I have a 1998 Honda Foreman 400 S. I have replaced the battery two times recently. For some reason, after riding for 15minutes the bike will shut off completely with loss of power. The bike will not start becasue the battery is being heavily drained. any suggestions? Also, Is it me or can you not pull start without a battery on the bike? I cannot understand why a brand new battery fully charged can be drained so quickly. I have had problems with this bike since I bought it in 2003. Help!!

 

Sounds like there is no power comming from the stator (battery charger) on the bike, which is why the bike will only run while the battery is charged. If you have a good stator, you can run with a bad battery by pull starting because the stator provides power for the coil and stuff. But if your stator is gone, and your battery is dead, you have no power to run the coil, CDI, etc.

 

is the stator similar to an alternator? what causes this to go bad? it sounds like if i replace this it will fix the problem.

 

I had a similar problem when I bought my bike.

mine ended up being the "pulse regulator". It had corroded pins and had lost one side.

But my bike would lose power gradually and not as quickly as what you are describing

 

could any one rate the difficulty of this repair? I am pretty handy at the mechanical side, but do not have much experience in electrical. estimate cost?

 

Stator and altenator pretty well do the same thing. I would imagine the repair manual would give direction on how to test the charging system to find the exact cause of your problem though.

 

We've had a lot of trouble with the reg/rec in the TRX450's ..

 

thanks guys

 

Think you've got a short in the wiring.
A battery fully charged should keep that thing running for a long time without the charging system working at all.
If you can charge the battery, hook everything up and leave it overnight and not lose the charge, everything between the ignition switch and the battery is good.
If not, the wires from the battery to everything ahead of the ignition switch are suspect.
If the battery stays charged overnight with the switch off, the problem is downstream from the ignition switch - Now the fun begins.
First check all the wires that are routed next to the frame of the rig to make sure there are no wear points (shorts). If you're clear there keep on truckin'.
Go to your Honda dealer and have him give you a printout of the electrical system for your rig. With that and a VOM (volt/ohm/millivolts) meter you can see what is going to ground (- on the battery).
If you don't have a VOM, $15 - 20 bucks will get you something that will do you for a spell.
If you get stuck from here, give a shout. We'll explore the intricies of the Honda wiring system.
Good luck!
JTAK

 

Thanks JTAK, i am going to look into this once the rainy weather clears up. I will keep you posted.