Charging issues.

[Guest]

Hello all. I have been working on my gs450l and I have run into a bit of a road bump. I am having issues with my battery charging. I have already replaced the battery, stator and the R/R but still no change. Can someone help me out? I'm thinking about rewiring the entire thing and seeing if that'll fix it but I'm unsure. The stator output is only at 55AC volts last I remember. I can't think of what else could be wrong. Maybe you guys have some ideas.

Some background: The bike had been sitting outside uncovered for 5years or more. I have only had it a few months and have got it almost fully restored. All it needs now is a decent paint job, a right hand muffler and getting the battery to charge.

[tom203]

This is a real common problem. Have you seen and done the quick test with your current setup?

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?164993-Charging-System-QUICK-TEST/page2&p=1272192#post1272192

does your bike have a headlight on/off switch on left control?

[Evan]

Yes, I did the quick test. The battery starts at about 12.8volts I turn on the lights Ito drops to about 12.5 but when it's on there's no change or a drop from the 12.5 and bringing up the rpms also results in little to no improvement. To answer your second question, yes, my bike has a headlight switch on/off control.

I was reading another thread and found something that might be important. I replaced the stator but the new one had no coating on the outside. You think that would cause my issue?

[fastbysuzuki]

I have never worked on 450 but your stator readings seem very low for a new stator, follow the steps Tom has suggested there is more info Here

[Nessism]

Did you rewire the charging system to feed the stator power directly into the R/R bypassing the factory harness? And what kind of R/R did you get? Is the R/R properly grounded? The 450 is notorious for having very poor grounding for the R/R.

Yeah, the lack of coating might cause an issue at some point but that in itself shouldn't cause issues in the short term. 55 VAC does seem low though.

[hillsy]

What RPM are you checking the AC voltage at? Should be at 5K RPM and you should have around 80-90V on each winding.

[Evan]

I checked it at 5000rpm and It showed 55AC. I'll need to double check in a few days when I have time but I believe at rest the output was 30-40AC and when I revved up to 5000rpm it got to around 50-60AC. Well below the amount It is supposed to be according to my manual. Which I believe says 74AC but don't quote me on it I haven't been able to look at it for a month or so.

[Evan]

I did not rewire it directly into the R/R bypassing the harness. how would I go about that and what benefits does that give the bike? I'm a newbie so I am open to suggestions. I'm not sure exactly what type of R/R I got. I'll check tomorrow. It was a ditch effort to see if the other R/R was faulty so I didn't pay much attention to it. I'll have to check the grounds too because I am also unsure of that.

[roeme]

If your new stator doesn't output the power it's supposed to, there's no point fiddling around with the rest of the system. If I were you, I'd invest my energy in this part.

Just to make sure; are you testing the stator on it's own, i.e. disconnected from the rest of the bike? If not, do so to determine whether you have a faulty stator, or losing power to something else.

IIRC the manual gives the stator voltages with no load connected.

[eil]

Not saying it's your problem, but you might try another multimeter as well just to be sure you're getting the right readings. Some (usually cheaper) multimeters only read AC correctly when it's 50-60 Hz and a perfect sine wave.

You say you have replaced the R/R, what did you replace it with? New/used? Model number?

[sam000lee]

I did not rewire it directly into the R/R bypassing the harness. how would I go about that and what benefits does that give the bike? I'm a newbie so I am open to suggestions. I'm not sure exactly what type of R/R I got. I'll check tomorrow. It was a ditch effort to see if the other R/R was faulty so I didn't pay much attention to it. I'll have to check the grounds too because I am also unsure of that.

I don't know which R/R replacement you have, but for those of us who replace the R/R with the popular SH775, you wire the three wires from the stator directly to the R/R (bypass the headlight loop, also wire colors don't matter) and then wire the (+) output to the battery with a 20A fuse (somebody confirm 20A) and the (-) output either directly to the battery negative OR your single point ground (SPG) if you have that configuration.
I think you can find info for all of this in posplyr's sig.