? on Testing stator wires

I'm having some charging (draining battery when riding) problems and am wondering the proper way of testing the AC voltage on my 82 650CSR. Do you test between the three wires or each to ground? I spent most of the evening last night checking all the connections. I have researched these forums and found many ways of troubleshooting this problem, but want to make sure I am checking the stator correctly. Just to let you know, At idle the voltage on the battery is aroung 12.3 and at 4k it's 13.3, but the battery still goes dead when I ride. The batt three years old so I'm going to replace that first.

good idea! the battery is bad over 50% of the time despite all the arguements we hear all too often

AC Voltage open potential test is done at the plug with the 3 yellow wires un plugged
meter on ACV, lead to lead 1to2, 2to3, 1to3
good reading is 20 + ACV on all 3 checks

the big thing is that they are close to being the same. a little variation is ok but drastic differences are bad

New battery,still charges only to 13.4 but drove around tonight about 45 minutes and battery was still charged to just under 13v. The last battery would have been dead. Stator wires all give around 20 volts AC. going to clean all wires and dialectric grease em all. After that I'll address the rough running problem. It's not bad, but could run a little smoother. Any advice on where to start on taht? I already changed plugs. Thanks

did you get a maximum of 20acv or was that at idle?
DC is half of AC so 24 acv rectifies to 12 dcv
so 20~24 is got to be the minimum. I hope there is more when you rev the bike up.
smooth idling and smooth acelleration are a matter of both sealing of the valves and tuned fuel delivery.
start with a idle drop on each cylinder and synchronize all 4. that will give a good idle. 1 step at a time
I'll send the cheerleaders for support

The 20v/ac was at idle. It goes to around 70v at 4k. The idle is ok after warm up, but really want to be warm before it runs well enough to ride. I need choke until then. The rough running is at cruise speed. It's not too bad but it definetly could use some improvement.

Oh...and just where did you get that pic of my first two wives?

Post edited by: spark363, at: 2006/07/09 21:14