battery, charging, and the stator papers...

[Anonymous]

I've been testing my charging system on my 1980 GS850. Here's the results I got:

12.66v at the battery with the bike turned off (it's a brand new battery)
-stator papers suggest 13v should be the reading
13.40v at the battery with the bike at idle
-stator papers suggest 13.5v should be the reading
13.58v at the battery with 4k rpm
-stator papers suggest 13.9-14.5v should be the reading

At the first part of the papers it suggested that if your battery didn't have a "good" charge to start with, it would mess all the readings up. So, I charged the batterys for about 12 hours. I tested the battery during the charge cycle. It was reading 15.89 volts. After the the charge, the battery reads 12.77v. The stator papers suggest 13v's on a good battery? I bought a brand new battery for this reason. Still, no 13v's.

Any ideas?

thanks in advance!

[moto_dan]

Your readings are about what mine are on my '83 with new battery and Electrex RR and it charges fine.

[Anonymous]

I doubt those reading are that far out of line. I would suggest you go through the entire bike, front to back, and clean every single connection you can find. Also, if it hasn't been done yet, run a ground from the R/R to the battery (-) and solder the stator wires directly to the R/R. Run your tests afterwards, you may be surprised.

[Redman]

Your reading dont sound like too much of a problem. Voltage is higher with bike runing, so it is charging. But would expect higher volt readings when charging at 4k rpm.
I quess I would ask this: Apparently you were having some problem that caused you to do all this. What problem was that?

One thing that can cause occasional problems (like I had) but not be too bad to cause obviously bad battery volt readings is this: A little bit of 'corrosion' in the 3 connections between the stator and the R/R, either between the male & female connectors or between a connector and its wire. This is why you will see recomendations to replace these connections or directly solder them together. If this is your problem, it can be noticed by these connectors getting warm to the touch.

[Anonymous]

thanks for the response and help!

the reason i started testing was my first battery was not holding a charge. also i was having problems with the bike not free rev'n over 6k rpm. i was concerned that i wasnt getting enough juice on the electrical side. after adjusting the timing, the bike rev's through the band with sometimes a small burp. (i'll be testing the coils soon)

i just installed the new battery. i started the test to make sure the battery was bad and not the stator or r/r. that's when i noticed the voltage was lower than suggested. i assuming that 12.77v on a new battery is "normal"

[zstanisi]

Hall,

Your battery is fine, it should be 12.6-12.7 fully charged (it is 12V battery after all). Your charging system seems fine too. Maybe your first battery was dead so it wouldn't hold charge. I would also check the resistance on battery connectors (when you disconnect the battery and the engine is not running), to make sure there is no consumption when the bike is parked.