Another charging question.

Starter clutch started slipping pretty bad the last 4 or 5 start ups so I thought I'd better check the battery even though its only 2 years old and a quality Jap one. Always brought it in over the winter and charged with 1 amp monthly.

Checking volts before the last three rides got me 12.57, 12.55 and 12.9 after a short warm up. Starter sounds strong and even tried my parts bike one with the same result so I think they are good. I then started the bike to see what kind of reading I was getting running and the meter goes crazy ...... going from 10 to 12 to 16 to 19 back to 9 etc etc. You do just put the meter on the battery terminals while running to check this right ?? Reving it up it was doing the same.

Does this point to a bad regulator? The charging system and wiring is my weakest point so please spell things out rather simply ....... Have a shop manual and a Clymer so I should be ok with checking things. Thanks.

Just finished a overhaul with the motor (running perfect broke in with 675 miles, cams adjusted 100% ready otherwise) out so I'm praying I don't have to go back in on the starter clutch.

Are you using a Digital, or Analog meter? Some Digital's react to magnetic fields, skewing the results. If possible, have someone hold the meter away from the magnetic rotor area when checking the battery voltages.

You might find this helpful(taken from a forum discussion)

TOPIC: Voltage Regulator?

Hi, I’m wondering if this is a bad regulator. I bought a new battery this year for my bike, my bike is charging it good. no problem starting my bike at all. the thing is... the headlight is a bit dim, and the signals seem to be a bit slow starting to blink, does this sound like a voltage regulator problem? thanks

Re:Voltage Regulator?
No way to tell without troubleshooting. Dim lights could be a bad stator. Could be a bad regulator. Could be bad wiring or connections. In fact, could be a bad battery. Cells might be sulfated and not charging. Do you need tips on how to check these things?

Re:Voltage Regulator?
Yes, I'd love some tips on troubleshooting this problem thanks in advance.

Re:Voltage Regulator
I was afraid you would ask. It will be a bit long but if you do as I suggest, you can pretty much be sure to find the problem.

Lights are dimming? This indicates voltage is low and this is to be expected to some degree on an older bike. Can be a combo of any of the things I note. The thing we will do here is to verify the charging system is doing what it is supposed to do.

Step 1. Check the battery. They are made cheap and sometimes sulfate quickly. This means the plates attract goo and it chemically bonds with the plate and doesn't allow a good charge. You always verify the battery FIRST. Best way to do it is to use a load tester which is a fairly expensive gizmo OR use a hydrometer which is a cheap gizmo. The hydrometer is basically an eye dropper with colored balls. You open up the cells on the battery, put a small hose on the hydrometer and suck fluid in. The balls will either ALL float which means the battery's cell is OK or some of the balls will not float which means the cell is dying or dead. If any cell is questionable, replace the battery. When you charge a battery use a 1A trickle charger and charge for at least 12 hours. Don't use a car type charger as the amperage is too high and you can ruin the battery.

Step 2. Battery is now OK! Check your stator. Don't know what kind of bike you have but MOST KZs have a 3 wire stator. The wires will be three yellow wires or 1 blue, 1 pink and 1 yellow. These are three legs of AC coming off the stator and plug into the regulator/rectifier. Unplug the connector that connects the stator wires to the reg/rec and start the bike. Use a multimeter set on VAC in a scale that can measure 10-100VAC. If you put your probes on the A and B leg, you should see about 40VAC at 4K rpm. Same with the B and C legs and the A and C legs. Test all different ways and you should get consistent AC voltage on all three tests. If you get a little more or a little less than the value I came up with (40VAC) that is OK because I can't remember the actual number and that number varies by bike but if you only get 15VAC per leg, the stator is weak. If you don't get anything when testing on one pair of wires, the stator is bad. If you get the 40VAC on all three tests, you are OK. If not, replace the stator.

Step 3 - OK you have good AC voltage on each test so check your reg/rec. Whether you have separate or a combined reg/rec doesn't matter too much at this point. The best way to tell if the reg/rec is working is to reconnect the stator and check voltage at idle at the battery terminals. You should see about 12.5VDC so put your meter into VDC scale and try. Then rev the engine to 4K rpm and check. you should see about 14.5 VDC. If you do, move on and if not, we will need to do some testing on the regulator or reg/rec. You need to have these voltages at the level I noted or the battery won't charge good. If you have these voltages, move on...

Step 4 - All the components are working OK... now get into your wiring harness and take apart EACH connector, clean with spray television tuner cleaner and dab dielectic grease on the connector pins. Open up the left switchgear and clean the hi/lo switch. Note there are red/yellow and red/black and a black/yellow wire harness that connects to the main headlight harness. These wires connect to the headlights. There will usually be a fried connector in this area. Damaged wires cause higher resistance and will cause voltage to drop.

Ahhh thanks MFolks its digital and when I moved it out to the tail piece it worked fine and read 14.35 at 4,000 lights off ..... 14.32 lights on. Was putting out 13.5 to 13.6 at idle too ..... 13.2 lights on.

Battery was at 12.55 again before starting. Will pick up a hydrometer tommoro and check that then . Thinking its ok but under load maybe not.

Do have the 2 wired stator but it seems to be charging fine.... will try to check it out this weekend if you think I still should but with these numbers it should be good right ? I did just clean these connections with 600 grit and brake cleaner .... picked up some electric cleaner and will use that now. Do have the Dyna S too. With these numbers can I move on to cleaning up the connections ? if the battery checks out ? Still hoping its not the starter clutch.

One more thing I have a 1 amp motorcycle charger, over the winter I tickled it 2 to 2 and a half hours a month ...is this good to keep it up? I also tickled it for 2 hours before starting one of the times and the starter clutch kicked out on me still.

If the starter clutch is slipping then it is the starter clutch that is worn/faulty NOT the battery.
You need to remove the starter clutch and inspect it for wear.
Replacing the rollers and springs may cure the problem if the centre boss is not worn too far undersize or badly notched.

zed1015 wrote: If the starter clutch is slipping then it is the starter clutch that is worn/faulty NOT the battery.

I fear you are right ..... but wouldn't a slower turning motor allow it to kick out though ?? I really don't know .... I just want to be 100% sure before I tear into it again.

zed1015 summed it up perfectly.

The good news is you do not need to tear the engine apart to get to the starter clutch. You can do the job from underneath be removing the oil pan. If you do inspect it, be sure to inspect the boss on the starter gear carefully as zed1015 mentioned. If that boss is ridged / worn the starter gear should be replaced or it will still slip. Ed

KZB2 650 wrote:

zed1015 wrote: If the starter clutch is slipping then it is the starter clutch that is worn/faulty NOT the battery.

I fear you are right ..... but wouldn't a slower turning motor allow it to kick out though ?? I really don't know .... I just want to be 100% sure before I tear into it again.

No. even turning the clutch slowly by hand will cause it to bite and turn the crank.
All a bad battery will do is either turn the engine over slowly and laboured or not have enough juice to turn the engine at all against it's compression.
If the starter is spinning but not the crank then the starter clutch is the main suspect BUT stripped teeth on the starter motor etc could also be the problem and easier to inspect by removing the starter motor.

Well sounds like it the clutch for sure then..... thanks for clearing that up Zed will start planning this and right Ed it could be worse .......and I will probably ask you a few questions too Ed only using another tread you were in a year ago on this subject.