After riding the bike yesterday, I tested everything when I got home and the bike was at operating temp. First off, the battery was sitting at 12.4 volts with engine and key off. I started the bike and at idle the volt meter showed 12.5 volts and didn't raise noticably when I revved the engine. (day before it was sitting at 13.4 volts at idle with the freshly tended battery and engine warmed up, and revving the engine brought it up to 14.8 volts)
So, I pulled out the battery to test it with the hydrometer. One cell in the middle had questionable results with one ball floating, but all the other cells had 3 of 4 balls floating, and electrolite level was good on all cells. I'll check with the hydrometer again when I get home on the fully charged battery to see what it reads.
I checked the battery ground to engine and it's clean and tight. I couldn't easily get to the positive to solenoid connector so I'm not sure what shape it's in but I couldn't move it so at least it is tight.
I pulled the red plug with the three yellow wires from the alternator and started the bike. By this time it was cooled down as I went in to eat dinner and read my manual for a while between the last step and this one. So when it started the bike, choke on, it gradually revved from 1000 to about 2500 rpms and measuring the ac voltage across any combination of those three yellow wires, I watched the voltage go from low 20's when the engine was around 1000 rpms, to around 47-48 volts when the engine got to around 2500-3000 rpms. NOTE: My Clymer manual says for measuring alternator output, to pull the red plug and start the engine. Measure all three combinations of the yellow wires with ac voltmeter. The meter should read about 50 volts. If it is much lower, the alternator is defective. It doesn't say anything about rpms and change in voltage as rpms raise, so I'm confused. I'd like to hear your input on this!
Next thing I tried to check was alternator stator resistance, but the book says, with engine off, to set the meter on RX1, check resistance between all three yellow wires in pairs, and the resistance should be about 0.36-0.54 ohms. Well, my meter doesn't have an RX1 setting, (I assume RX1 is standard lingo that everyone "else" understands but me) My meter has several settings in the resistance group so I put it on the lowest without the "K" after the number. Basically I couldn't get anything near what the book says I should get and since I'm dumbed out by my meter, I'll have to get clarification before I can measure this. It says to set the ommeter on the highest scale and check resistance between each yellow lead and ground. Resistance should be infinite. I guess I'll have to read up on my multimeter to see what the highest scale is and what infinite means. I didn't even try this one...
Post edited by: fergyfer, at: 2006/01/06 10:32