80 KZ550 LTD Charging / Electrical Single Phase

Well I've had this bike a little over a year. Put a new battery in it when I had done the other mechanical and paint repairs. Even though it sits most of the year, I got it out of the garage and it fired up after a bit of cranking on the starter. It has never shown me a charging problem, But it is a 30 year old system. So I pulled both of the side covers to look around. Tested the battery voltage, 12.3, then cranked it again, got about 12.3 @ 1200Rpm and 13.5 @4000Rpm. But as I was running it I put my hand on the connector at the R/R to the Stator harness and it felt quite warm, put on my Glasses so I could see, and as expected on of the yellow stator wires was showing quite a bit of heat damage/ resistance. Cut the plug away, soldered and heat shrinked all 4 wires. The Stator its self is the yellow 2 wires. Rechecked and DCV @ batt is now up to 14.6. That plug was costing nearly 1v even though I never had a Issue I could be chasing. So this got me to start going through some of the others, cleaning/ and tightening etc. The Red/White from the Batt to the Y bullet connector was also getting resistance, some cleaning, small wire brush inside the female and steel wool for the male, cleared it up. Up another .3DCV @ Batt. Going to do it all, even inside the head lamp bucket, and just call it all Maintenance of a 30 year old system.
Its a single phase 2 yellow wires from the stator, about .7 ohm at the harness connector I replaced, and 73ACV @4000RPM.
Geez I can be long winded sometimes!:laugh:

Detailing a repair can be exhaustive sometimes, but leaving out a step can confuse a new person attempting to get their bike running after having the same problem you did.

I don't think a person can over explain, it's when information is not included that confusion sets in.

Great info!

Now I have some 1-phase data (I don't trust the manual for very detailed info like that) to compare with my 3-phase data. I think one of my stators is a single.

Thanks for posting that.

I've been using a very good brand of electrical contact cleaner/preservative for a number of years on my bike called "De-oxit" made by Caig Labs. www.deoxit.com is their website.It is plastic safe and will not harm molded electrical connectors.

It might cost under $10.00 at Radio Shack stores in the U.S., but I use it on the cordless phone charging cradles,cell phone charging cable,home entertainment center patch cords, and electrical connectors in my car.

I haven't tried that product, but when I need some I will look at this and give it a go. Connections are the biggest problem with voltage, dropping do to resistance. Motorcycles are exposed to a lot of moisture, the resistance will go up on a wet day and drop some on a low humidity day. But as time takes it toll the connection will cause a failure, this goes for switches as well as Bullet connections so prevalent on bikes.
Oh most of you guy's all know this, but still seems to be someone looking for a bit of advice for electrical repairs. My old electronics teacher drilled some stuff into my head, one I'll never forget," Heat Then Solder then Heat again". You got to use heat sink for a lot of work too.

Since it was going to take an actual reading to satisfy some people, rather than a simple interpolation, I measured the 3-phase KZ550 at 4000 rpm with open load.

At 4000 RPM I get 56VAC on the 3 pairs.

You got 73 VAC on the 1-phase.

That is opposite what the Cl*mer manual states. (It says 50 on 1-phase, and 75 on 3-phase.)

I clipped and pasted the sections from the manual on this topic.

Good job! this is why real testing is best, when you are questioning a figure in a manual, especially a aftermarket one, its best to find out the facts for yourself and Test the system. Find out if it can handle a Load, while maintaining reasonable voltage levels.

Hey this is Kinda like TOP Posting On "CL".
Most of our chat is in the other 3 phase thread.
Just to let you know I believe I have come up with a economical, < $10, test that will show Amps used by the system on the bike, and a Loaded test for Amps & DCV which should equal the Alternator rated output.
Do to the Storms I can't do it today.

Great! I look forward to the results.

I'm afraid I won't have time to do the load tests with mine for awhile.

OK so I have a test all set up to find the RATED OUTPUT of your charging system, but is for the 3 phase 1100, still the same test but with slightly different results, mostly a lower AMP since that's the rating of the 550 Single phase.
Go to #390092 in this thread,
kzrider.com/index.php?option=com_kunena&...limitstart=20#390098
If you want to see it.