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Please Help! Bike won't charge battery

  • Thread starter Thread starter ScottLamb
  • Start date Start date
S

ScottLamb

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Hi all, sorry for having to make this my introduction too. I am 18 been riding dirt bike most of my life and doing maintenance on them too, so I know mostly what I am doing, however street bikes are whole new world to me. I just got my '82 GS650GL custom bobber from craigslist, it didn't have a battery so i purchased one set it up, charged it, and threw it on the bike. That was the first night I had the bike, the next morning I took it out with my brother around the block, got on the throttle, and the bike cut off, I found the problem to be a fried ignition wire? A wire looking to come from my ignition switch to the starter, I think, which mounts to the rear side of my battery bracket. I traced the wire back to where I could cut it and re-run a new one. Put everything back on and the bike ran fine, took it around the block a few times with a friend. Then yesterday morning two friends and I set out to go riding and pick up some things from a used bike parts shop, we pulled over for a break, I shut my bike off. When we were ready to get going again I turned my key and hit the ignition, but nothing. I assumed my battery was dead, so we went to find some jumpers and jumped the bike (from a car, I'm not sure if this is good or bad, I've heard I can do it and I shouldn't do it) anyway the bike started right up, we headed over to the bike shop, I was thinking that my bike should charge the battery right back up with a fairly decent amount of distance on the ride. As we left the bike shop, my bike again wouldn't start. I have done some initial testing and found that the battery is good, the charging system is bad, while running I have around 12v at idle, and anything above that will start to drain my battery. Where do I go from here? All help is appreciated! I really love this bike and want to get it running strong again.
Thank you!
 
Hello and Welcome to the site

Others will chime in on how to fix your problem or at least trouble shoot it, but I will start you off with your mega welcome....

Greetings and Salutations,

I have not been able to be on the forum much lately and many new members have not received their "mega-welcome". If you are here you probably have a 30 year old motorcycle that needs about 20 years worth of maintenance. You'll find all kinds of helpful tips, procedures, manuals, etc, in the links below. Let's get started.

Let me dump a TON of information on you and share some GS lovin'. :D

I just stopped by to welcome you to the forum in my own, special way.
big_hi.gif


If there's anything you'd like to know about the Suzuki GS model bikes, and most others actually, you've come to the right place. There's a lot of knowledge and experience here in the community. Come on in and let me say "HOoooowwwDY!"....
hat1.gif


Here is your very own magical, mystical, mythical, mind-expanding "mega-welcome". Please take notice of the "Top 10 Common Issues", "Top 15 Tips For GS Happiness", the Carb Cleanup Series, and the Stator Papers. All of these tasks must be addressed in order to have a safe, reliable machine. This is what NOT to do: Top 10 Newbie Mistakes. Now let me roll out the welcome mat for you...

carpet.jpg


Please click here for your mega-welcome, chock full of tips, suggestions, links to vendors, and other information. Then feel free to visit my little BikeCliff website where I've been collecting the wisdom of this generous community. Don't forget, we like pictures! Not you, your bike! :D

Thanks for joining us. Keep us informed.

Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for the welcome, I will definitely get pictures up, I hope everyone likes the way she looks, I found her on Craigslist and knew I wanted her.
 
Cliff's site has an updated version of the Stator Papers (also linked on the GSR homepage). That's your bible on how to check the charging system, although it doesn't give all the details on how to fix the wiring. For that, please search the forum. Charging system threads are some of the most common of all so it's best to search instead of reinventing the wheel.
 
ScottLamb said:
I just got my '82 GS650GL custom bobber from craigslist, it didn't have a battery so i purchased one set it up, charged it, and threw it on the bike.
Click to expand...
Good luck, on both accounts.


ScottLamb said:
... I turned my key and hit the ignition, but nothing. I assumed my battery was dead, so we went to find some jumpers and jumped the bike (from a car, I'm not sure if this is good or bad, I've heard I can do it and I shouldn't do it)
Click to expand...
Should not assume, but that's a topic for another conversation.

It's OK to use jumper cables to a car (or truck), but please make sure the donor vehicle is NOT running when you do that.

Because of the type of voltage regulators on our bikes, they will try to regulate any voltage they see, not just what the bike produces. If the car's voltage (while running) happens to be over the regulation setpoint on the bike, the bike will try to regulate it. The problem is that the regulator is rated for about 25 or 30 amps, most of today's cars have charging systems capable of 80 amps and more. The bike's regulator will do its own little re-enactment of Hiroshima in the process.


ScottLamb said:
..., I was thinking that my bike should charge the battery right back up with a fairly decent amount of distance on the ride.
Click to expand...
Let me make sure I have this straight. You were riding the bike, stopped, and found that you had a dead battery. You jump-started the bike, then rode it some more and expected it to be fully-charged? I must have missed the part where you fixed it first.




ScottLamb said:
I have done some initial testing and found that the battery is good, the charging system is bad, while running I have around 12v at idle, and anything above that will start to drain my battery. Where do I go from here?
Click to expand...
NOW we get to the good stuff.

There are only three basic parts of the system, the stator, the R/R (Rectifier/Regulator) and the battery. You say you think your battery is good, check the other two. GateKeeper gave you the link to BassCliff's Mega Welcome, check that out, there is a full library there that includes service manuals for your bike, tutorials that will supplement the manuals and many other documents to help you do your testing.



ScottLamb said:
I hope everyone likes the way she looks, I found her on Craigslist and knew I wanted her.
Click to expand...
As I mentioned earlier, good luck with the "Craigslist custom bobber". Once in a GREAT while, you might actually find one that is resonably well done, but most of them are horrid creations that don't even qualify as artistic, let alone functional. They usually appear to be the work of a very optimistic person with minimal skills, who goes in, hacks a few things out of the bike, paints it flat black and charges about four times what a complete (safe and comfortable) bike is worth.

Looking forward to pictures of your bike, hopefully you got one of the good ones.

.
 
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