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HOW TO: Test the charging system

Started by Kerry, October 17, 2007, 11:41:18 PM

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Kerry

Is your bike's charging system functioning as it should?  Here's how to check:

                               

**************
    ALTERNATOR
**************


    1) Put the bike in neutral.
    2) Remove the seat.
    3) Move the protective cover from the positive terminal of the battery.
    4) Set your multimeter to measure DC voltage (VDC), in the lowest range that's
        greater than 15 volts.  (That's 20 on my meter.)
    5) Start the bike, warm it up, and rev it to 5000 rpm.  (Only maintain these revs
        as long as needed to get the measurement!)
    6) Measure the voltage between the battery terminals.
        It should be between 13.5 and 15.5 volts.
        (If the voltage is lower, the battery will not receive a sufficient charge from the
        alternator as the engine runs.)
    7) Turn off the bike.






    8 ) Remove the plastic body cover from the left side of the bike.
    9) Locate the 3 connectors coming from the alternator.






    10) Pull each of the connectors apart.
    11) Ignore the 3 wires that lead to the wiring harness.  We're only interested
          in the wires that lead to the alternator.
    12) Set your multimeter on one of its lower resistance (ohms) settings.
    13) Measure the resistance between each alternator wire and "ground".  (It's easiest
          to use the negative battery terminal as the "ground" connection.)
    14) The reading should be "infinite" ... there should be NO connectivity.
          (Otherwise, the battery charge will "leak out" when the bike is turned off,
          resulting in a dead battery.)





    15) Set your multimeter on its lowest resistance (ohms) setting.
    16) Measure the resistance between each two-wire pairing.  (Make sure to test the
          wires leading to the alternator and NOT those attached to the wiring harness.)

                    Yellow   +   White-Blue
                    Yellow   +   White-Green
                White-Blue   +   White-Green


          The readings should all be fairly close to ZERO.
          (If significant resistance exists, there may be a break in the stator coils.  But
          before taking the bike apart, double check the connections and wires
          between here and the alternator!)





    17) Set your multimeter to read AC voltage (VAC), in the lowest range that's equal to
          or greater than 100.  (That's 200 on my meter.)
    18) Start the bike, warm it up, and rev it to 5000 rpm.  (Only maintain these revs
          as long as needed to get the measurement!)
    19) Measure the voltage between each two-wire pairing.  (Make sure to test the
          wires leading to the alternator and NOT those attached to the wiring harness.)

                    Yellow   +   White-Blue
                    Yellow   +   White-Green
                White-Blue   +   White-Green


          The readings should all be equal to or greater than 75.
          (If the readings are lower, the regulator may not have enough "raw voltage" to
          work with ... as it tries to supply a "regulated" voltage of 13.5 to 15.5 VDC to
          the battery.)
    20) Turn off the bike.

[Sorry,  no task-specific photo.  Perform the same operation shown in the
previous photo, but with the meter set to the VAC position.]





***********************
    REGULATOR / RECTIFIER
***********************


                               

    1) Remove the plastic body cover from the right side of the bike.
    2) Locate the 2 connectors coming from the regulator/rectifier.






    3) Pull each of the connectors apart.
    4) Ignore the 5 wires that lead to the wiring harness.  We're only interested
          in the wires that lead to the regulator/rectifier.






==================================================================
THE REST OF THE REGULATOR/RECTIFIER INSTRUCTIONS WERE DELETED BECAUSE THEY WERE
INACCURATE.  :o  UNTIL I CAN GET THEM UPDATED, PLEASE BEGIN AT STEP 14 IN THE DOCUMENT
                        ["Suzuki GS500E Charging Circuit Test" by John Bates]
==================================================================


Thank you!






************
  TESTING TIP
************
Sometimes it's easier to test a wire by inserting the meter probe from the "outside" of the connector.
Yellow 1999 GS500E
Kerry's Suzuki GS500 Page

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