Brights cause battery drain???

[Anonymous]

Hey guys-- I'm lazy when it comes to anything electrical. I hate the black art of electricity and I try to avoid it whenever possible. This is why I have been using brights for the last six months. I need to locate and fix a connection to my regular headlight which has gone screwey but, like I said, I am lazy and why bother when I can just use my brights all the time? The wierd thing is--- after a couple months, my battery will slowly drain. For instance, when I am at a red light with a turn signal on and my front brake (thus, brake light) engaged, the signal will just stay on. It won't blink. If I turn the head lamp off, the system works fine. It will also work fine after a long ride, as if it has been charged back up. Again, three months later, I find that my bike isn't charged enough to get her started. Do the brights inherently run a little stronger than the charging system is able to follow? Cause, if I run the bike without the headlamp, the bike is fine.

Travis

[Anonymous]

If you hunt around the site for long you'll notice that unless you have an aftermarket charging system it is highly suspect. This means that it may be charging poorly or not at all, sounds like you're in the same boat as I am, where it'll sort of charge with no lights and drains with the lights on.

Anyhoo, you're pretty much stuck learning the black arts in this case I'm afraid. First, you'll want to tackle the low beam problem, though mostly likely that won't solve the power issue.

Invest in a charger like the battery Tender. Charge her up and have a read through the "Stator Papers" to learn all about the exciting world before the dawn of the Alternator.

Basically, your charging system has 2, very rarely 3 parts that have to work to charge. A Stator, which generates electricity from the spin of your engine, and a Regulator/Rectifier with converts that electricity into a usable format and sends it where it needs to go.

Bad Stator means not enough electricity being generated.

Bad R/R unit means it may be being generated, but it's not being channeled into anything useful.

The bad news is, when one goes, it has a tendency to cook the other. Bleh.

My current solution is to plug the bike in every night until I can afford a new, good aftermarket charging system. It's an imperfect solution, but it does work for the moment.

[Anonymous]

Ahh thank you. This is exactly the kind of message I needed (but didn't want to hear): Electrical for dummies. I have gathered, from this site, that the charging system is the first to go on these old gs bikes. Ah well, I will do as you suggest and look around for those parts and in the meantime-- I will just keep charging the sucker. A month or two to hold a charge ain't all bad. For now.

Again, thanks!
Travis

[SqDancerLynn1]

Something is wrong with your charging circuit. It needs to be checked. On My 79GS850 it has 37K with the original stator and a replacement Honda reg/rec for $15 (that was two years/ 12k miles ago). When I first got it running the charge rate was low, I added a ground from the battery (-) to the mounting bolt of the reg and saw an increase of almost .5 volts at the battery due to bad grounds SO until you can check it, add another ground it may help

[crc1214]

I had the same exact problem for about 2 months. Charging output with lights off was fine, but with them on - the damned battery would eventually drain.

The fix costs nothing at all.

Basically, more power from the stator is sent to the rectifier/regulator (I think they are combined single unit on your bike) when the lights are on.

This circuit is completed when you switch the headlights to "ON" on the handlebar switch.

Well, this is just worn out. And don't think just because your lights come on means that the switch is fine. It's not completing the circuit that I speak of.

So...... the fix is this......... either 1. Spend money and get a new headlight switch.

Or 2. Spend no money at all and do a wiring modification. It will take all of 45 seconds - seriously. But if you do this you MUST be sure to ride with headlights on all the time - and not switch them off. With this wiring mod, you will send full power output from the stator at ALL times.

Basically - get a manual. Go to the wiring diagram. Don't get intimidated. Locate the headlight switch. Look what two wires are connected by turning this switch to the "on" position. Trace these two wires back to their sources. On mine - it was the green/white wire FROM the stator and the red/white wire TO the rectifier.

Now, lift up your tool-kit holder underneath the seat. Pull back the large bell-shaped rubber boot. You will see about 12 wires in there. Don't get intimidated - you just need two of these.

Now...... locate the color wire coming FROM the stator. It will be connected to the same color wire (which is part of the wiring harness) going to the headlight switch. Disconnect where these two wires are joined.

OK. Your half way there. Now....... locate the color wire connected to the the rectifier/regulator. It will be connected to the same color wire (which is part of the wiring harness) going to the headlight switch. Disconnect where these two wires are joined.

Breath. Now........ take the MALE end of the wire you disconnected from the Stator - and connect it to the FEMALE end of the wire going TO the reg/rectifier unit. There you go......... you just fixed your charging problem. You just manually did what the headlight switch does when you switch your lights to "ON".

Now go for a ride, and take satisfaction in solving a common charging system problem for free that most mechanics would write off as a "bad stator"

Chad
Columbus, OH 1978 GS550E

[Anonymous]

Chad---

Thank you for the fix. I will try this as soon as I get a little time to work. I checked my bikes records (the previous owner kept a meticulous log of all the work done to the bike since 1980 when he bought it new. It is truely awesome.) and the stator and rectifyer where both replaced as being faulty back in 1982 at 8,000 miles by the dealership. I will check test them but I have a hunch that your fix is the ticket to ride.

Travis