hi from glasgow folks,this is my first post.

well im now the proud owner of a 1987(i think) vfr 400 nc24,i bought it last week for £550 pound and apart from a starting problem the bike looks in great condition(looks as tho its never been droped,and has 60.000 miles on the clock.

i know nothing about bikes exept how to ride them so im looking for a bit of advice if possible folks.

when i got the bike i had to start it up by bridging it as it wouldnt start with the start butten.
i rode it home and it seemed great to ride but once home i couldnt get it started again so my friend charged the battery(guy i got it from said it had a new battery and regulator rectifier),the next morning it took a while but i got it started again but had to keep the revs up at lights to stop it from cutting out.

im not taking it out now untill i can get it fixed properly cause i dont want to keep bridging it every time i want to start it and also i would have to charge the battery every night wich cant be good.
saying that it appears the battery goes dead after a while but when i put the meter on it it says theirs 75% charge in it(maybe the meters brike i dont know).
i dont know where to start realy,i dont have a lot of cash but my friend who knows i little bit about bikes seems to think its somewhere between the reg/rect,battery or altinator.the fact it doesnt start from the start button to is a worry.apart from that the only other problem i have with it is if i turn the handlebars as far left as they can go the fairing hits the kill switch and turns the bike off,this to is a little bit of a worry(is it a common problem with them?).


any feedback would be great folks as im well straped for cash and dont realy knowwhere to start with it.

Welcome mate, there's plenty of knowledgable nc24 owners around here so you won't be stuck for long.

First thing I would be checking is the battery voltage with a multimeter. Check it at idle, low and mid revs, it should be between 12.5-13.8 volts at in these rev ranges.

Dud reg/recs are common on nc30's (maybe nc24's also?), if they overcharge your battery it will very quickly kill it. Check that the reg/rec is operating correctly (by checking battery voltage while its running) before buying a new battery as it will just kill the next one as well.

There are also some electrical checks you can do on the alternator, but I'm not familiar with them.

thanks mate,my mate is building a zxr 1100(i think it is)and knows a little bit about bikes so i will get him to try this out tonight.
im really desperate to get out on it with all this sunshine we have been having so im willing to spend every last penny i have on it over the next week(not that i have much) but hopfully il be on it soon.

theirs a few reg/recs on ebay at the momment,im thinking of just buying one,the only problem is some are like a tenner and others are £50 to £60 quid and they all look differant,lol,i may just go for one of the £10 ones and see how i get on.

oh btw,i also read that these bikes run better with the air filter removed,as i say i dont know about these things,ive rode bikes for years but this time im determined to learn more about how the run.
i would think the filter should be their for a reason but removing it helps ill get my mate to do that tonight.

and ive also read its better to relocate the reg/rec to under the seat so the battery dont over heat it,i will do this to,i seen a picture of one that had been cable tied to the frame under the pillion seat so if this is a good thing to do i will do it tonight also.

don't waste the £10.

You get what you pay for

VFR reg/recs are a weak point of the system...

You can retrofit a yamaha reg-rec if your happy cutting wires etc.

Electrexworld sell an upgraded one with fins on it to aid cooling.

A full electrical test is worthwhile...

Check the altenator, reg/rec, battery.

A dud battery is the quickest way to overheat and kill the reg/rec and altenator.

The 3 yellow wires from the altenator are on a separate plug than the green and red wires, see if the plus is melted.

Altenator check.

1. You should have around 1ohm between each yellow wire of the plug, anything significantly higher and its likely to have had it.

2. Each of the 3 yellow wires should be supplying 50v AC (make sure your set to AC) at 5000rpm

Reg/Rec Check

If your altenator is ok you can check the reg/rec. The Honda service manual details resistance values for each wire, but it should be giving out 14.2v at 5000rpm.

Anything majorly higher and it's knackered.

Battery:

You can get a good Varta battery of the correct type from tayna.co.uk for around £24, worthwhile investment compared to crap you can get for similar price.

Note:

The mileage is quite high? 60,000 km? thats still nearly 40,000 miles.. i'd fully check over the bike as bearings start to wear at that ages.. and being 23 years old it's probably been neglected at some point so i'd check all the rubber hoses too. Brake hoses if origianl will be well past their best.

Check the fluids over too, brake and coolant. Coolants a doddle to change if it looks manky.

I've heard a few stories of VFR owners (21/24/30/35) buying a bike thats had the electrics sorted, when inface the owers have just brought a new battery so by the time the new owner gets home the batterys toast and the electrical system still needs work.

Shouldn't be too hard to get up and running again.. worst case is a new reg/rec and altenator and battery which new with 12 months guarantee from electrexworld is going to cost you about £130

Do not remove the air filter, search this forum and you'll see many many people saying its a bad thing, you cannot beat the standard honda one unless your prepared to spend a small fortune.

It's the engine heat that can affect the reg-rec. I'm not sure by how much though, its usually running a knackered battery that kills them. (the battery can't accept the charge provided by the reg/rec, the reg-rec dumps this charge as heat, having no fins on it it soon overheats and dies)

Don't go removing the air filter, it will mess up the carb fuelling big time. Many race bikes remove it but you need to change a lot of other carb parts to get it to run properly. Too much crud around the roads, it will shorten the engine life.

If you go for another reg/rec make sure it has cooling fins. The standard honda ones are shite and not being able to handle the heat might lead to their deaths. Yup, good idea to put it somewhere where there's some airflow to help cool it.

Edit: I think Neo has said it all! Some good advice there.

honestly guys i cant thank you enough,im going to write all this down as i dont have a printer,lol,this is a real help,my mates going to give me a hand to look over it tonight and try and get some of the problems sorted,ill write all this down immediately.