wierd charging system problem

i just got my 750 back together from a top end job and i go to ride it home and she dies from lack of voltage.. i can barely see the turn signal light

on a freshly charged battery the bike will run fine for about a day and a half, at wich point the next time i try to fire it up it goes " wwerrr..." ( batt voltage drops to ~1.5 volts when this happens but at that point the batt is already drained i think)

so far iv printed out the Electrosport fault finding guide from electrosport.com and bought a new multimeter, heres whats going on

the batt is good gel type 100$ 24 month warentee, had them load test it they say its fine

meter on batt, at idle and 2500 rpm the voltage looks as though its jumping all over the place and im wondering if this could be just because i have a digital guage, because..

when i rev it up to 6000 and the voltage goes up to 14.2 steady

when a bike dies running down the road i thought stator was to blame so i tested it first, i get 75-83 Volts AC on all 3 combinations of yellow leads.

the stator resistances check out to between all 3 yellow leads at .7 ohms

i tested the R/R just as the FSM tells ya go and it checks out fine with ohms one way and infinite resistance the other

one thing i cant figure out how to test is the connection from the stator positive out to the battery (+) while keeping the R/R hooked up to the connector as the electrosport flow chart tells me to

but if that was the issue i wouldn't still be getting 14.2 volts @ 6k RPM would i?

another wierd thing is i can unhook the stator from the R/R and still get an increased voltage reading at the battery, i just tested it again and i am getting 15 volts or so at the battery,,, without my stator even hooked up is this even possible?? :pinch:

help lol wtf

another thing i just noticed is i put the meter on 200 DCVolt range and put it on the battery and rev to 6000 and it reads 50 volts! seriously? i hope thats a meter misread due to an inapropriate voltage range /shrug

any opinions? similar problems?

Can you borrow an analog meter(the type with the needle pointer and multiple scales)?
Some digital meters are sensitive to magnetic fields(like in the alternator's magnets) and will jump all over the ranges when reading voltages.

My thinking is your regulator/rectifier is not charging the battery or you have a slow drain situation depleting the battery.

Try this method:

The Dreaded Shorting/Intermittent Electrical Problem!


Here is the most basic method I know(Taken from www.kzrider.com by member Patton)

1. Charge your battery and have it load tested if you can. The floating ball hydrometer can be used to check the specific gravity of the charged cells in the battery.

2. Disconnect the Black lead from the (-) Battery terminal... or Red from the (+) Battery terminal, it does not matter which one. Just 1, not both!

3. Connect one of the following test setups in series with the Battery terminal and lead:
3.1 A 12 V light bulb,
3.2 A 12 V test light,
3.3 A 12 V test buzzer or,
3.4 A 12 V horn... you get the idea.

4. With the Ignition Switch OFF, go through your harness and wiggle the wires while looking/listening for the test setup to go on/start buzzing.

5.With the Ignition Switch ON, repeat the test except this time the looking/listening for the test setup to go off/stop buzzing.You may have to pull fuses to isolate where the problem is.

6. Be prepared to open the Ignition switch and check/test for solder joint failure and or circuit board micro breaks (don't ask how I know this ).

7. Be prepared to pull the wires out of the Head Light to test for failures at or near the grommet.

8. Be prepared to open the harness at or near the Steering Neck for failures. This is where wires tend to exhibit fatigue due to repetitive movement.

9. Be prepared to open the left and right switch gear to search for rust and or broken parts. CAUTION: watch out for flying springs, ball bearings and stuff. Do indoors on White sheet (again don't ask ).

10. Be prepared to follow the heavy gauge wire from the Starter Solenoid (Relay) to the starter for bare wire exposure. Especially near bends and grommets.

11. If you can reproduce the fault symptom your are pretty much home free. Be prepare to find and repair/replace any internal wire breaks, insulation break downs, exposed wires, rubber grommet failures, etc. Often, shrink tubing will solve the problem temporarily until something better can be done.

12. I use a very good electrical contact cleaner/preservative called De-oxit made by Caig Labs in San Diego Ca. Their website is www.deoxit.com It can be purchased at Radio Shack and any other electronic supply store. I use it on all of my motorcycle’s electrical connectors , in my home entertainment center’s stereo patch cords and cordless phones charging cradles.

What MFolks said plus be sure u have located all the ground wires on the bike,removed themm,cleaned them well and reattached.U should be getting 14 volts or so at the battery at 4000 rpm.sounds like r/r problem but check grounds and do MFolks suggested checks before replacing it.bj

If not already done, would check integrity of ground where negative battery cable attaches at rear of engine.

And assure connections of cables to battery posts are clean and snug.

Good Fortune!

fixed it this evening, the R/R wasnt grounding to the battery through the oem connection so i pulled the R/R ground out and jumped a wire to the neg starter selinoid right above it

works beautifully now

and i wa this close to a new R/R cause i was sure that was the problem
/pinches fingers together

thanks for reminding me to chk ground, it wasnt engine ground but it got me headed in the right direction