Running the bike seems to wear down my battery. The battery is a little old but will hold a charge well and if the bike is stored I have no problems with power when I go to start, however, if I do a lot of riding the battery seems to wear down and I need to give it a charge. Sometimes after a long ride if I shut it down it won't have enought juice left to start the bike. If I jump start it it will run fine, I only notice the problem when starting unless the battery gets really weak then headlights will dim when I brake or signal. My thought is that I am not getting juice from my alternator to my battery but am somehow getting enough to run the bike. Does anyone have any thoughts or suggestions??
dave
Do you have anything modified? like extra lights, electric vest stuff? maybe they are drawing more power than the alternator can put out. Or you might just have an old battery that is dying.
Bike is about as stock as you can get, it might be the battery but it does hold a charge when not in use, will an old battery behave as I have described? (hold a charge when sitting but lose it when it is being ridden)
dave
Do you have a voltmeter? Check the battery with the bike off and fully charged. It should read 12v minimum. Start the bike and check the voltage across the battery. With the revs at 4000 or higher, voltage should read greater than the static charge, usually in the 13v range. If the voltage stays the same or drops, your alternator or reg/rect needs attention.
i think it's the alternator
Alternator leads should be in at over 2 ohms a piece else you have one that is going bad...My vulcan 750 - notorious for eating alternators read in at 1.5 ohms and still ran for over 8K miles before dying and even then over 5K it still charged the battery. But that bike makes 14.7 volts at 1100 rpm and charges the batter right at idle. The GS dont make the voltage needed to charge at idle so you need 3-4K to start charging it. If at 3-4K you dont make 13+ volts and you do need 13 volts+ to charge you check the alternator. If that reads under 2 ohms per coil get a new one...Parts depot has them cheaper than anyone else...they get them from Ricky's Stator, or my second choice if electrex...www.electrexusa.com I think. More money but better unit and insulation is what I have heard.
If the coils measure up your regulator has gone to heaven...That also is avalable from electrex. If you feel adventurous and can do some tricky electrical work...take off the black crap in your regulator with a hot knife and MEK, and start testing the components in the board inside. I'll bet one of the diodes or capacitors has packed up. Replace it...10-20 cents, fill it with silicone...25C and you are in business. Of course I wound my own alternator so take all this advice with a generous dose of salt.
Cool.
Srinath.
Thanks for the Electrex USA (http://www.electrexusa.com) link, Srinath -- good stuff! High prices (to be expected, I guess) but good info to have available.
I especially liked the "Fault Finding Diagram". Look under the "Support" heading on the main page, or click on the following link:
Fault Finding Flowchart for Motorcycle Charging Systems (http://www.electrexusa.com/Images/fault_finding.pdf).
I have done it myself by hand...3+ hours to wind it, $15 or so in wire, $5 in epoxy, some connectors and wire and that impossible to find silicone impregnated fiberglass knit wire protectors (coool stuff BTW)...It looks better than theirs IMHO but you never see it and it all turns grey in a few heat cycles...so what the hell buy it off them or ricky stator or if you are un employed and have way too much time like I did then - go ahead and wind it. But at 100-150 per stator its totally worth it, Ricky's basically gives you a exact to the spec item, these guys claim a better than original spec in terms of output. So I guess if you want to run a bunch of crap on the bike like lights and stero etc then get electrex...
Cool.
Srinath.
thanks for the replies, I will check the battery voltage, if that is under 13 I will check the alternator, if under 2 ohms per coil = new alternator, if alternator is allright then regulator needs repair or replacement. Do I have it right??
dave
Right...13 volts DC at 3K rpm.
Cool.
Srinath.
To test the battery, you really should use a battery load tester. The voltmeter can show a nice 12V, but when you put the load tester on it, it can show bad. The load tester puts a huge load on the battery using thick copper wire and the loadmeter needle tells you if you're in a good range.
I have in the past used a set of running lights ~35-55 watt lights and see the voltage drop on the battery with a multimeter. The side note is that when the battery is in the bike just turn on the ignition and maybe hit the brakes and t/s and you are using ~100 watts...the battery should still run 12.5 volts + under that much draw. However in this case we are not testing the battery...Nearly certain its fine cos it takes charge when hooked to a charger. The bikes charging system is under question. The bike should be running and set to run at a steady 3K rpm, and test the terminals at the battery and if you see 13+ volts you are fine. This test is best done with a fully charged battery. however the correction factor is ~1-1.5 volts. If you are making 1-1.5 volts more than what your battery is when the bike is not running the charging system is fine. However a battery that will crank the bike over and get it running will be near 12+.
Cool.
Srinath.
Local auto store should be able to test the battery out of the bike for free.
Checked the battery last night only went up to max 12.6 volts when revving at 6 grand. Used the tests in the manual to test the stator coil. If I was using my multimeter right, one of the three wires from the stator coil had no resistance. (I set the meter to 20k, touched the probes to two of the male end connectors i hope that was the right side to test, and got no reading on any of them until I touched these two that gave me the same reading as I would get if I touched the probes together.) If I understood the instructions in the clymer manual correctly that means my coil is shot. So now I have to decide if I want to buy a new coil or or to rewind the old one. It was said that this takes about three hours, would you recomend for someone with good mechanical ability but poor electrical understanding?? Any other thoughts, would you recomend a used coil as a good solution if I can find one.
thanks, dave
Well one coild has a short in it...Instant failure...I am surprised you made 12.6 at 6K with that. Did you short any to ground...Probably not. Winding it is possible but these are the precautions you need to take.
1. Every third counting from 1 not 0 is the same phase.
2. Wind it the same way its un wound...and its hard to un wind it right if you have a dead short in it.
3. You need to crimp them right and tight to the HT lead wires and to each other when you are done with it.
4. Wear gloves to unwind...burnt epoxy turns into shards of glass like material when you start to un wind.
5. Buy 18 guage enamel copper wire from mouser electronics.
6. I believe each pole gets 30 windings...do not try to put in 31 or 32 to get more power...you will end up hitting the coils to the next pole and make your fingers a painful mess...
7. The enamel scrapes off easy so do not slide the wire on the pole after winding it to move it to a different spot. Un wind and re wind very carefully. and it may help not wearing gloves for winding but it is painful.
8. Wind it tight and even especially the outer layer of each pole...the inner will get wound nearly perfect even without trying.
9. Wind it in the same direction you unwind it from. Actually quite easy once you rip the thing open.
10. Have the thing epoxied with high temp epoxy after you are certain you got it right...cos this is final...You'll never take the epoxy off when its not burnt.
11. Make sure nothing makes contact with the wire when its fitted...and test it a little without epoxy.
12. Make sure you are one cheap lazy bastard...like me cos otherwise you'll never forgive yourself and me for all the pain and suffering I have caused by telling you how to do it.
13. Pictures before and after...If you use clear epoxy to seal it its the most gorgeous thing in the world...I put on 3 coats and after the first coat it looked killer. 3 coats sorta made it look dull and dirty.
14. We wont call you chicken...Buy it from Ricky stator (available for parts depot 1800 245 3101) or electrex-usa.com...you have gotten further than most bikers have just by testing your alternator.
Cool.
Srinath.
Sounds like a possible winter project as I am able to get by currently. Maybe will look for a used one till then. Thanks for the great info. I will definately let you know how it goes if I try and attempt myself. I would be a rewarding thing if I could do it right and I would learn lots about coils in the process. If I screw it up I would be just a litle frustrated but no worse for wear as it is allready shot.
dave
P.S. If I try this and am successful does that bump me up from local club racer???
Well winter and un employed was my situation...But hey you are in Guelph...Watch out for the guelph war...You already know as much about coils as you will ever need to know...unless you are planning a career change??
Cool.
Srinath.
Bumped for relevance 8) :thumb: