Eletc./Charging Question

[KrazyK]

I have 83 GS1100 I have noticed when I start my bike and let warm up both my headlight and tail light will briten and dim and will do it from time to time. some days no problem. I have read the Stator papers and I M going to preform tests today. Am I looking inthe right direction or do I need to go in another direction?

[don_gibb6512]

Yup, that's right. Go over all your electrical connections and clean up all your ground connections. You'll need a good multimeter.

[trippivot]

the lights going bright and dim with rpm might annoy you but it is NOT exactly a problem.

the electrical system is NOT designed to charge the battery.
it is designed to cover the electrical loads only. ( not the same thing)

the battery needs to be charged by an outside source once a month at least.( 2 amp overnight)
battery tenders will shadow and shorten the life of your battery

checking unloaded AC Voltage off of the stator 3 leads first
checking DC Amperage at the negative terminal second
" " DC Voltage between battery terminals third

3 simple tests will tell the whole story.

[Redman]

Kraz,

If both the headlight and tail light do it together at the same time; you are correct in focusing in on the charging system, or maybe the main fuse circuit, but most likley the charging circuit. Check mostly the connections on the charging circuit; the stator leads and the r/r positive (red) wire and the r/r ground (black) wire.

You didnt make any statments about any voltage readings.

What would also help to know is this: you say it/they goes brite and dimmer from time to time. Now what we want to know is this....
Is the "brite" from unusally high voltage (much over 14.5) and the "dim" be normal voltage (13.5 - 14)?
... Or ....
Is the "brite" at normal voltage and the "dim" at unusally low voltage (less than 12.5).


If the "brite" is from unusally high voltage (high 14 or more), that will most likley be due to the r/r either failing or the r/r having a bad ground connection where the r/r black wire connects to the bike (more about that connection later). BUt since you said the symptopms come and go, I would suspect the r/r ground connections more that I would suspect the r/r is failing. And if it comes and goes and then stays high voltage you will start to have headlights and other bulbs burn out alot and not good for battery, will "boil off" the fluid.

More about that r/r black wire ground connection (if problem is high voltage). The r/r ground wire (black) wire is typically connected to a bolt on the battery box (where solenoind bolted to battery box). But often ther is a problem that the battery box itself isnt well grounded to the bike frame, so then the r/r doesnt realy have a good ground. SO that is why it is often recommended to add another "ground wire" from the bolt where the r/r black wire is connected and run it to battery negitive or some other good place that can ground it on the frame. There are other reasons for having this added ground wire, but this is the main reason. Would be good to add the bgoeund wire even if you dont have the high voltage problem.

If the brite is normal voltage and dim is low voltage, then just about anything could be causing that. And since it comes and goes is gonna be hard to find since if you are testing it when it is working because things will test okay then. A bad wiring connection that would cause voltage to be low, would also be causing heat and maybe melting things.

Trouble shooting intermittenet problems is difficult since "cant fix it when it aint broke" (thats how I explain it to managers that are pestering me for "how long is it gonna take?". One thing you can do is get an idea for how often it happens and/or under what circumstances it happen more. And then take care of some suspect things (clean up connections) and see if or how often symptoms reoccure.

I assume you are not talking about "brite" at high rpm and "dim" at idle, that is fairly normal to notice a difference between idle and high rpm.

Oh, and you didnt make any statement about if you have a stock r/r or not.

Tell us more what you find.

PS: As much as I have done with my bikes in last 3 weeks is to move the battery tender from one to the other. Have been riding the snow shovel and the snowthrower. Scheesch, its too early for this.