Another charging question

[ryan]

1981 GS1100E. I just had my entire charging system (stator, rectifier, the whole she-bang) replaced with brand new aftermarket stuff. Voltage was reading 13.9 coming off which I thought was really good. Brand new battery as well. If the thing sits for a day, I have to hook it up to the trickle charger to get it to fire up, but I mean its immediate. The battery sounds strong and cranks, but it wont fire. As soon as I hook up the 1 amp trickle charger, it fires right up and runs fine until I shut it off. I'm at a loss, any thoughts??

[tom203]

Do you know what you (or your mechanic) used for "aftermarket" replacement parts?? If it needs a trickle charger boost after sitting for just one day (and it just needs a brief tickle to wake up), something is amiss- you need to measure battery voltage during cranking to see how much it drops. Sounds like a loose internal battery connection.

[OldVet66]

The voltage threshold is too low for your electronic ignition to fire until you add the charger. That means something in your system is drawing your voltage below 11 volts. I don't know the exact voltage, but electronic ignitions don't work below a certain voltage. Your trickle charger is supplying what it needs to fire. tom203 is on target. You have a high contact resistance somewhere that is reducing your voltage under load when you hit the starter. It could be corrosion hidden in a terminal crimp, loose connections, bad grounds, corrosion in switches, plugs or connectors or even a starter motor going bad. Whoever replaced your parts fixed the symptoms but not the problem and it will just happen again unless you go through your entire electrical wiring system and fix the problem. Let us know what R/R was used as a replacement, because most of the "replacement" R/R's including Suzuki are not very good. There are hundreds of R/R posts out there, but the general consensus is the series R/R's are superior to all of the shunt types.