1978 gs 1000 e charging system

[lrgguy]

Ok so ran into another issue with this bike ! Took it out for a few hrs on saturday and it was running great ... then Sunday decided to go to the motorcycle shop to see if they had some sea foam , I parked the bike and when I returned i tried to start the bike and it just didnt habe enough juice to turn the engine over !! Luckily I have afriend a few blocks away with a charger and after afew min of pushing I arrived at his place .. flat land tried to bumb start it with no success!

So charged the battery up and home I went ..

Now I know its not the battery I purchased it 3 weeks ago for my gs 650 its new !
And when looking at the wiring I noticethings on the 78 gs 1000 are a little different then the 83 gs 650 ..

On my 650 the R/R is one unit .. on the 1000 I t appears to be they are seperate units ...
I have read testing the charging system on the basscliff site like 100 times and its all just German to me !!

Just purchased a new multimeter and I want to know if anyone can help me in figuring out which is pooched !! Regulator unit , rectifier ,
Or alternator ... or is it a stator ?? Lol its funny how much can change on these bikes from 78 - 83 ...

 

[chuck hahn]

Follow the stator wires up to where they plug into the harness. Unplug them and put the neg lead into one and then test the AC voltage of the other two..do this three times by moving he neg to the next lead and rechecking the other two. Run the RPMS up to around 4500 and see what AC voltage each leg is putting out.

Clean all grounds from the harness to the frame..usually gathered up at the front of the battery box,,and clean the frame there too. Clean all the connections to and from the regulator, and run a fresh ground from one of the reg monting bolts directly to the neg battery terminal.

If the stator is pushing good voltage and all the conections are tight and clean I would suspect the reguator has failed. Start with a full fresh charged battery. See manual for proper voltage limits....

http://www.mtsac.edu/~cliff/storage/gs/GS1000_C-E-S-L_Manual.pdf

 

[lrgguy]

Follow the stator wires up to where they plug into the harness. Unplug them and put the neg lead into one and then test the AC voltage of the other two..do this three times by moving he neg to the next lead and rechecking the other two. Run the RPMS up to around 4500 and see what AC voltage each leg is putting out.

Clean all grounds from the harness to the frame..usually gathered up at the front of the battery box,,and clean the frame there too. Clean all the connections to and from the regulator, and run a fresh ground from one of the reg monting bolts directly to the neg battery terminal.

If the stator is pushing good voltage and all the conections are tight and clean I would suspect the reguator has failed. Start with a full fresh charged battery. See manual for proper voltage limits....

http://www.mtsac.edu/~cliff/storage/gs/GS1000_C-E-S-L_Manual.pdf

Thx Chuck .. lol im a carpenter by trade and have NEVER understood ohms volts ac dc etc . Looking at this newly bough multimeter and thinking to myself I should have bought the damn cheep one it looked so simple
What should I have the tester on Ac ? Dc? Ac/dc

 

[Recoush]

The Basscliff site has the test procedure and also a R/R Test procedure
both are great

http://members.dslextreme.com/users/bikecliff/

Suspect its the rectifier mine went bad recently No headlights or turn signals.

The new one i replaced is both. so removed the regulator and installed the new R/R in its location, needs a 2nd bolt the rectifier screw will hold it in place with a flat washer

got mine on Ebay for 60 bucks same one below
maybe a similar situation but this is what worked for me
their are other better solutions here for the R/R but that is another subject

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Volatge-Reg...Parts_Accessories&hash=item51ba556921&vxp=mtr

 

[Guest]

In 1980, Suzuki changed from separate Rectifier and regulator to an integrated unit. Because you have a '78 you will see five wires coming from the stator, two of which were the same color, yellow and white/blue. They are the same wire, so one yellow and one white/blue gets abandoned leaving one yellow, one white/blue and one green white. The stator wires put out AC voltage when the bike is running. Reading between each pair of stator wires on the AC scale above 100V you should get about 70V AC on each pair if the stator is ok. The Rectifier part of the R/R changes the AC to DC and the Regulator part limits the voltage to be compatible with a 12V battery. Some meters will automatically select for you, but keep in mind, most cheap meters round off to the nearest 1/2 volt, so just use them as a general guide.

 

[lrgguy]

In 1980, Suzuki changed from separate Rectifier and regulator to an integrated unit. Because you have a '78 you will see five wires coming from the stator, two of which were the same color, yellow and white/blue. They are the same wire, so one yellow and one white/blue gets abandoned leaving one yellow, one white/blue and one green white. The stator wires put out AC voltage when the bike is running. Reading between each pair of stator wires on the AC scale above 100V you should get about 70V AC on each pair. The Rectifier part of the R/R changes the AC to DC and the Regulator part limits the voltage to be compatible with a 12V battery. Some meters will automatically select for you, but keep in mind, most cheap meters round off to the nearest 1/2 volt, so just use them as a general guide.

Thx for your time guys ... I just dont get it !
Im gunna have to get a pillow and lay down beside the bike for awhile for my brain to grasp this .... grrrrrr

I can take anything appart and putit back together , weld even fabricate stuff ...
Electrical I just dont get !!!

 

[lrgguy]

Dont have a clue if these wires are plugged into the right spots . Too many buttons and too many settings !! Lmfao feeling rather stupid at the moment !!

 

[chuck hahn]

Looks right to me. set the dial at ACv to the left of OFF. Start the bike and do the three prong check of the stator like I outlined. Its quick and easy and will readily prove the stator is or isnt throwing proper AC voltage.

How this all works is that the stator ( generator ) generates AC voltage..which in turn is converted to DC voltage in the rectifier. The regulator has diodes in them that click the reg on and off depending on the batteries demand for more recharging. Same principles as your old trucks had with the voltage regulator mounted on the fender wall.

 

[Guest]

The probes are where they need to be, click the dial one click left for AC Voltage and look at the blue buttons above for voltage range adjustment. You ideally want to read the center of the scale, so 150V AC would be ideal or the nearest you can get to it. This would be a good time to read the manual or go online and download it. AC Voltage does not care which probe you use. DC Voltage Black COM is negative and red positive.

 

[chuck hahn]

Once you have checked the AC voltage of the stator and its all good, you use the DCv for checking the charging at the battery. Set to DCv and touch the probes to the corresponding battery terminals and read what the system is throwing as a charging voltage to the battery. Do this at idle and watch as you run the RPMs up to around 4500 to see if the charge being sent to the battery increases as the RPMs go up.

 

[lrgguy]

Again ...thanks guys !! Ill letyou all know how it reads , or should I say how I read it ...hahaha

 

[lrgguy]

Ok im gunna assume my stator is done !!
As old vet said , theres 5 wires coming from my stator 2 yellow 2 blue/white 1 green /yellow .
So what I have done tuck 1 yellow and 1blue /white out of the way so now I just have 3 wires in hand .. I take the red probe and hold it to the blue/white and touch the black probe to the green/yellow etc etc I did this 3 times and pretty much every time the ac reading is at like 26.10 .I got one reading that was at 50.10 .. this was done with the choke on so the idle was at about 4200 rpm ..
I had the brand new battery on the charger pryor to doing this so it was fully charged ...
I also putthe pos probe to the pos on the battery and neg to neg and brought the rpms up to 4500 rpm and my reading was like 12.85 so yeah clearly the battery isnt being charged ...

So can I pretty much say the stator is pooched and needs replacing ?

 

[lrgguy]

But now out of curiosity ... with my rectifier and regulator both being seperate from one another , how would I test each unit seperate from one another ?

If I have to buy a new stator . And a new R/R and new tires . Dam I may just put some tnt under this bike and part it out to get my $1200 back . And how much does a new stator cost for this bike ?

 

[posplayr]

Ok im gunna assume my stator is done !!
As old vet said , theres 5 wires coming from my stator 2 yellow 2 blue/white 1 green /yellow .
So what I have done tuck 1 yellow and 1blue /white out of the way so now I just have 3 wires in hand .. I take the red probe and hold it to the blue/white and touch the black probe to the green/yellow etc etc I did this 3 times and pretty much every time the ac reading is at like 26.10 .I got one reading that was at 50.10 .. this was done with the choke on so the idle was at about 4200 rpm ..
I had the brand new battery on the charger pryor to doing this so it was fully charged ...
I also putthe pos probe to the pos on the battery and neg to neg and brought the rpms up to 4500 rpm and my reading was like 12.85 so yeah clearly the battery isnt being charged ...

So can I pretty much say the stator is pooched and needs replacing ?

If you have figured out how to use the VOM on the DC setting (i.e. how to measure 12V), then put the probes directly on the battery posts and perform the Quick Test and report the ALL 6 RESULTS. It is in my signature

 

[rustybronco]

But now out of curiosity ... with my rectifier and regulator both being seperate from one another , how would I test each unit seperate from one another ?

If one or the other is defective, personally I would replace the two individual units with a later model the incorporates the Rectifier and Regulator into one 'combined' unit. (commonly called an R/R )

 

[lrgguy]

If you have figured out how to use the VOM on the DC setting (i.e. how to measure 12V), then put the probes directly on the battery posts and perform the Quick Test and report the ALL 6 RESULTS. It is in my signature

Which 6 results ? I believe doing the first test you get 9 different readings ?
Thats on Ac
When I test the battery my vom is on dc ?

 

[lrgguy]

If you have figured out how to use the VOM on the DC setting (i.e. how to measure 12V), then put the probes directly on the battery posts and perform the Quick Test and report the ALL 6 RESULTS. It is in my signature

Sorry posplayr ....
Ok just did that quick test all reading on dc volts

#1 - 12.75
#2 - 12.30
#3 - 12.48
#4 - 10.80
#5 - 5.20
#6 - 12.60

 

[posplayr]

Sorry posplayr ....
Ok just did that quick test all reading on dc volts

#1 - 12.75
#2 - 12.30
#3 - 12.48
#4 - 10.80
#5 - 5.20
#6 - 12.60

If you did it correct I have never seen anything like that. You would basically need a fried r/r and a fried stator to do that . Especially 5.2 volts at the battery at 5k rpm. Why are you not blowing a fuse?

The first test step 1 and 2 says you pull the battery down 0.5v with 10 amp draw. Then at 5k you are pulling the nattery down to 5v??? You would have to be flowing a whole long of current 50+ amps to do that. Where is it going to and why is the fuse not blowing?

 

[lrgguy]

If you did it correct I have never seen anything like that. You would basically need a fried r/r and a fried stator to do that . Especially 5.2 volts at the battery at 5k rpm. Why are you not blowing a fuse?

The first test step 1 and 2 says you pull the battery down 0.5v with 10 amp draw. Then at 5k you are pulling the nattery down to 5v??? You would have to be flowing a whole long of current 50+ amps to do that. Where is it going to and why is the fuse not blowing?

I have no idea ... but ill do the test again step by step tomorrow just to confirm , neibers dont appreciate me revving bike at 5000 rpm this late ...

 

[lrgguy]

If you did it correct I have never seen anything like that. You would basically need a fried r/r and a fried stator to do that . Especially 5.2 volts at the battery at 5k rpm. Why are you not blowing a fuse?

The first test step 1 and 2 says you pull the battery down 0.5v with 10 amp draw. Then at 5k you are pulling the nattery down to 5v??? You would have to be flowing a whole long of current 50+ amps to do that. Where is it going to and why is the fuse not blowing?

Test #1 pos and neg leads just on battery pos and neg ..
Test #2 I turned key on with lights on and counted to 10 then took my reading
Test #3 started bike up left lights on and let the bike idle it was idling at 1200 rpm
Test #4 took reading while holding throttle so revs were at 2500 rpm
Test #5 took reading while holding throttle so rpms were at 5000 rpm
Test #6 turned bike off and took reading