Maintenance Log – Page 30 – Not Your Average Engineer

February 8, 2010July 1, 2020

New Regulator/Rectifier for the PC800

The other day I picked up a brand new Honda R/R via a friend from Rick’s Motorsport Electrics. The old regulator/rectifier on the bike had been put on sometime in the last few years and came from a completely different bike. It works but I thought I might as well put the real deal back on my bike. The other R/R is now in my trunk as a spare in case of problem on the road.

The new R/R behaves differently than the other R/R. Now my voltage stays at 14.1 volts no matter how much electrical heated clothing I have running (while the engine is above 3000 RMP). At idle the bike stays happily in the 12 volt area and doesn’t dip below like the old R/R did. I think this new one is a lot better than the old. Hopefully I will get many thousands of miles out of it without incident.

January 30, 2010June 21, 2020

New antifreeze for the PC800

Yet again I put new antifreeze into the PC800. This time I put in Prestone Dex-Cool Extended Life. It is orange. Good thing there isn’t anything but Aluminum in my bike’s engine. The IPCRC was pretty set against the generic NAPA brand antifreeze that I had filled the bike with 500 miles or so ago. It seems that there is a high probability of that brand having silicates or borates in it. With the PC800, any silicates or borates in the coolant will slowly eat away at the water pump until it doesn’t pump anymore and you end up stranded at the side of the road with an overheated bike on a hot day.

Many of the crowd on IPCRC only use the Honda brand pre-mixed motorcycle coolant. I chose to get this Prestone stuff on the advice of a couple of the members. It explicitly states that it doesn’t have any borates or silicates in it, it was much closer and easier to buy the Prestone brand, and it was cheaper. I suppose I’ll find out if it was the right choice if my water pump goes out someday. Hope it doesn’t!

This servicing was done at a few hundred miles shy of 45k.

In unrelated news, my clutch is starting to slip when I really hammer on the throttle at high speeds and sometimes when trying to accelerate quickly through the gears. Hopefully I won’t have to pull the clutch plates and service it until I get 3k to 5k miles out of the oil that is currently in the engine. Probably around May I will do that job.

January 24, 2010June 21, 2020

Wheel plastic troubles on my PC800

Since replacing my front tire a month ago I’ve been having a heck of a time figuring out how to get the plastic to snap back on correctly. The left side piece is not reconnecting correctly. There were a few posts on IPCRC from a few months ago with someone having the same troubles. I tried to follow the suggestions there but to no avail. Anyone have any ideas how to make my front wheel shroud whole again?

The mud is from doing a little off-roading/gravel/mud roads with the bike. At the top of the plastic semi-circle you should be able to see where the plastic is separated. Click through the picture a couple times to get a HUGE version to see what I’m talking about.

Here’s a close-up. I can’t get the tabs to attach to anything and it seems that maybe the left side plastic is warped or something?

Looking at it from the front. The right side plastic (left in this photo) is just fine. The left side piece is screwed up though. Any thoughts on how to fix it?