Below voltage specifications

After I took my daughter to school, then I stopped at the gas station to fill-up. After filling-up the SWing would not start and then had no more battery power (the seat light was switched off).

The good news is that I had my battery tender under my seat ... so I plugged in at the station for a few minutes. I was then able to start the SWing, so I canceled the roadside assistance.

I drove the SWing home and kept the battery on the battery tender for a couple days. I took the battery to the auto-parts store to test the battery ... the battery load test was good.

I finally got a chance today to take it to the Honda dealer. They did a quick check and found the voltage was below Honda specification, they said it could be either the stator or rectifier ... which will be covered by my extended warranty. Tomorrow they said they would be able to determine which need to be replaced. They said that it was a good thing that I identified this problem quickly or both the stator and rectifier would have needed to be replaced.

I was trying to get an idea when the parts may be available, he said it may be another week once they identify the parts because he said that Honda has greatly slowed down the delivery of the parts ... which I thought was interesting.

Dear Honda-silver, How many miles do you have on your SW? I have an 08 and was reading about your voltage problem, Thanks,fmiller805

fmiller805 wrote:

How many miles do you have on your SW? I have an 08 and was reading about your voltage problem

~41K miles

The Battery Tender was the key that helped me to confirm the problem. Under normal situations the Battery Tender would turn from from red to green light in 15-30 seconds. After my problem at the gas station ... it took much much longer for the Battery Tender to turn solid green. That was the proof that I need to believe that there was a problem.

First of all Honda hasn't slowed down on their parts delivery. I've just ordered some very unusual parts thru Service Honda and they arrived here in less than one week. Service Honda does not stock any parts, but gets them from Honda then repackages your order to ship direct to you.

Secondly, checking the stator is a simple matter of checking the ohm readings at the alternator 3P wire plug located behind the right side passenger footpeg. If all three wires check OK, then you've got a problem with the rectifier. It's a 15 min job. See Chapter 18 (18- in the book. You do have the book, don't you?

Methinks your dealer may have his head up there where the sun don't shine.

Tim
'03 Silverwing, Cosmic Jumper
Philadelphia

Cosmic_Jumper wrote:

First of all Honda hasn't slowed down on their parts delivery. I've just ordered some very unusual parts thru Service Honda and they arrived here in less than one week. Service Honda does not stock any parts, but gets them from Honda then repackages your order to ship direct to you.

Honda service would tend to order more part then you or me. He said the parts used to come in a day or two after they ordered them before ... now they are taking a week.

It would not be too hard to image that either Honda or Honda dealer might be trying to save money by reducing shipping costs ... would it?? How do you save shipping costs ... reduce the number of shipments and get more in shipment.

He said the part will be ordered on Tuesday ... so we will see how long it takes.

Cosmic_Jumper wrote:

Secondly, checking the stator is
a simple matter of checking the ohm readings at the alternator 3P wire
plug located behind the right side passenger footpeg. If all three
wires check OK, then you've got a problem with the rectifier. It's a 15
min job. See Chapter 18 (18- in the book. You do have the book, don't you?

I have the Service Manual, but I have something even better an Extended Warranty ... and I saved 15 minutes.

Look for online parts suppliers. You'll have better luck finding the part in stock, and it'll be cheaper.

honda_silver wrote:

He said the part will be ordered on Tuesday ... so we will see how long it takes.

I called today to see what parts were ordered and estimated delivery. He told me they had already ordered the stator on Friday ... and it should ship either today or tomorrow. So the part did not ship until 3-4 business days (not including Saturday).

Right now the rectifier was within specs, but he said that after they have the new stator in they will retest the rectifier.

The part came in Friday a week after ordering.

The Swing was ready Friday, but atlas I could not pick it up till Saturday. The service counter said the Honda Extended Warranty paid for itself ... he said the normal cost of the repair would have been around $600.00.

$600 bucks, Ouch!

OEM Honda stator from bikebandit.com is $217.
Stator can be changed out in less than 1.5 hours.
Tube of Yamabond sealer $5.00 to seal case

Maby an hour troubleshooting, less if you use the troubleshooting chart in the service manual.

$400 is probably a more reasonable retail repair.

I have had that side cover off to reseal the stator wire to the case. I get by pretty cheap by doing my own work. Or having warranty.