Electrical/charging stystem trouble shooting

[Jared]

My bike's charging system is having problems this morning and was hoping to get some better ideas of how to trouble shoot it.

The bike started up just fine this morning. Didn't hesitate at all, and warmed up and rode as usual. As I was leaving my neighborhood my stereo restarted and cycled up a couple of times, which was unusual, but the bike still seemed to be running fine and didn't notice any problems all the way to my first stop. When leaving my first stop I noticed my volt meter showed low, right around 11v, while the bike was running. It usually shows 13.5. While riding from my first to second stop (about a mile or two) the bike volt meter dropped down to about 9.5. After that stop, the bike started, but definitely struggled. Noticing the problem I started home. As I continued down the road the volts continued to drop and the bike started loosing power and puttering until it completely lost power and died.

Right now I have the batter charging in front of someone's house and I'm hoping it gets enough juice to limp it home. I'm guessing it's the regulator/rectifier or stator. Any easy way to test this?

[ringadingh]

Without a shop manual available I can't tell you the exact testing procedure, but if you remove the LH side crank case cover you will see the two plugs that the rectifiers connect to. There is a good chance that they will be melted, and need splicing, or replacing. These are known weak points in the charging system.

[Vulcanrider03]

Either that or I would check my battery with a bat tester,,, if not the volt reg is gone or worst the alternator

[blowndodge]

My bet is battery or its connection Jared.

[macmac]

1. Check the gang ground at the battery box, which is wrapped in tape for a melt down.
2. Check the starter relay behind the coolant rex for a bad case of crudlings.
3 check the white wire off the 30 amp fuse in the same location for batttery power and it must be a exact match match.
4. remove the left side cover and take a photo of how it is. it must go back exactly the way you found it.
5 locate the 2 orange plug connectors there and check the same white wire on both sides of these 2 connectors for battery volts on the white wire. (assuming these connectors are not fried, ans they may well be. )
6. repeat step 5 using the black yellow wire at the connector for ground.

( Note wire colors at these 2 connectors change at the connectors.)

(Note one connector has 3 all yellow wires coming from the outter stator, and the inner stator has 3 yellow wires with black dots , and do not confuse these as grounds ) These are AC wires.

7 Open the fuse box on the right side and pull the head light relay. Set the multimeter to Ohms and test the 2 diodes in the relay probing one then the other for continuity and then revers the probes. One way current should pass and reversing the probes no current should pass. If you can see wires it is the solid yellow one at the fuse box coming from the rec reg.

8. With the key on but the engine not running the last wires at the 2 plugs left are red and should read 12.xx battery volts. With the engine running they should read battery volts.

9 check the wires are the rec regs too for being cut, or broken.

10 Setting the meter to AC Volts any pair of wires on the out side stator should read somewhere between 36 to 64 volts. Ditto for the inner stator, when the engine is running. ( I can not find any spec for the Ac side, but this system is permanent magnets and should work when the alts are turning.)

This type of system has No Field wires.

[Jared]

I put a battery tender on it for a couple hours and was able to start and get it home. The surface charge was enough to get me the 5 miles or so down the road, but I lost a full volt on that ride.

[MAS Tequila]

Originally Posted by Jared

I put a battery tender on it for a couple hours and was able to start and get it home. The surface charge was enough to get me the 5 miles or so down the road, but I lost a full volt on that ride.

I'm glad you made it home.

Now decisions, decisions.

MT

[plumber63]

I think you better sell/trade it for a Harley or Victory.That's what all the cool kids are doing. I'm sure you could still be president since this is now the Various bagger association.

[macmac]

The battery is a known good at this point. I would be all over the 3 orange connectors first. The one under the seat , which is all grounds and the 2 under the left side cover which are AC DC fields and grounds for both stators and rec regs.

[macmac]

So what is happening Jared ?

[dshelly]

Originally Posted by plumber63

. I'm sure you could still be president since this is now the Various bagger association.

I thought Brad was the President of that.....

[Rasta]

Yes, what did you find out?

[Tearitupfixitrepeat]

Load test the battery.
Then check of its connections.
Tighten the battery bolts with a wrench or socket not a big screwdriver.

In my experience a 1500 should be able to get a good charge with no accessories with only one alternator working.

http://tearitupfixitrepeat.blogspot....-charging.html

http://tearitupfixitrepeat.blogspot....ng-issues.html

http://tearitupfixitrepeat.blogspot....sue-found.html

http://tearitupfixitrepeat.blogspot....not-fixed.html

http://tearitupfixitrepeat.blogspot....ad-stator.html

http://tearitupfixitrepeat.blogspot....lternator.html

[Jared]

Okay guys, sorry that I haven't had the chance to work on the bike or update anyone. It's been a very busy week.

First concern, the new battery, even with a trickle charger on it, never gets above 12.5v-ish. If I remember correctly, prior to this problem, it would regularly read in the 13-ish.

I went for a ride this evening, and everything seemed to be okay, but with the bike running the volt read around 11.8v. I wasn't planning on going far and wanted to really test things so I turned on the spot lights and the radio. The bike dropped down to 11v and as the volume on the radio was turned up, it dropped more.

At my turn around point I turned off the engine, but left everything else on for just a minute or two, and then started heading back. When I started heading back, my headlight wouldn't come on at first (spotlight would), but turned on after 5 seconds or so. My radio kept cycling on and off and by the time I got home I was down to about 10v. This was all on a 10 mile ride.

Battery is new, all the connections under the seat, and under the left cover look fine. No melted connection or wires.

I'm really electrical illiterate. It's definitely my weakest point when it comes to mechanical work, so please explain things clearly and in detail.

I'm a bit worried. I need to get this problem fixed asap. With the rally just around the corner, this is a horrible time to have charging system problems.

[MAS Tequila]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ricks-Motors...4056e4&vxp=mtr


MT