Charging System 13.80 volts

[Anonymous]

Having just gone through steering head bearings and replacing a clutch, my first long ride out this year ended up with a dead battery. Nursed it home and discovered only 12 Volts on the battery terminals, obviously not charging. Replaced the regulator and rectifier assembly and no change. For the next few days I went through the checks listed in the stator papers and even took the R/R assembly and had it checked out by an electronics expert. Found no fault with the R/R and the stator had an output of 80V Ac at 5500 RPM. Checked all the wiring for corrosion and found none. After all of this, I discovered that the battery had chunks and flakes of lead in two of the cells, shorting it out occasionally, if you tipped it you could see the crap in it. I replaced the battery, now the bike runs OK. My question here is that after going over the charging system and even replacing the stator and R/R assembly ( OK I have a spare bike) , the most I can get out of the charging system is 13.8 Volts at 2500 RPM with the high beam on. Should I be happy with this?? Most charging systems and even the manual says I should have 14- 15 volts at the battery. Were these charging systems a little on the low side ( other than frying themselves occasionally).

[SqDancerLynn1]

13.8 V with the bike running with the high beams on should be fine. The thing to do is add an extra ground wire from the reg/rect mounting bolt direct to the battery ground cable (use a 12 gauge wire) doing so increased my reading about 1/2 volt, adds to the reliablity of the reg

[Anonymous]

13.8 should be fine for recharging a new battery.

[Anonymous]

13.8 V with the bike running with the high beams on should be fine. The thing to do is add an extra ground wire from the reg/rect mounting bolt direct to the battery ground cable (use a 12 gauge wire) doing so increased my reading about 1/2 volt, adds to the reliablity of the reg

This is a good trick. I did it and went up to 14.2volt peak from about 13.5v or so. I couldn't remember who I got the trick from, must've been SqDancer.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the tip, tried a wire from the igniter assembly mounting bolt cause it's a little easier to get at, the R/R is mounted to the back of this assembly, it didn't make much any difference. I'll try a wire directly from the R/R mounting next, a lot harder to get at as it all has to come out.

[focus frenzy]

13.8 volts at 2500 is fine, you should take the mesurement at 5000RPM, this is the speed that the suzuki charging system puts out it's peak output.