Rainy weekends and Voltmeters

[Anonymous]

OK, I've been working on my bikes this weekend since mother nature is watering the flowers all weekend and I had a good time cleaning and charging batteries and stuff like that. I bought a cheapy volt/ohm meter to check my charging system on the two bikes... I hope the problem is with the instrument and not the bikes. Anyway, slowly over the year, the battery in my 1100 has been needing to be charged but only every other month or so... So I thought it might be the battery as I ran the fluid down pretty low once... Anyway, I check the voltage across the battery posts and get 12 volts. I then start the bike and rev it up to 4500 and the meter still says 12 volts... Am I doing it wrong? Funny, the same thing happens with the other bike, no change in voltage wwhen reved or ideling.

Yes, I have read all of the Charging system/Stator papers...
GY

[Anonymous]

they cant be both shot--i hope --try it on the car Gerry
how many volt scales does your meter have--set it on a scale so that 12 volt readings are somewher mid scale

[argonsagas]

Gerry

Sounds like you are using an old-style VOM with a sweep hand instead the newer digital read-out types, but it also sounds like your readings are not accurate.

Best bet is to get a decent VOM, because the cheapies tend to have poor readings, and a digital one is better because it is more definitive in its readings.

[Anonymous]

YEa, that's what I am going to do... I'll head to Radio Shack and get a decent digital VOM. I had one a while ago but can't find it!!!
I charged up all my batteries and bought a new one for my 1100. We'll see what's happening with the fault finding guide from the Stator Papers.
GY