Dang!

40 degrees this morning, high today supposed to be 69. I warmed her up for my first ride to work and turned off the choke a little too quick and she died. Not enough battery to start her.

It looks like I'm not charging as well as I thought I was. I'll be looking for some corroded wiring connectors when I get home from work. Man! Where to start??? I figure the pos battery cable to the starter relay and on to the starter is a good place to start. It's a bran new battery by the way. I already replaced the fuse box with mini's in waterproof housings. I printed the wiring diagram to give me a little visual support. First thing I'll try is seeing how the voltage is before starting, then while revving... (I know I did this before and the data wasn't bad, like 12.? idle and 13.? revving, but with a bad battery)

I'll gladly take suggestions...

Also check the negative to the ground point. My charging system got a whole lot better once I cleaned up connections, especially to the regulator/rectifier.
Is there no kickstart on your model?

No kick start. That would have been nice though.
Yeah, I plan to clean all the connections I can find in the charging system as soon as I get home. I'm tending the battery and for a while it looks like I'll be keeping it on the tender every night. Probably doesn't hurt to do that anyway.

I suggest you move further south where it is warmer bwhahaha

Get a tube of dielectic grease and put on the battery terminals. It keeps them from corroding. Check water in the battery and use distilled water to top it off... there should be a line on the side. Last, buy a cheapo hydrometer. This is a little deal that looks like a turkey baster only a lot smaller. The cheapest is also the smallest and should come with a bitty hose you poke down into your battery in each cell. You then draw up some fluid and there are a number of colored balls inside the hydrometer. The number of balls floating tells you about the health of each cell. One of these gizmos will only cost a buck or two at most. Test each cell; even a new battery can have a bad cell.

If you are getting almost ~ 14VDC at 3K rpm, then you should be charging up fine and the problem is likely in your battery or in a loose or corroded connector.

I'll pick up a hydrometer on the way home and some dielectric grease. That relay on your coil wiring mod, is it something I can get at an auto parts store? Any particular name or number?

Thanks WG!

I would use the book and carefully check your regulator...sounds like it may be the culprit to me.

This is helpful, it's an electrical fault finding flowchart.
click on Tech Support, fault finding diagram, than download the pdf.

www.electrexusa.com

Post edited by: ~DW~, at: 2005/10/24 22:06

I put a volt meter on the battery leads after taking it off the tender and was sitting at 13.4v. Started up and watched as the battery slowly discharged. The revs didn't make any difference. So I started tracing wiring and found the culprit. A 4 way connector that seems to feed to and from the regulator and alternator, wrapped in black tape. Under the tape I found the connector was melted through, (old damage) and the PO had cut one of the yellow wires where the connector had burned, and had stripped the wire and twisted/black taped together. Wire was corroded so I stripped back and found good copper, twisted and soldered the connection and heat shrinked it. I went ahead and cut out the connector and did the same for the other three wires. (another yellow, a black/yellow and a brown) After this, I started it up and it's charging again! I haven't looked at the wiring chart (left it at work after printing it out) but I'm pretty sure these wires lead to and from the alternator and regulator.

I was able to find the relay for the coil mod at Autozone, but they looked at me like I had one eye when I asked about the pigtail. But across the street at Carquest, they had the pigtail. So, I'll be doing that mod in the next few days. Thanks everyone for the advice and suggestions!

If his battery output at 3K rpm is just under 14 VDC, then his regulator is fine. He implied this in one of the earlier posts. This problem then would point back at the battery. It isn't uncommon to have a dead cell. HEY BURNET TEXAS? WHAT HAPPENED WITH BATTERY TEST? What voltage you getting at 3K rpm on the battery? It was colder this AM so you still have the cold morning problem. I bet it dang near freezed up near where you live... was 34 degrees this AM at 7AM here in the Hill Country.

Hey WG! It was colder than a well digger crack this morning. We had a good frost. I don't have warm enough gloves (yet) to ride that cold...

I forgot to mention that my hydrometer test showed the battery to be fine. I did that before the volt meter...

I'll be switching to the bike at lunch time though...

If it is real cold, it don't much matter what type of gloves you use. Cold fingers ain't much fun... If you plan on riding all season long and have a few real cold days, get a set of those "hippo mits" they sell where they specialize in ATV sales. They are bit mits that fit over the bar ends. You can basically use no gloves at all or some very light ones if you like even in the coldest weather. You gotta adjust them good so they don't interfere with cables or levers but once adjusted right, they let you ride with toasty warm fingers. Of course, if you are style concious, they don't do much for styling and profiling! bwhahahaha


Well if the battery is good all the way across, then measure the voltage out of your battery at 3K or 3.5K rpm... you need to have just about 14VDC else the battery won't hold a charge. If you are getting less, then the regulator is the possible culprit and it is time to get to the troubleshooting chart recommended previously (Electro Sport's).

Thanks WG, again! I might look into those mits but a good pair of goretex gloves will probably do. We don't get too many of those mornings around here.

Once I had soldered the connections I found that were bad, I was getting a rising 12+ volts on the meter at idle. When I revved, it was climbing up to 13.8 or so. I never saw it reach 14, but I was encouraged that it was rising at all. Plus, like I said before, it was climbing when just idling, as apposed to dropping before. I'll watch it for a while and see how it does, but I think I got a handle on it for now. Now I'm anxious to get the coil mod done. I printed out your directions (word file) and made notes as to which wire on the pigtail was for what lead on the relay to make it easier to do the mod. I also picked up a can of dielectric grease. I'll report back when I have completed this mod. Thanks again for all the support!