Found charging problem. Found a solution.

[Cyrano]

I had a suspicion that the charging wasn't all it could be. I've been using the bike for a few weeks and it's always started on the button, hot or cold, even though the lights are always on. So I decided to put my meter across the battery and see what's what. Readings show that it was below just 12 at idle and struggling to get above 12 with any revs.

After much thinking and prodding and testing, I was getting nowhere and couldn't find a fault.

• The RR buzzed out okay,
• the stator showed no faults but still it was just below 12v.
• I made a temporary fitting for an FH001 Yamaha RR that I recently stole from ebay and it showed the same.
• I wired the output straight to the battery, still the same.
• I wired the negative to the battery and no change.
• With all new connectors I tried the old RR again. Same result.

Then I wondered if the battery was dragging it down so I 'borrowed' the battery out of my lads GS500. RESULT! It went up to 14v which meant that RR (which ever one was connected at the time) and the stator are good.
(Side note, it was a good job I pulled his battery out as the negative terminal was going quite crusty. I've cleaned that out for him and left it on charge).

So I was rummaging around and burnt my finger on a fuse. Hulloh? I says to meself, 'that shouldn't be so effin' hot.'

So I removed the fusebox and found that the fuse that works the lighting has been getting very hot and slightly melted the fusebox housing.

Stuck my battery back in and left out the lights fuse and waddaya know? It charges and does what it supposed to do.

Four hours that took. Four bloody hours! I've retired for the day as I don't have enough connectors to wire in the replacement fusebox (one I had for my old XS1100 project but never used). It's guts are hanging out but I'm happy that it's working.





Time for a rewarding dinner of slow cooked minty lamb chops and a healthy glass of Talisker Storm. The forecast is rain for the weekend so I'll stuff it all back in tomorrow.


Still lovin' this bike especially as I don't need to spend more money on a replacement stator. Yet.

[posplayr]

I had a suspicion that the charging wasn't all it could be. I've been using the bike for a few weeks and it's always started on the button, hot or cold, even though the lights are always on. So I decided to put my meter across the battery and see what's what. Readings show that it was below just 12 at idle and struggling to get above 12 with any revs.

After much thinking and prodding and testing, I was getting nowhere and couldn't find a fault.

• The RR buzzed out okay,
• the stator showed no faults but still it was just below 12v.
• I made a temporary fitting for an FH001 Yamaha RR that I recently stole from ebay and it showed the same.
• I wired the output straight to the battery, still the same.
• I wired the negative to the battery and no change.
• With all new connectors I tried the old RR again. Same result.

Then I wondered if the battery was dragging it down so I 'borrowed' the battery out of my lads GS500. RESULT! It went up to 14v which meant that RR (which ever one was connected at the time) and the stator are good.
(Side note, it was a good job I pulled his battery out as the negative terminal was going quite crusty. I've cleaned that out for him and left it on charge).

So I was rummaging around and burnt my finger on a fuse. Hulloh? I says to meself, 'that shouldn't be so effin' hot.'

So I removed the fusebox and found that the fuse that works the lighting has been getting very hot and slightly melted the fusebox housing.

Stuck my battery back in and left out the lights fuse and waddaya know? It charges and does what it supposed to do.

Four hours that took. Four bloody hours! I've retired for the day as I don't have enough connectors to wire in the replacement fusebox (one I had for my old XS1100 project but never used). It's guts are hanging out but I'm happy that it's working.





Time for a rewarding dinner of slow cooked minty lamb chops and a healthy glass of Talisker Storm. The forecast is rain for the weekend so I'll stuff it all back in tomorrow.


Still lovin' this bike especially as I don't need to spend more money on a replacement stator. Yet.

Sorry you had to do this the hard way. If you look at the "Quick Test", this would have been diagnosed immediately. The GS charging systems just do not have the umph to push a bad battery to 14.5V so it is mandatory to test the battery is on full charge using a load test before testing the charging system.

You could have diagnosed this in 2 minutes after the seat was off following the Quick test..

QUICK TEST Diagnosis Summary:

Basically Step #1 and #2 is making sure the battery is charged and in good health. The drop should be about 0.5 volts for normal headlamp and coil load (without cranking the starter). Anymore than 0.5V drop indicates the battery is weak even though the static voltage is OK (12.7-12.8V). If your battery is any lower it can have an effect on your charging voltages as the charging system only has so much capacity and will be drug down by a poor battery.

[Brendan W]

I'm constantly checking the fuses after finding a hot end on one. Keep promising myself to get a blade type box as it seems the glass type are not as good as they used to be.

[posplayr]

I assuem the picture is not a final configuration, but I don't see any fuse between the R/R(+) and the BATTERY(+).

If the R/R were to short to ground then you would burn that wire.

[Cyrano]

That last picture was my test set set, where I could switch connections easily.

The battery is very recent and very decent. What I wanted to find out was why the voltage wasn't as high as I expected.

UPDATE:. Found a few things and have put them right. Cleaned up earthing points and connectors.
New fuse box fitted with blade type fuses.
Front indicators are dual filament (which I hadn't realised) and the running lights wiring was going to earth. I've defence for this, I fitted them. God knows how they worked but they did. Now fitted with proper earthing wires.
Left ti hooked up to an Opitmate charger for a few hours.
Also found that the smaller earthing wire (B/W) to the negative terminal is looking worse for wear so I'll fit a chassis ground point to the front of the frame for all the earths in the the headlamp bowl.

Final analysis shows that with the lights OFF (fuse removed) it charges just fine. Swapping RR units makes no difference, wiring direct to the battery makes little difference.
With the lights ON the voltages across the battery drop. Meter show a draw of 4.5A through the lights fuse.

I'm happy enough with it for now but I will be keeping an eye on it in the future.

[posplayr]

If you are going to do a series R/R, I would recommend swapping out the Incandescent signal bulbs as well as the 55W headlamp all for LED. Of course if you keep that FH001 Yamaha RR then ignore the advice.

[Cyrano]

That's not a bad idea, thanks for that.

[Steve]

Just as a note: the Polaris series-type regulator that we are all suggesting looks just like that FH001. Only the numbers printed on the end and the guts inside will be different, so however that one wires in and physically fits, it will be the same with the Polaris.

.