Is 16 volts too high??

[Big6ft6]

Just replaced my OE r/r with an electrex unit. Now with the new electrex r/r I get 13.5 at idle, but I'm up to 16V at 3000rpm and if I rev further I can get to 17!!:shock:

I was getting 13.5 volts across the battery with the original r/r but wanted to do change it before it failed.

Should my volts continue to increase with RPM and should they get that high?? I can't seem to find any discussion of too much charging voltage in any threads or the stator papers.

I will do the stator paper trouble shooting, but would rather not cut any more wires if I don't have to.

any ideas before I cut the wires to do the tests?

[DimitriT]

17 volts is a sign of a failed or failing RR. Check the electrolite level in your battery and make sure it hasn't boiled off. Look at adding a bypass ground wire from the RR ground directly to the battery ground (negative terminal). RRs need a good ground to operate.

It sounds like your original RR was working fine. I would go back to that unit and make sure its grounded to the battery negative terminal.

[Big6ft6]

Thanks Dimitri...I worry about the original r/r, everyone says "it isn't a metter of if...but a metter of when." And I don't want to get stranded, but it did seem to be charging fine.

Should I send this unit back to Electrex?

[earlfor]

Yes, 16 volts is a faulty R/R. Voltage should level out at about 15 volts regardless of any rpm increase. I had the same problem with a new Electrex R/R a couple years ago. I emailed them, returned it, they checked and verified it was faulty and sent me a replacement. Put the old R/R back on the bike until you get the replacement. 16 volts+ is not good.

Earl

Just replaced my OE r/r with an electrex unit. Now with the new electrex r/r I get 13.5 at idle, but I'm up to 16V at 3000rpm and if I rev further I can get to 17!!:shock:

I was getting 13.5 volts across the battery with the original r/r but wanted to do change it before it failed.

Should my volts continue to increase with RPM and should they get that high?? I can't seem to find any discussion of too much charging voltage in any threads or the stator papers.

I will do the stator paper trouble shooting, but would rather not cut any more wires if I don't have to.

any ideas before I cut the wires to do the tests?

[Big6ft6]

Thanks Earl! Knowing someone else has had a faulty new r/r gives me hope that it could really be just that:-D

Nate

[Jethro]

My experience is that the voltage should actually go down as the rpms increase. My bike at idle produces 14.5 volts. At about 2000 rpms the voltage goes to about 15, then anything north of that the voltage drops to 13.5. This is becasue as input increases, the diodes work harder to draw off excess, and the output decreases. That has been my experience.

Also note that the failure of these units is more a result of the bike wiring than the units themsleves. If all your connections are clean, you have no shorts, and everything is grounded well, you have no reason to worry about your stock stator or r/r. That being said, if I'm out for a tour of more than 1000 miles, my electrical repair kit has a new Ricks Stator and r/r...

[flyingace]

My experience is that the voltage should actually go down as the rpms increase. My bike at idle produces 14.5 volts. At about 2000 rpms the voltage goes to about 15, then anything north of that the voltage drops to 13.5. This is becasue as input increases, the diodes work harder to draw off excess, and the output decreases. That has been my experience....

I agree with this. Just looking at the headlight brightness, it peaks just past idle then fades as the revs get higher.

[duaneage]

Electix RR's have been known to have issues, search for it on this forum and see what others have gone through.

[focus frenzy]

electrosport (bought out electrex in USA) sucks the quality is poor and customer support is pathetic at best.

ground for the R&R is very important but there is one thing missing from all the replies.

are you sure the meter is reading correctly? a fellow Texas GS'er nearly went nuts and spent a considerable amount of money chasing a perceived problem that turned out to be a multi meter that was not reading correctly.

yesterday I was temporarily baffled by bizarre readings on my inductive 400 amp meter, that turned out to be a weak battery.

[Big6ft6]

That is a great point Focus, I will look into that tonight. However, with the bike off, I do get 12.6 volts across the battery with my meter.

Another symptom I forgot to mention, when driving at steady speed my light would go from super-bright to normal, to super bright and back again. After this happend for a little while I suddenly got a super loud high pitched chriping (like a really angry squirrle) sound coming from my engine, frequency of the noise would change with RPM..:shock: I pulled over and the noise would stop when the RPM fell below 1500. I pulled away and the noise started again. I shut the bike off and after a while was able to drive home without any more chirping.

I was assuming that horrible noise was the stator, heated up and started rubbing or something. hasn't happend since, but I still have the higher Voltage readings across the battery.

What do you guys think the noise was?

[cberkeley]

If your multimeter is ok (make sure the multimeter battery is good, they've been known to give screwy readings with failing battery), then I strongly suspect a R/R problem. Go back to your old R/R seems like that one worked. I also recomend direct connections from the R/R to the battery (on a working R/R of course).

[beby99]

That is a great point Focus, I will look into that tonight. However, with the bike off, I do get 12.6 volts across the battery with my meter.

Another symptom I forgot to mention, when driving at steady speed my light would go from super-bright to normal, to super bright and back again. After this happend for a little while I suddenly got a super loud high pitched chriping (like a really angry squirrle) sound coming from my engine, frequency of the noise would change with RPM..:shock: I pulled over and the noise would stop when the RPM fell below 1500. I pulled away and the noise started again. I shut the bike off and after a while was able to drive home without any more chirping.

I was assuming that horrible noise was the stator, heated up and started rubbing or something. hasn't happend since, but I still have the higher Voltage readings across the battery.

What do you guys think the noise was?

Hey Nate....we don't allow tempter owners in this forum.


Not sure about the chirping thing....how's your oil level?

[Big6ft6]

Hey Bret! I knew you'd be in here somewhere!

My oil level is good. The chirping thing REALLY freaked me out when it happend. It was REALLY LOUD, almost like my horn was somehow short circuiting and pulsing rapidly with RPM of my engine, I mean it sounded like I had a siren on my bike:shock: . It was like the sound of death from an engine, it was really bad and scary.

But it is now just gone?? Haven't heard it since that one ride. Someone suggested the high voltage may have put excessive load on my stator and it had expanded due to heat which may have cuase the rotor and stator to rub???? Sounded plauseable since I was so worried about voltage at the time, but now I'm not sure clearances are so tight that heated metal would close them.

The sound was directly correlated to the RPM of my bike the faster the RPM the more rapid the chirping.

[beby99]

Mmmm...sure it was coming from the engine....maybe tach cable, tach gear or the tach itself??

[Big6ft6]

Actually, I'm not sure at all it was coming from the engine. Just somewhere from infront of or between my legs (from the bike).

And as a matter of fact, I've been having problems with the tach cable vibrating out of the back fo the tach, and it had done just that when the chirping first started. But I pulled over, re-inserted the tach cable and tightened the collar, drove away, and the noise happened again even with the tach cable firmly installed.

I shut the bike off and let is sit for 10 minutes or so, and then drove home with out a problem and haven't heard the noise since.

I am really hoping it was something to do with the tach/tach cable. Yesterday actually, my tach cable vibrated loose once again, and while it was out I tried to push the spinning end of the cable against different items such as the headlight bucket to see if I could re-create the horrible noise, but no such luck.

Is it posslbe that when the tach cable fell out, the spinning end was jammed and somehow damaged or misaligned the tach drive gear in the engine? I would think that would have done some damage and things seem to be fine now?