Low Voltage

Bounty hunter, I get 56 vdc with the wires unplugged from the RR. I'll test it with them hooked up.

I get about 20 VDC at idle is that normal?

ssalyer wrote:

...All the grounds return to 1 lug on the frame where the battery ground cable attaches....

Am thinking the battery ground cable is supposed to attach to rear of engine. Might not matter in this instance, but could change the batt neg connection from frame to engine, or perhaps add a second ground wire from batt neg terminal to engine and re-test voltage readings across batt terminals at idle and at 4000 rpm.

Good Luck!

ssalyer wrote:

...The RICKS RR doesn't use a brown wire to the ignition switch. They have 2 red wires that go directly to the battery pos. lug. ...

So there are 2 red wires, both going to the same place? This seems a bit redundant. Do you have a wiring diagram for this? Reason I ask is because I had a mysterious battery drain problem on my kz550, and the problem was that the brown wire wasn't seeing the correct voltage (Due to a problem with the stock fuse holder shorting).

But generally, if there are two wires, it's because they go to two different things.

hope this helps! best of luck to you!

Tooocool, I do have the wiring diagram for that. They mention there is no need for the brown wire with there RR. Both red wires go directly to Batt pos. The first new RR I bought had the brown wire that went to the ignition switch. I checked this circuit and it was fine. I've had the same results with two different new RR's from different companies.

ssalyer wrote:

Bounty hunter, I get 56 vdc with the wires unplugged from the RR. I'll test it with them hooked up.

I get about 20 VDC at idle is that normal?

Sounds like the right ballpark.

Throw some ideas out:

Is this a shunt regulator design? If so, one of the SCRs or their controllers could be flaky telling the reg's SCR to "fully shunt" all the alternator current to ground.

The part where it worked (and would hold the system at 14V at high RPM) is puzzling and almost sounds like you have an intermttent which works and then flakes out for no reason. Intermittents are the hardest to find.

Bounty hunter, If I hadn't had two different RR's from two different companies give me the same results I would still suspect the RR. I just don't think it is the problem.

What's getting me is, there is nothing to the wiring on this bike.


Someone mentioned the ground. I've owned the bike for about ten years and the ground has always been to a lug on the frame right behind the gas tank. The bike ran great for years. It sat for the last three years before I started this episode.


So it looks like one of my coils [2&3] is giving me a short reading on the secondary winding. Can this be the cause of my problems?

It's possible, especially if they're getting warm as you mentioned earlier. I've never noticed mine getting warm but then again i've also never checked for it.

Easy way to check, if it'll run on 2 cylinders check the voltage without the bad one connected. I know my bike will run on 2. Not well but enough to get it to 4k.

also another hunch here, double check any wiring that's in the headlight bucket, make sure nothing is grounding out. Check the turn signals too as the wires going into the tube can sometimes chafe. Your story about removing the headlight and having the voltage go up is starting to make me wonder. Also check the relays.

The secondary windings aren't connected to your electrical system. The primary winding induces a volage into the secondary winding. The only part of the coil that can draw off of the main system is the primary winding.

That doesn't mean there isn't a problem with your coils... there certainly should not be so much resistance on the secondary coil that your meter can't read it... It should be replaced anyway. I would double check that reading first.

If I were you, I would try and get ahold of a set of stock coils, that would put much lest draw on your system. If you really need the aftermarket coils, you should install a resistor in series with the primary winding to bring the total resistance closer to stock.

Not saying this IS your problem, but it definitely doesn't help.

ssalyer wrote:

...Someone mentioned the ground. I've owned the bike for about ten years and the ground has always been to a lug on the frame right behind the gas tank. The bike ran great for years. It sat for the last three years before I started this episode....

As known, using frame instead of engine as ground for battery negative relies on integrity of conductivity between engine and frame. The connection was presumably sufficient while running great for ten years before sitting for the last three years.

Although unlikely, it's remotely possible that the preexisting adequate connection between engine and frame deteriorated during the last three years' storage.

May be quickly and easily ruled out by adding a test wire connected between battery negative and engine and remeasuring running voltage between battery terminals. May simply use test wire with alligator clip on each end, one to battery negative terminal, the other to an engine fin. Takes maybe 2 seconds.

Good Luck!

Thanks Patton, I'll check it out. Not sure why I haven't tried that already. This would explain why it worked nicely for an afternoon last weekend.

Thanks for everybody's input on this. I've been trying to get this bike on the road for over a year and I'm not sure how much more I can take of this. I may have to back out on another ride this weekend that has been planned for months.

Wow, that bike looks really nice. It'd be a shame to not be able to ride it.

As Bounty hunter mentioned earlier, when you test the output voltage on the alternator with the wires unconnected, you are not putting any load on it. If there is a weak spot in the windings or even in your wire harness, that test won't show it. Since it sort-of passes that test, the next test would have to be a load test.

One test you can try is to hook up an old car headlight to each pair of yellow wires from the alternator (yes that would mean 3 old headlights). This load test is a big pain to do, but it seems you've tried everything else including different stators.

If all three 60 watt bulbs light up brightly simultaneously, then you know the alternator is putting out 180 watts. That's pretty good. (It's a power issue so AC volts or DC volts don't really matter to a light bulb in this test.)

Be very careful, if the alternator is good, you will be able to blow out all three bulbs when revving the motor.

Obviously, the bike will have to be running on just the battery, so you may want to remove the lighting fuses to reduce battery drain.

When I do this test, I ususally just use one 60 watt bulb and apply it to each pair one at a time, but this really only checks for 60 watts, which is not quite enough. 180 watts is only the equivalent of testing 12 amps at 15 volts DC. 60 watts is only equivalent to 4 amps.

Also, since your symptoms are intermittent, you may have to run the load test for awhile until the wiring and connectors heat up.