No 'running lights' on the rear

pyxen, I don't quite understand how the lights would be significantly more intense when revving the bike with the battery essentially disconnected. Hopefully loudhvx will chime in or someone else and throw some light on this (bad pun?). I discharged my battery on one of my carb test bikes and kick started it with some difficulty and thought I would ride to charge it but it ran so poorly that it was going to foul plugs long before the battery charged. I swapped batteries for one from another bike and it ran fine and I trickle charged the old battery and reinstalled and all was fine. Never saw a brighter light or anything of the sort... interesting!

if they are running just off the alternator the faster the motor spins the brighter they would get since it puts at more voltage at higher rpms;)

If the battery voltage goes above 14.6v, it could be a wiring problem. There is a brown wire on the reg/rec, the voltage on the brown wire should match the battery voltage. If it's lower, the reg/rec will put out more power than it should. You should measure the DC voltage from the brown wire to the battery. It should be close to zero volts. You should do the same test in AC volts. It also should be almost zero volts. If either test shows significant voltage, you have a bad connection in the path to the brown wire on the reg/rec. That is a very long path, by the way.

On your bike, I suspect the oil and fuel lights likely have a bulb checker which may be affected by the fluctuations in voltage. If the battery is indeed becoming disconnected intermittently, this could cause it. But a wire coming disconnected elsewhere could cause the same issue. You need to track that down using ohms, DCV, and ACV. (ACV is good at detecting bad connections, but you have to know what you're doing, like you said.)

wiredgeorge wrote:

There are two reasons the lights might blink fast. First thing I think I would do is check the reg/rec to ensure it is healthy. This is an easy check with a multimeter. Put the meter in VDC scale... Start the bike. Put the BLACK probe (neg) on the negative battery post. Put the RED probe (pos) on the positive battery post. At idle, the reading should be ~12.5 VDC. Rev engine to 4K rpm. Reading should be ~14.5 VDC. If the readings vary; such as significantly higher, then your reg/rec is becoming marginal and should be replaced. The higher voltage will cause the turn signal relay to blink faster.

Ok - I did this after coming home from work so that the bike was all warmed up. At idle I registered 11.9VDC and then I went up to between 4~5000rpm and it only went up to about 12.1VDC. My thinking is the reg/rec isnt the issue then?
I think I am going to use my Clymer and Kawasaki Service Manuals and see how to diagnose the reg/rec directly in a few minutes - but any thoughts would be helpful.

The second possible reason is that someone changed turn signal bulbs at some dim point in the past. The OEM bulbs were Stanley bulbs and those had a rating not normally found in today's modern bulbs. If you have single filament bulbs and they are 1156 automotive type, then someone has changed them out. The Stanley bulbs were lower wattage. If the fronts turn signals have a running light integrated, and they are 1157 type, they have been swapped out for the original bulbs. The 1156 or 1157 will be stamped on the bulb on the side of the metal part.

Looks like the bulbs werent the newer ones you mention... I have 1073s int he back and I cant recall the front ones, but they werent 1157s.

Just wanted to get out an update and see what everyone had to say...

Thanks - D

eMusicMan wrote:

Ok - I did this after coming home from work so that the bike was all warmed up. At idle I registered 11.9VDC and then I went up to between 4~5000rpm and it only went up to about 12.1VDC. My thinking is the reg/rec isnt the issue then? ...

It sounds like your charging system is totally dead. The battery voltage will go up that little bit because the ignition uses less power at higher RPMs.

First thing to do is visual inspections of the wires from the alternator (3 yellows) to the reg/rec, along with the wires from the reg/rec to ground, battery, and the brown wire.

Post edited by: loudhvx, at: 2007/04/20 01:14

Ack - insomnia and I realized I forgot to post a follow-up...

So I went down to the bike and opened up the left-side to get to the electrical and noticed that a wire (black with yellow stripe) was disconnected from the negative post on the battery! This looked clearly suspicious and I re-connected it... and I'm almost embarrased to say that now the turn signals work fine and I will test out the oil + fuel light condition this morning (since it would typically happen while cold).

One other thing I noticed is that coming off the reg/rec is another wire (also black with a yellow stripe) which was burned at the connection point... in testing this lead, though, it is OK. I took it apart and cleaned it up with steel wool and it's conducing OK and the reg/rec tests out OK.

I could be jinxing myself, but I think it's "OK"...?

Amazed at how small this ended up being,
Dustin

Perception and attention to the small details will carry you far in the realm of bike repair Dustin (wanted to say grasshopper)...:laugh: