (it's cheaper on the reservations) and when I attempted to restart the ST it was dead.

So, we rode 80 miles (two up on my wife's Honda Shadow Aero) back to Santa Fe. Picked up the second battery and drove the Subadoo back to the Jimenez Reservation.....installed the the battery and drove approximately 56 miles to the Honda dealer in ABQ.

First mistake was not taking the second battery on the shakedown run. My bad.

So the ST is at the dealer and I hope they can fix it. I have yet to hear anything.

Any good ideas from the Peanut Gallery?
 
Last edited:
Grizzly said:
f they pulled the alternator to replace the rectifier,
Click to expand...

No, the rectifier on the 1100 is not attached to the alternator. It is easily replaced as it sits under the left side cover near the battery.

To the OP: My guess is the dealer didn't test your charging system properly, saw low voltage output to the battery, so thought that changing the rectifier would solve the problem. Obviously not. You probably have suffered the common 28 amp alternator failure that has caused many owners of the '95 and previous year models to upgrade the system to the 40 amp unit used on the '96 and later models.

Make sure the dealer performs all the tests on the alternator as described in the Honda Service Manual. They should also do a dynamic test of each coil in the alternator to see that the AC voltage output of each coil is relatively equal and at about 70V AC.
 
Also, if in fact the alternator is toast, you can not get a replacement for it. Honda has discontinued that part a few years back, so you would have to have a 40 amp unit installed instead. Involves a fair bit of labour - removing the swing arm - and would not be a cheap repair by a dealer, IF they would do it. The 40 amp alternator from Honda is still available, but expensive, so there is an alternative to that. Somewhere on this board you can find a link to a Chinese made 40 amp unit that fits and has been used by a few with success - so far.

Jim Van on this forum was the "finder" of this knock off part.
 
Thanks for the help on this. I have yet to hear from the dealer. As far as parts go I have a good friend who has worked for Honda Motorcycles his entire life. He is the second longest employee at Honda. He is a corporate manger in the Parts arena. He is pretty good about sleuthing parts that may be sitting somewhere. If necessary I will use him to get and alternator.

When I learn anything I will post.
 
If you decide to do the upgrade to a 40 amp alternator, you can acquire an aftermarket from eBay for around $140. In the meantime remove the left panel where the battery is. Check the connection that has three yellow wires. Make sure the terminals in the connector are clean. Next check the red connector for the main relay. It’s Under a rubber boot behind the spare green 30 amp fuse. If it is melted or burned out replace the damaged wire and use new spade connectors. Beside the battery is the voltage regulator/rectifier check that white connector it may be melted too. This connector is hard to replace but again you can use individual spade connectors and hook directly to the VRR
 
Ducky said:
Just new to this model motorcycle. Appears not to be charging. two new batteries. Where to find pics etc. re: how to find/replace alternator??
Shop service manuals online??
1991 St1100
newbie
thanks in advance!!
Click to expand...
The Clymer manual has the procedure for upgrading 28 to 40 amps. Some great threads exist on this site also.
 
Mikie'sST1100 said:
When I learn anything I will post.
Click to expand...
John OoSTerhuis said:
It’s been a while Mike. What happened?
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I just noticed that Mike hasn’t been back on the site since Sep 10. Hope we eventually find out. On the old software I could drop him an email anyway... wish we still had that feature, I used it (received and sending) to good effect.

John
 
John OoSTerhuis said:
On the old software I could drop him an email anyway... wish we still had that feature, I used it (received and sending) to good effect.

John
Click to expand...
If you move your pointer/cursor over his avatar and click on 'start a conversation' you can send him a PM which goes to his email address and mailbox here (unless of course he has opted out).
 
SMSW said:
If you move your pointer/cursor over his avatar and click on 'start a conversation' you can send him a PM which goes to his email address and mailbox here (unless of course he has opted out).
Click to expand...
From my own experiences I prefer communicating directly with another member via email one-to-one off site, rather than “private” messages on site. As you say, an email alert that one has a “conversation” started on the site is not actually emailing directly, and one has no way of knowing if the alert was even sent. I did not use PMs on the old software for personal reasons, the email function working well instead. FWIW

John
 
John OoSTerhuis said:
From my own experiences I prefer communicating directly with another member via email one-to-one off site, rather than “private” messages on site. As you say, an email alert that one has a “conversation” started on the site is not actually emailing directly, and one has no way of knowing if the alert was even sent. I did not use PMs on the old software for personal reasons, the email function working well instead. FWIW

John
Click to expand...
Yes, the private message/conversation stuff isn't really private, just like phone text messages, it's put on a database/server and distributed. I've had to look at private messages in the past due to a few rather clever spammers. You can send a conversation saying to email. I've reviewed the email cron jobs and logs and it appears to be working well. On the old site, the email directly really was actually using the site software, similar to PM notices, so I'm not sure how 'directly' it was working.

I'll see if there's a mod out there to allow this but I think it's a privacy type issue this software intentionally avoided. Will check and reply.
 
@John OoSTerhuis I did a search and didn't come up with anything other than some mass email mods for admins to send out stuff.

So for now, the option is to send a conversation telling the contact to Email you and provide your email. I'll keep an eye out for any new mods that show up that might satisfy this and give you a better direct option.
 
Thanks, Joe. Much appreciated. I’ve used the current system to reach out to Tim Shaw in Guatamala and get him some help, establishing phone and email exchanges. Works OK for me to initiate contact. For now though I’ll like to limit incoming to those willing to share their email right off, like the old software.

I didn’t want to get into it here on a thread but... it’s not so much a privacy issue as it is a way to limit the volume and type of personal incoming traffic. Like I said, my experience.

Thanks again. I’ll keep hanging around and contribute where and when I can, regardless.

Now... how about those forum exclusion and thread ignore filters... :)

Regards, John
 
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