Test your electricals...

[The Buddha]

Ok I cant post in the FAQ section... so I post it here...
Testing your electrical system... Working document... so If I leave some out... yea I dont care  :lol:  ... add it and we'll push it into the FAQ section after cleaning it up.
1. Always do it with a fully charged battery, else the results will be misleading. Always use a digital multi meter and make sure it has a good battery  :lol:  as well.
2. Dont wear metallic rings or nipple rings or ear rings or necklaces... short with battery are far from fun...
OK for the actual testing...

Short test. Take off the positive cable from battery, and with the key off bring it close to the battery post... and sorta scratch and you should see no spark... If you see spark... there is a short in wiring, the bigger the spark, the bigger the short.

Charging test. With bike runningat high idle 13+ V DC across battery, and with ~5K rpm 15V+ across battery.

Draw test. With the tester on the battery turn on the key... see what the voltage drops to with just lights on... should be insignificant, then hit start... and check before the bike starts...and it helps to do on a cold bike without choke... so it wont start anyway... voltage shouldn't drop too much, but ~11V+ is in evitable, under 9 or 10V = bad. how bad.... no idea... Some good batteries drop pretty low but usually higher the value the better the battery.

Alternator Test. take off the 3 leads and check resistance to ground and between each other. They should be 2.1ohms or close each and be open to ground.

Feel free to add/correct to this.
Cool.
Srinath.

[TheGoodGuy]

wonder why you cant post to FAQ... will one of the other moderators confirm please.. and PM me.

[John Bates]

Ok I cant post in the FAQ section... so I post it here...
Testing your electrical system... Working document... so If I leave some out... yea I dont care  :lol:  ... add it and we'll push it into the FAQ section after cleaning it up..

OK, here goes. :guns:

Short test. Take off the positive cable from battery, and with the key off bring it close to the battery post... and sorta scratch and you should see no spark... If you see spark... there is a short in wiring, the bigger the spark, the bigger the short...

Interesting, I never thought of doing it this way.  Just don't have any loose flammables nearby.

Charging test. With bike runningat high idle 13+ V DC across battery, and with ~5K rpm 15V+ across battery...

Doesn't a voltage higher than 15V indicate a regulator problem?

Think about adding:

1. Test of wire connections for wires from battery to regulator/rectifier (RR).

2. Test of diodes in rectifier.

[Kerry]

For what it's worth, there is some testing info from the Haynes manual in the Charging system thread.

[The Buddha]

I think I have seen up to 17... vulcan 750 and other bikes that have 2 sparkies per cyl and options for additional electrical crap usually put out more electricty than many small towns...  :lol:
High ... too high DC voltage is usually a sign that you have AC working its way into the charging system aft of the regulator... BTW mumultimeter gets confused when you set it to check for AC across the battery...DC somehow triggers it to act strange... an auto ranging one might work better, lemme see if I can fry my friends $3K fluke testing my GS...  :lol: Cool tester BTW... but why does it cost 3 grand. Wont it be funny if I killed a $3,000 tester on a $300 bike...  :lol:
Cool.
Srinath.