I'm running higher wattage lights in my passing lamps and I have found that on long rides with them on I'll run the battery down. I only run them at night now and keep the battery on a tender when I'm not going to be on the bike. I still only get a little over a year on any battery I have ever had on this bike.

On a side note I have heard the noise you are talking about on the right side down below the push rod tubes. I do believe that there is a solenoid located there and when my last battery was going bad I had a grinding like noise coming from there. Low voltage must have been the cause of this as it persisted until I changed out the battery.

drkstr22 wrote:
I know if I run the high beam and the spots at the same time I blow out fuses and nothing works.....yeah I found that out the hard way!

I know i went out to a dead battery the other day I did run the spots during my 2 our ride which is why...I assume anyways the Battery did not charge. Which of cours makes me wonder why it died in the first place.

I guess if it has to happen now would be the time lol....

Coot.....Ill post pictures here just for you. I bet one person in particular here likes my costume more than anybody! lol
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If battery is dead and you jump bike and it runs fine for a 2 hr ride the battery was likely the issue.

Normally the bike would not run for 2hrs post jumping with a dead battery if the charging system wasn't working so i bet the battery is the issue.

Also,never test charging system on a bike or car by removing battery cable,that can at times fry the stator/alt and or rectifier/volt regulator etc.

Since you removed battery cable with bike running it could have fried stator & or rectifier so at this point you need to chk charge system ,look for approx 14v at battery with motor at approx 2500-3k rpm.

The charging system on the R* isnt that good esp older R* so when running passing lamps ,headlight,bikes ecm,coils,maybe elec f-pump if still running it there not much amps left over to charge a possibly pork battery which is possbily why the bike ran fine for 2hrs post jumping it.

And thats maybe why when you charged the battery overnight with no load on it that the battery was charged enough to fire the bike the next day.

Also need to fully charge battery to have it properly load tested at local store or shop,fully charged battery may look ok at 12.7-12.8 volts but when you load teste it thats when you could find its got a bad cell pooping out under load.

Could also be a bad/dirty connection at battery,bad connetion at retifier etc not alowing it to charge properly too so chk that out if you decide to get battery load tested .

Good luck!

Scott

my regulator went out ordered one from rm stator on ebay for 40 dollars free shipping anybody have any dealings with them also they say its the same regulator on tons of yamahas yamaha says not true has different part #s on the models listed example my 02 roadstar and an 05 yamaha yxr660 rhino rm stator says same part yamaha says different part any insight on this thanks.

allwaysriding wrote:
my regulator went out ordered one from rm stator on ebay for 40 dollars free shipping anybody have any dealings with them also they say its the same regulator on tons of yamahas yamaha says not true has different part #s on the models listed example my 02 roadstar and an 05 yamaha yxr660 rhino rm stator says same part yamaha says different part any insight on this thanks.
I'm not sure about RM but I would buy a regulator for a 2005 and install it on your 2002. The stator and reg were not matched very well on the older bikes. Your better off installing the 2005 reg and possibly at a later date or when the stator goes south, install the stator froom a 2005.
http://roadstarclinic.com/content/view/189/103/

Just a quick follow.

Talked with another Star owner last night about the grinding noise coming from the lower right side. The solenoid that is located at the bottom of the cam shaft below the two push rod tubes is to vent the cylinders during cranking to make it easier for the starter to push the engine over. When my battery was low I could hear this solenoid clacking in there most likely because of too low of a voltage being sent to it because the starter was pilling all the battery had to give.