Electrical system fried...grrrr

[Anonymous]

I've been having electrical problems recently, mostly with the battery not charging correctly. I was going to do the stator tests, but my battery ended up dying before I could.

Went and got a new battery and charged it. Put it on the bike with a charge around 13.5 V (maybe a little under). Cranked once, bike almost started. Tried again, and all lights go off. Nothing works - starter, turn signals, headlight, horn, brake light, etc. So I fried a fuse, I assume.

The question is, why? I assume I must have a short somewhere on the bike, and perhaps that was causing my earlier problems. But where on earth do I start looking for that short? Anyone have suggestions of good places to start or test or know of common problem areas?

I have a multimeter and know enough about electricity to test the bike.

Thanks!

--Tyler

[SqDancerLynn1]

Check the battery connections, check the fuses & the connections on the fuse block. Check the voltage on your new battery. If the main fuse is blown, replace it, If it blows again check the reg/rect (try operating the bike with the reg/rect disconnected)

[Anonymous]

Re: Electrical system fried...grrrr

I've been having electrical problems recently, mostly with the battery not charging correctly. I was going to do the stator tests, but my battery ended up dying before I could.

Went and got a new battery and charged it. Put it on the bike with a charge around 13.5 V (maybe a little under). Cranked once, bike almost started. Tried again, and all lights go off. Nothing works - starter, turn signals, headlight, horn, brake light, etc. So I fried a fuse, I assume.

The question is, why? I assume I must have a short somewhere on the bike, and perhaps that was causing my earlier problems. But where on earth do I start looking for that short? Anyone have suggestions of good places to start or test or know of common problem areas?

I have a multimeter and know enough about electricity to test the bike.

Thanks!

--Tyler

You jump from saying that you assume you fried a fuse then ask why. Do we know, in fact, that you did fry a fuse? It's senseless to sniff at the wrong bush.

[Anonymous]

Main fuse is blown. Other fuses are fine.

--Tyler

[GSJoe]

R/R. You're lucky you weren't 60+mi from home when yours blew (like I was). Just unplug it and see if it will run.

[Anonymous]

Wouldn't it potentially damage the bike with the R/R disconnected and the bike running. From what I know, the R/R is supposed to limit the voltage supplied to the bike (regulator), as well as convert the AC signal from the stator to a DC signal (rectifier). Without the regulator, I assume the worst that would happen is another blown fuse. But without the rectifier, couldn't you supply a negative voltage (from the AC sine wave) to the battery, thus draining it. Or is it totally disconnected from supplying power to the battery as well?

Also, what am I trying to determine if the bike runs without the R/R?

Thanks.

--Tyler

[focus frenzy]

unplugging the regulator from the stator end and bike end will isolate it and the bike will run on battery voltage alone.

[GSJoe]

Yeah FF is right. Which is why mine died just after getting it home. Luckily it's new so all I'll have to do is charge it.

[Anonymous]

Hi, Just been thru what you are going thru. Had the batt die, was bubblin over. Replaced with a new one. No charging & blowing the main fuse. turned out to be the R/R, bought the one from electrex, let son check the stator & he told me Ok-. wasn't. Bought the stator from them also. Go to Electrex sight & download & print how to check the charging system before you buy. I used the 3 yellow wires to the 3 yellow on new stator If old stator is good, you connect the 3 from it to any of the 3 yellow wires going to the R/R ) , went to neg from R/R to neg batt & red pos from R/R to pos on batt. Old red to old stator, taped up & other 2 wires white with a red & green tracer were taped up also. Was told they were for the European models only. I get 14.2V at idle & 14.8 any rpms over idle. On stator test, any 2 wires test out at 70V AC! if good & check each for ground to engine case & if any ground found, is bad. Time I quit spending $ was about $300.00 But, what else are you going to do? Junk It? NA! I don't think so. Dave

[Boozy Creek Beast]

I was haveing the same problem. It turned out that I had a ground issue. Check you entire harness for any possible nicks of anything that might be pinched. Then make sure you have a clean frame ground on all of you frame ground points.

[Anonymous]

I disconnected the R/R and put a new fuse in. The bike ran fine, and I was able to take it for a 30 second spin. Then I reconnected the R/R, and the bike still started fine. No blown fuse.

Should I still be suspecting the R/R? Or is this now apt to be a ground issue?

--Tyler

[Anonymous]

You may still have a problem. No doubt you reset something in the R/R that was tieing the system to ground. Doesn't mean you are charging now or maybe weakly. I've had stators and R/Rs go and none of them ever shorted to ground. Always the possability the system is fine now and will be for the next couple decades (not likely). Won't be long before you know. If your battery goes dead now I would go to the charging system troubleshooting section on this site and determine if the R/R or stator, or both, are dead. I'm running one of my GS charging systems on stock Suzuki parts but I had two spare stators and I'm down to one now. Otherwise I would go to Electrex like I did on the other systems. Not confined to Suzuki, 80s Hondas are always losing rotors insted of the stator.

[Anonymous]

Whatever it was, it must not have been really gone. I just blew another fuse just after the bike started. R/R was connected. At least I hadn't gone more than five feet.

--Tyler

[Anonymous]

Well, if you get stuck out somewhere, either pull the fuse for the headlight or turn the switch off, whichever your model has. Then you should be able to push start it, to get you home. I think I would've already ordered the Electrex Reg/Rec for that bike and run the quick stator checks with an ohm meter. The stator is a transformer so should get close to 0 ohms, or in other words, a short. But not quite a short, thats bad too. The specs should be on the charging system troubleshooting section of this site. You can probably get through it without even having a maintainance manual. After I get a bike, I get the factory manual. I know it sounds like bad news, but if your r/r is shorting to ground, there is a good chance it took the stator with it. Never has happened to me, I've always lost one or the other but other people on this site have lost both at the same time. I don't remember if they had a shorting problem.

[Anonymous]

Grrr...looks like both the stator and R/R might be fried. Did some of the stator tests, at least those that don't require the bike to be running. For the R/R, I got 1.0 V on the first R/R test, where they should have all been 1.5 V.

For the stator, I got about 1 Ohm resistance on all three leads to the engine casing, where it should have been infinite resistance. There isn't another connection somewhere to the engine casing that would cause this, is there?

--Tyler