I have been having an issue with the electrical supply on my 98 for about a month now.
I am hoping that the fine folks here can assist me in solving it.
If I charge the battery up the bike will run pretty good for a couple of weeks.
Then, one day, I'll try to start it and get behaviour like the battery is (nearly) dead. (engine turns once or twice, very slowly)
I ran the charging diagnostics and got 14.0 Vdc at the battery at 4-5K RPM, and 63 Vac at the generator output (no load).
Is the generator/stator going on me? Am I making too many short trips (average 10 km recently)?
I still need to check for battery discharge current when the bike is off, but I don't think it will be an issue.
It seems to give me ~20 starts, regardless of length of time spent sitting.
Thanks for any advice you can provide,
CliffHanger
Check the basics.
Measure the current (if any) when it's off. Should be none.
Remove the battery (or just ride to an auto-parts store that also sells MC batteries) and have it checked on the bench tester.
Check for poor/dirty connections in the high-current path (battery terminals, starter relay big connections, etc. - basically every connection of every fat wire on the bike, there are not that many.) Clean and grease those connections.
I think the fault lies somewhere between the Generator and the Battery.
The bike starts nearly instantly under normal conditions.
I really think that the battery is not being recharged, either not enough time or not enough power into the battery.
I will sheck the discharge current though, as soon as I return home.
Also the battery is new as of Aug '08 so I think it is fine.
Any other thoughts?
Well, dgyver has a reg/rect for $20 + ship in the forsale section.
10 minutes ought to be fine for recharge.
You could check voltage on the battery over the course of a week or so, say every morning before you head out. If it's dropping gradually, then not recharging may be the issue. The 20 starts per charge suggest that this is a good candidate.
If it's steady, the poor/intermittent connection comes back into the spotlight - those can act very much the way you describe - fine, fine, fine, nothing.
I had a great one on my truck once. Voltage fine, go to start, nothing. WTF. Put on headlights, very dim. Voltage between battery posts fine. Voltage between battery clamps not fine. Voltage between positive battery post and positive battery clamp with headlights on - 6 V! Now that was a bad connection - and it started acting up "all of a sudden".
I checked the battery for discharge.
With the bike off there is no significant current flow. Less than 0.1 milliAmp.
I rechecked the battery and it is definately low on charge.
So I still suspect the stator of being dodgy.
I can try to get the battery a shop for load testing this week as well.
I have a replacement regulator and no appreciable difference between them.
Anyone used one of these eBay stators?
http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=250415870761
Any other ideas besides load testing the battery?