The Honda Owners Club

Hi

I wonder if anyone might be able to offer a bit of insight. I have an early (98) honda deauville that I have been having starting problems with.

About 4 months ago the battery started to show problems (ok so it died a death mainly by my own fault) so I replaced it. No problems for about 3 months and then the same thing. I took it back to the shop and they tested it, recharged it and I refitted it. I measured the voltage - 12.5V, left if overnight connected, came back in the morning and measured the voltage again - 12.5V. Happy that there didn't appear to be a short in the system I tried to start it. Wouldn't even attempt. So I went back again and was given a replacement under the assumption that the battery had been faulty.

Now 1 month on the same thing is happening. The bike started fine until I went out for a ride in the dark (for all of about 1hour) on 2 consecutive evenings and then the next day it didn't have enough current to turn the engine over. I gather the probability of 2 batteries going in such a short time is fairly remote so I have to assume that there may be another fault here.

So I thought - Alternator. I looked at the Haynes book of lies, and measured the voltage across the terminals whilst it was running. Haynes quotes 13.5-15.5V. I measured 14.5 with the lights off and 14.2 with full beam. By inference the alternator is doing something.

At present the only way I can start the bike is by jump starting it with a battery starter pack (nobody will be able to just ride off on it now, ha ha) so I believe the starter motor works.

At this point I have reached the limit of my knowledge. Could a failing starter motor require more current to get it to crank?

Thanks in advance

Tiny Pens

welcome fellow Deauville man. I commute on my Deaville all year round, come rain or shine. I only work about 10 miles away and have heated grips on during the chilly season. Short, dark, heated trips - basically your batteries worst nightmare - but I have not had any problems. That said I tend to plug the bike into an optimate by habit at weekends which conditions the battery. I'm mentioning all this cos I myself haven't had, and as far as I've heard, there isn't a common problem with the Deauville's electrics.

It sounds like your starter motor to me. I don't know what style starter is on the NT650 but some starters have a solenoid which engages the drive and this can take some umph (i.e. current) to engage. What you didn't say when your bike failed to start was whether the starter turned the engine over at all, or just too slowly to fire up?

Couple of other things worth checking - have you tried to see if you have a current drain? Sounds like you have a multimeter, you'll need to connect it in series with the battery (disconnect the positive lead and put meter between battery terminal and the lead), on a milliamp range you should have significantly less than 1mA with everything switched off. Note, your meter provides only a tiny electrical load on the battery so when you still got 12.5V after leaving overnight that doesn't mean that the voltage would not be pulled down a lot lower with a decent electrical load across it, i.e. the starter. Secondly, do you have an alarm or immobiliser - if so disconnect it completely to isolate it either as faulty or as a drain.

hope this helps, good luck, todge
PS. when you solve the problem post on here what it was so we can all learn from it

head on over to http://www.deauvilleuk.org/forum for plenty of advise too

i have had lots of ntvs(also africatwins etc) and they all suffer bad reg/recs,the mod i use is to fit a cbr600 reg/rec,all works well after that.
sluggish starter is generally either main grounding wire is corroded internally or plain snapped off inside sheathing or the starter button has corrosion.
the starter itself ive had no problems with that i can remember and all my ntvs have had huge mileages on them(is why i use them for winter hacks,very good reliable motors i find).
just stuff ive come across,mite help.

Is the starter solenoid clicking when you push the starter button? If not check the starter button contacts first. If it does click the starter button is OK. Check the voltage to earth on both large terminals on the solenoid whilst operating the starter button. If no voltage on the starter motor side when the button is pressed, replace the solenoid. If you can short both solenoid terminals with a jump lead and the bike turns over the starter motor is OK. Check all earths, especially main battery and engine to frame first though.

Regards

Chimpy