Too much of a good thing

[Guest]

Hi, I'm new to Suzukis, but been driving bikes for many years. Bike was running good. Battery was low, so I hooked up my 10 amp battery charger while it was still in bike. I had key in off position so I thought I was good to go. Wrong!! After 20 seconds heard sizzling, and smoking R/R wires, & quick disconnected the charger. Charger was hooked up correctly. Now I have melted & shorted R/R wires and no power to key switch. Fuses are all check out good. Where do I go from here? Do you need a R/R to power bike? Obviously I will need a R/R, do you think I also fried the stator, or ignition switch? Wiring in headlight bucket looks good. I have time to fix it living on the frozen tundra of Wisconsin. Thanks for any direction on this problem.

[Larry D]

Don't know, but, I like your bike !!

On the homepage of this site, in the lower left is a section called "in the garage" and in there are the stator papers. Very good charging info. Read all of those and I bet you'll find the answer. Or at the least you'll be better informed.

[doctorgonzo]

As was stated, go through the stator papers and check the whole system. You probably just fried the R/R unit. I don't think (and someone correct me) the curent will flow backwards from the R/R to the stator (and thus damage it) I think it only goes one direction.

[Dave8338]

Not sure what happened? If everything was hooked up right...that shouldn't have happened, though I always pull the + lead from the battery, just to be sure. There could have been enough corrosion in the connections that an excess of heat built up and fried your R/R wires.

As far as the R/R...Duanage (member here) has the ticket for the Honda upgrade, I did mine with one from a parts bike I had and all NOW...works exactly the way it is supposed to.

Welcome to the GSR...best little site on the web!!!

Enter Basscliff, stage left...

[bonanzadave]

Ask Santa for a new battery or just go buy one and put it on a slow charge. Get a new RR from Duanage (GSR Member) and install it following his instructions. Thoroughly clean all or replace any burnt electrical connectors. Once you get the bike running, check the stator output for 50 VAC. Thats AC voltage between all three stator wires. After that you should have a solid charging system.

Welcome.

[80GS1000]

First, get an appropriate sized battery charger for a motorcycle battery. A 1.25 amp Battery Tender Plus will charge your battery reasonably quickly and has an automatic float mode to keep it charged and fresh when you're not riding the bike. And it's a far smaller fire hazard too.

Check your wiring harness for molten or fried wiring, repair as necessary.

Buy a new battery and R/R from member Duanage then go through the stator papers to see if your charging system is still OK.

[Redman]

Welcome to GSR.
(Oh, Man, I beat Bass Cliff)

IS not a good idea to use a higher amp charger, but still should not have caused the problem you mentioned.

Did you hook charger to battery or to some other point like on the solenoid? (where maybe not so obvious if connected corrrect or not).

I would suggest you look for some more specific symptoms (which wires burnt and such) and post back here in the tech section. Maybe someone there can send you a schematic (if you dont have one).

Check stator per instructions in the "stator papers" found in the "garage" section back on the GSR homepage (not the forumn).

And, yes, bike can run without a R/R.

.

[SqDancerLynn1]

With low battery it could have been that the reg was already fried. The 10a charges was enough to melt the wires the rest of the way. SO you need a new reg. Go thru and test the system completely before you install another one. It will run fine without the reg as long as the battery is good

[BassCliff]

Greetings and Salutations!

Hi Mr. gsnobs,

I'm glad you found us. If I were you, I'd start by cleaning every electrical connection and ground in your wiring harness. I know it's a hassle, but it will save you from chasing down many mysterious glitches that will pop up. There are a couple of wiring cleanup/repair suggestions HERE.

Now to the business at hand (Apologies to Mr. Dave8338 and Mr. Redman for being late) ...

Please click here to receive your mega-welcome, chock full of suggestions and links to vendors and other information. Then feel free to visit my little BikeCliff website where I've been collecting the wisdom of this generous community. There's lots of GS lovin' around here. Thanks for joining us. Don't forget, we like pictures! Not you, your bike!

Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff