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89 600 Hurricane Build

7K views 51 replies 14 participants last post by  F'dup 
#1 ·
I'll put this bike up on the board to keep track of its progress. My buddy bought this bike to get back into riding after he sold his 13 ZX6R. Right now I'm helping build it to a point where it can pass a state inspection, and of course I'm going to need your guys help on this one. Lots of stuff aren't right with this bike :LolLolLolLol:

It's a 1989 CBR 600 Hurricane with about 23k on it. The PO said that he unplugged the clocks around 20k so that's all estimated. In that time he built a pretty bad ass little bike. Bolted on an 04 GSXR 600 front end, fitted 600RR tank panels and seat, and fitted a Harley tail fairing.




That's pretty much all that's good on it lol. He absolutely butchered the wiring harness. Wads of wires in the front, disconnected connectors, and wires cut everywhere. It's a mess.

On another note my buddy said that he'll be happy of he gets a season out of it and then he'll most likely put it back up on CL. The more I look at it the more I get that itch to modify it. It's his now, but if he wants to get rid of it I might it take off his hands.
 
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#3 ·
The bike is at my place so I have access to it. My buddy is going to buy the stuff needed to fix her up. Today I'm going to get the taillight secured to the bike and make a license plate bracket. An OEM harness and manual were purchased so those are on the way. The taillight has been semi secured and actually lines up real well in the fairing:


Now for the problems. We were out on a group ride Sunday with some friends and out riding for about 5 hours and all of a sudden the CBR just dies. Got it to a lot and chilled there while some help. A volt meter was hooked up the battery and the battery read 27 volts when it was off!

Never seen that before in my life. Not sure what it was when idling because it was able to be started after we replaced a 10A fuse in the fuse box (I put required fuses in there srespective spots). The PO had 30A and 25A fuses in some spots including a 30A in the circuit where the 10A fuse blew. My question is why would there be so much power going through the system? My bike has some mods to the wiring maybe not as much as this one, but it runs fine on the required fuses that it needs. Here are some pics of what I'm looking at:

The newer ignition:






Half of the airbox is missing so that can't be good for when debris gets up there and under the tank. Would go straight into the carbs.

A coolant reservoir is a must because the Bradley bullet shell that was being used is not holding up. Might throw my old 02 reservoir in there and see if it fits anywhere:
 
#5 ·
I really dig that bike. I wouldn't blame you one bit for buying it off your buddy....after he finances all the repairs ;)

As far as being over voltage, I'd say it's safe to say the voltage regulator is no longer regulating. The stator is obviously very healthy, though!

The regulator/rectifier might be kaput, or it may just need to be wired properly. It's charging, so the stator is being activated, but it's running unregulated. Hope you find an easy fix. Some r&r's have a separate wire that runs straight to the positive terminal of the battery. It's a voltage sensing terminal that allows the regulator portion know when to turn the charging system on and off. It could be something simple as that wire being disconnected.

Don't let your buddy push his luck with this one. Overheated batteries blowing up betwixt your legs can't be much fun. Acid burns on the cajones... :(
 
#6 ·
^What that guy said - the regulator isn't. Find where it's been hidden, I bet it won't be mounted properly. If it's still the original one without cooling fins it needs to be bolted to a solid piece of metal without paint - on the stock subframe there is an aluminium bracket for this - so that the heat can sink away from the regulator. If it doesn't have this it will overheat and melt the diodes, and the magic electrical smoke will all escape your bike.

Even if you get an upgraded/later model regulator with fins on it still needs to be mounted in a similar way or again, it won't last long.

Hondas of this era are notorious for chewing up regulators, usually because they overheat and melt the 5-pin plug into the regulator, but also the 3-pin plug to the alternator gets dirty and corroded. Either or both plugs being corroded or dirty will cause a recurring problem which you'll otherwise struggle to diagnose. You also need good earthing throughout the bike which I doubt this one is going to have. Best option is to take the green wire from the regulator and run it direct to the battery rather than back up through the harness, various joining crimps, and finally to the frame, which in turn has to conduct to the engine and up through the main earth wire to the battery.

Don't ride the bike if it's charging at over 15 volts! It'll fry, in no particular order: battery, CDI, every bulb on the bike, regulator if not already dead, alternator, various plugs on the charging system... anything electrical on the bike, really.

edit: got caught up on the problems and forgot to mention - that bike looks really cool :)
 
#7 ·
Thanks fellas I'll be looking at the regulator later today and try to see what condition it is in. It's located on a frame rail right above the transmission so I'm guessing it gets a lot of heat. My buddy is probably going to come over today and he's got a lot of ideas brewing regarding the suspension setup, levers, color, and the wheels.

I'm thinking we've got another fighterer in the making :LolLolLolLol:

Haven't done much to it lately cause I've been working on my bike lately (have an update coming on that) but I did find a solution to the coolant overflow. Dug out the old resi from my build and stuck it in the tail


It's a tight fit, but it works for now and the hose runs all the way to the overflow hole on the rad so I think we're good and the fairing fits over it. Hoping the wire harness comes in by the weekend so this can be solved.

More to come soon
 
#8 ·
Here's a fun idea that I've done on a couple of period Hondas.



Ingredients: 40mm chipset fan, aftermarket or later Honda regulator with fins, ring connector and sundries. Take a feed from any switched live such as rear brake switch feed, and Earth on the regulator mounting bolt. m4 socket screws self tapped into three different regulators so I guess the fins are like 3mm apart as standard. Did need to slightly open up the holes in the fan corners, be careful with that.

You can also add some CPU cooling paste behind the regulator.

Still needs a decent flat mounting behind it but this can help a lot.
Idea from here: https://www.google.com/search?q=vfr regulator fan tmeperature&gws_rd=ssl

How-to shows the guy got his vfr750 regulator down from 70 to 45 degrees C by doing similar.

I've also done one on a non fin regulator by using silicon sealant to glue a small heat sink on, then put a fan on that. May have pics somewhere but that was years ago.

Parts for this are pennies on eBay. Search '40mm chipset fan 12v'
 
#9 ·
Holy shit that's trick morti. Just to be sure did drill and tap the regulator itself to get the fan to bolt on there or did you do something else? I'll be out later today looking and the bike to see where else a rectifier could be bolted on.

So it looks like the shopping list is going to include a rectifier. Going to run that by him tonight when we're working on it.
 
#10 ·
Nope, the stainless m4 cap screws self tapped into the soft alloy casting. Can't remember the size but maybe this helps.



Edit: they were leftovers from carb rebuilding. So I guess m4x12. Might be easier with longer m4 button screws as modifying the corners for the screw heads was pretty hairy.
 
#11 ·
Awesome that really helps a lot. I'm pretty sure that mod will be going on the bike.

I'm a noob when it comes to electrical stuff so my judgement may be misplaced, but I think it's safe to say that isn't how connectors are supposed to look:


The rectifier looks good exterior wise but the connectors do not look good

 
#12 ·
You're right - that 3 pin plug does not look good at all! That's the plug for the alternator into the regulator and the service limit is usually about 100% less burnt than yours is.

You need to replace that plug, or solder it. I have in mind that they're 1/4" terminals but the next size up would be more appropriate. Not easy to find standard locking type connectors that size, but h4 headlight connectors use a bigger terminal, or maybe just get some single spade terminals and bundle them up- depends what type of job you're after doing.

The way that has melted points to a bad earth. Your regulator is an upgraded later one off (maybe) a vfr800. Looks like one as dad morti has a vfr and I've had a look through it. Iirc (check me) the two positive and two earth leads have the same function and are only duplicated to lighten the load on the connectors. Not sure how much testing you can do on a regulator but if it's giving 25v id say you need a new one. That type is certainly better than stock but treat it rough and it'll still Melt.

You should also get a decent multimeter and test the alternator. It's too long since I've done this but your bikes manual will give the correct values. When the plug is that bad it can cause a melted winding.

I would take the red through a 30A online fuse to the battery live and the green direct to the battery earth. And don't forget it must be mounted to a decent block of metal to sink heat and properly earth the body.

Not sure I like that main earth being bolted where it has been neither. Get it bolted down to some bare metal or direct back to the battery.
 
#16 ·
my cbr reg/rec doesnt even have cooling fins on it! This is why I bolted it to a metal undertray to try to dissipate the heat that way as well as giving it a strong ground! 90s Hondas are famous for reg/rec failures and chocolate cams!
 
#20 ·
Hmm an srad R/R fits on these? I'll have to look into this if I end up with this bike lol. Haven't done much on this build lately. I need to get that taillight bolted down and need to make a plate bracket soon.

I'm lacking motivation to get this stuff cut and fitted even though all they really will be are L brackets. Totally burned out from working on the Z.

But onto some progress. We got the harness plugged back in. There's only 4 unplugged connectors up on the front (2 are the instrument cluster) the 2 others I have no clue. There's also some unplugged connectors on that run from the turn signal box, but those will be figured out once the diagrams show up. I'll get pics of that stuff later on.

Also found out how the battery was secured when we cut the zipties. Turns out the bottom of the battery has been supported with 2 door stops keeping it upright:



Nice idea I'm not gonna lie never would have thought of door stops to hold a battery in place. Aiming to get this build up to date tomorrow night.

Been thinking of what to do to the Z lately paint scheme wise, and I stumbled upon this sheet of carbon fiber wrap and decided could go with that as a second color of sorts. Only have the logo done now, but there's going to be a lot more of the wrap going on later:
 
#21 ·
Little more progress to update on. Got the rectifier bolted on and hardwired to the alternator (R/R/ is in the stock position for now). We got everything mounted onto the bike, battery connected, and tried to start it... no luck.

It was close to catching. It would sputter a few times and then all you heard was the starter cranking. We tried to hook a battery charger up to it while the battery was still connected to the bike, but all that we got out of that was a spark shower when the positive cable touched the + terminal.

Any tips on what might be the problem and why the battery sparks when that happens? Is the battery toast? It was at 11.94V when we were done trying to start it. Or could a wire be grounded out somewhere?
 
#22 ·
Sounds like you might have a wire grounded out. Do any of the wires start to get hot when you have the key on?


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#23 ·
Nah none of the wires got hot. My dad and I were in the garage for 3 hours trying to figure this out. Battery isn't grounded out anywhere (except for being connected to the - terminal) the headlight turns when you flip the ignition on, and it's got a strong crank until the battery reruns out of juice.

It seems that everything is on working order on this thing except it firing. Is the problem in the ignition coils or somewhere else? We're out of ideas lol

Don't know why he just didn't relocate the ignition barrel instead of rigging this little switch
 
#24 ·
Man I should cool down for awhile instead of posting stuff ^ :LolLolLolLol:

In other news there's finally something positive to report on this thing. The manual was purchased, but I haven't seen it yet and if we couldn't get it to fire he would have had to take this to a shop. But just for shits and giggles I decided to bolt the carbs and the gas tank down anticipating he was trailer the bike home. Hooked up the battery and decided to crank it...

AND IT WOKE UP :rock:

It died from being starved of fuel and the petcock was set to off :oops:

But after coughing a couple of times it fired up again. So I'm guessing a carb cleaning is in the near future. It took an unreal amount of cranks to get this thing to fire, and carbs were out of the bike for over a week. One thing I can say is the bike is stupid loud when riding it and an airbox is paramount right now considering it doesn't even have one lol



Decided to look into the front brake switch problem and discovered these:



I have since cut those frayed wires out and spliced fresh wire back in. Hoping I didn't mess anything up cause I think that Black/White wire is one of the killswitch contacts. Going to start it again later today hoping that it wasn't a fluke. More to come soon
 
#26 ·
All of that checks out Mort :rock:

She fired again today so yesterday's event wasn't a fluke. All of the 10A fuses are still good so it's running on the intended power. I did find another fault and that is even with the killswitch button set to Off and you press the starter button the motor still cranks, but then if the bike is running and you flip the switch to Off the bike shuts down. It's wierd. I'm thinking he should get a new killswitch assembly, that might even eliminate the front brake switch issue

Just filled up the coolant reservoir and currently working a license plate setup. Probably going to be temporary. I'll get pics later on
 
#27 ·
The kill switch probably just interrupts power to the coils. My CB will crank all day with the key on and the run switch set to off without starting. Switch it to run and it fires right up


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
#28 ·
Awesome that makes sense because you can cut it off when it's running. I guess it's a Honda thing :LolLolLolLol:

Got to work on the front brake switch tonight. Instead of looking into the wires on the killswitch loom I figured I could bypass that by splicing into the wires on the harness:



Flipped the switch and success! Both switches now work, but the taillight situation isn't finished. The switches power the brighter filament in the bulbs and the power wire is supposed to power the lower filament. The lower filament isn't getting any power for some reason from the actual wire that is supposed to do that. I spliced into the low beam wire on the headlight and ran it back to that wire, but it powers the brighter filament which makes the brake switches useless. Any ideas on this one?

Another issue is the spark plug cap on cylinder 4 keeps popping out of place, and I can't get it to stay put. We were out group riding Tuesday and I don't think it was running 3 cylinders so maybe it stayed put then. Need to get it to stay put.


An airbox and filter have been purchased as well a cheap muffler from China. We'll see how that goes lol. It's getting there
 
#29 ·
Welp the bike is no longer at my place as I rode to his house on Monday. This thing is fun lol and has a lot of power.

Been over at his house helping to get this thing running properly. Put an airbox with a filter on it, just got the horn and oem clutch perch on tonight, and he custom fitted a $50 chinese muffler. It now sounds like a sportbike, much better sound. Don't have a lot of pics need to get some more:





Needs some more work cosmetically, but that's up to him. 1 problem that we hopefully solved by buying a new battery is that the bike cut out on him while riding after about 5 miles. It appeared that the old battery wasn't a holding a charge anymore as it was giving out 5 amps when we tried cranking it.

But what I'm worried about is that is the alternator giving out or going bad? Cause that should be charging the system mostly when it's running if I'm not mistaken. Trying to go to a local bike night rally friday night so hopefully the battery was the problem and his bike can make it
 
#30 ·
Thought I'd give this an update as well. Took a lot of cranking but it eventually caught after babying the throttle cause it started off revving at about 500 rpm it seemed. Nothing bad happened on the ride so that's a good sign lol.

All though we did notice some steam/smoke that would come from somewhere on the bike even during the summer. Finally found that it was coming the vacuum valve on the valve cover. I'm sure there's supposed to be a hose there that goes somewhere else. So that needs to be plugged cause I'm sure that's not a good thing.

We also swapped rides and I got to push this thing to the limits and it's got some oomph for a 27 year old bike. It gets a pretty nasty speed wobble tho around 110 and up. It was kind of unsettling lol the bars were shaking like crazy. Do you guys what could cause that?

My buddy's got some plans for this bike should get to it over the winter. I'll leave this with a pic of how it sits

 
#34 ·
if the forks are shorter that'll have steepened your rake angle, this'll prob make it more twitchy than the increased trail caused by reduced offset yokes . a stepped yoke of fork extensions would be the best bet . i've seen this happen when I've made yokes for racers to fit gsxr forks to SV650's , it drops the front end too much and causes a scary weave at speed
 
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