charging issue

[Guest]

Ok on my 550es I seem to have a charging issue of some sort.
with the key off I have 13 volts at my battery (very strange to me as it is a 12 v battery)
with the bike at idle I have 14.3v
engine rpm at 4000 I have 13.8v


Do I have a bad R/R? what do you all think?

[Steve]

Could be the r/r, but you need to check all the connections to be sure.

A very good place to start is to grab your meter and follow The Stator Papers.

By the way, although your battery is listed as a "12-volt battery", a fully charged battery should actually read 12.6 volts, if it's a wet-cell battery. If it is a sealed AGM battery, 12.8 or 12.9 is more normal. The voltage you read also depends on how long it has been since the charger was removed. Immediately after removing a charger, a wet-cell battery can read as much as 14. Let it sit for an hour or so, or apply a momentary load, like turning on the lights for five seconds, and it will remove the 'surface charge' and show what's really there.

.

[posplayr]

Ok on my 550es I seem to have a charging issue of some sort.
with the key off I have 13 volts at my battery (very strange to me as it is a 12 v battery)
with the bike at idle I have 14.3v
engine rpm at 4000 I have 13.8v


Do I have a bad R/R? what do you all think?

I agree with Steve on the voltages. If you are reading exactly 13.0 then there is a bit of surface charge.

The slight drop off in voltage at the higher RPM usually means there is a resistance between the R/R and the battery. The most overlooked place is in the fuse box. I use an acid etch like Navel Jelly and then apply dielectric grease. If the fuse box is older crimp style, then clean and flow some solder into the crimps to keep out the corroision.

You can measure the voltage drop by going between the R/R and the battery; see link in my signature.

[BassCliff]

Hi Mr. doug g,

After Mr. posplayr showed me where to measure the voltage drop between the r/r output and the battery, I was quite pleased what a difference cleaning my fusebox made. Mr. posplayr has excellent supplementary information to The Stator Papers. Some of his work is on my website (Thanks Jim!) as well as the documentation I've created regarding cleaning my fusebox and testing/replacement procedures. Don't forget to look in the "Electrical Odd and Ends" section too. Check it out and see if it helps. Keep us informed.


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

[posplayr]

Hi Mr. doug g,

After Mr. posplayr showed me where to measure the voltage drop between the r/r output and the battery, I was quite pleased what a difference cleaning my fusebox made. Mr. posplayr has excellent supplementary information to The Stator Papers. Some of his work is on my website (Thanks Jim!) as well as the documentation I've created regarding cleaning my fusebox and testing/replacement procedures. Don't forget to look in the "Electrical Odd and Ends" section too. Check it out and see if it helps. Keep us informed.


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

Thanks for the Kudos Cliff