Weird charging problems

[posplayr]

Is that just melted insulation or a shorted pole?

It is just a matter of time and it will be both if it is not already.

[Steve]

During the course of this entire thread you have still not answered the questions concerning the condition of your battery?

i tested the system with a good car battery and got similar results. do you think that is enough to rule the battery out as a suspect?

The charging system on your bike does not have the capacity to recharge a car battery.

Al, back in the first part of his testing (in the link that's in his first post on this thread), I am the one that suggested he try a fully-charged battery out of his car. My reasoning was that if the bike battery was bad, this would show up rather quickly.
Not sure why the bike's charging system won't charge a car battery, though. True it might take a lot longer, depending on how far discharged the battery is, but a battery that is in a car that is driven regularly can be presumed to be reasonably well-charged. If you connect the bike to the car battery, then start the bike and run it, using only the car battery, it would still show the same symptoms if the problem was not in the battery. Because of the larger capacity of the car battery, the voltage would drop slower, but it should still drop. He confirmed those findings in post #126 and there was further discussion that still threw the suspicion in the direction of the stator.
He also mentioned in post #41 that it was a Honda R/R (lower failure rate), but he also went to the extent of mentioning in post #107 that he got another Honda R/R from Duaneage and the results were the same. If a different battery and a different R/R still show the same symptoms, the problem is either in the stator or the wiring. He claims to have checked all the wiring and has now shown photos of a highly-suspect stator. I think the problem has been found.

.

Do you have a pet sparky?
If you do get them to do an insulation resistance test. That will tell you if the insulation is damaged.
Cheers

If you can borrow a megger from someone you can test the insulation to ground with the stator in situ, but you will not be able to test for winding short circuit or low insulation between windings. These are commonly used by your telecom guys for testing cables and open wires, they all have one.

Burnt windings are visually easy to see.

I just wish we could have positively told you the stator is definitely faulty without seeing it and having it in front of us. Pity you are not closer, I would have been able to rewind yours if necessary.

i was wondering the same thing. how could i determine what it is?

Do you have a pet sparky?
If you do get them to do an insulation resistance test. That will tell you if the insulation is damaged.
Cheers

Here is some useful information on batteries. There is a chart that show SG and battery voltages.

http://www.batterystuff.com/tutorial_battery.html

How old is the stator? Is it original?? A stator is not that expensive and is easily replaced.

The battery is an integral part of the charging system. It may or may not solve your problem but it can't be ignored. If your stator is producing voltage, your R/R is sending voltage to the battery and the battery is faulty your system is not going to charge.

[psyguy]

Why are you so convinced that the stator or R/R is at fault?

i am not convinced, but some folks that know their stuff like bakalorz, posplyr, matchless, seem to think along the lines of a faulty stator (as the RR has been tested on another bike as OK and the battery was new when these problems first occured).

but i'll test the battery for the electrolite specific gravity, i do hope you are right and this is as simple as a faulty battery that can not be diagnosed by a voltmeter only

The charging system on your bike does not have the capacity to recharge a car battery.

Why don't you test your motorcycle battery?

[psyguy]

Is that just melted insulation or a shorted pole?

i was wondering the same thing. how could i determine what it is?

[psyguy]

During the course of this entire thread you have still not answered the questions concerning the condition of your battery?

i tested the system with a good car battery and got similar results. do you think that is enough to rule the battery out as a suspect?

During the course of this entire thread you have still not answered the questions concerning the condition of your battery?

Have you checked the charge of the battery and the specific gravity of the electrolyte in the battery? Simply measuring the voltage does not tell you the true health of a battery.

Why are you so convinced that the stator or R/R is at fault? I purchased a wet cell battery from walmart and no amount of charging would get the battery above 12.3 volts. The battery was simply defective. Replaced it with an AGM battery and charging system works fine.

[chef1366]

Is that just melted insulation or a shorted pole?

[psyguy]

took the stator cover off today. not everything is good there, it seems...

(thanks for the tip (and a pictorial!) on how to take the cover off without having to drain the oil )








i would appreciate your thoughts as to weather this sort of damage would be enough to cause the symptoms that i have (as in the first post)

[psyguy]

so, i tested the system again, while riding. the results are as follows:

• headlight OFF - voltage = 14.7V-14.8V at any rpm between 2k-5k rpm, voltage steady over 5 mins of testing
• headlight ON - at constant 5k rpm - voltage immediately drops to 14.2V and keeps dropping over the next 10 minutes to 12.5V then stabilizes
• in the city riding (variable rpms) over the next 20 minutes the voltage dropped to 12.2V-12.3V

then i ran out of time for testing

[Steve]

As Matchless said, no need to drain the oil.

Simply put the bike on the centerstand, tip it to the right, slip a 2x4 under the left pad of the centerstand.
Here is how it sits. Plenty stable.



.