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:confusedSo lets say we take your bike that is charging at 13.5 V at 5000 RPM and fix-it by cleaning all the connections so that it now changes at 14.3V at 5K RPM.
Did we preventively fix it or correctively fix it?
What if we add a ground and the voltage now goes to 14.5V. Did we prevent something or fix something?
And what was the point of doing either? Apparently, you say there is none.
Changing oil is preventative because nothing is broken at the time it's done. Doing the "stator papers" to determine if you need/should do anything is diagnostics as part of a repair. To do actual preventative maintenance on the electrical of that level would be skipping the stator papers and all it's tests and just replacing the stator, R/R, wire harness, and electrical bits just because they are old.
See my explanation above, in short you've done diagnostics and have acted on the diagnosis, that is a repair or what you keep wrongly calling corrective maintenance. Maintenance is something you do regularly so are you going to keep replacing your R/R and Stator on a regular basis to keep up on the "corrective maintenance?" Most likely not, in which case your a mirror image of me - content with your work and waiting for symptoms to arise before diving into it again. I mean that is unless you have a yearly or so stator and R/R change interval - maybe once every 2-4 oil changes
Sorry, I'm using various standard DoD and US Army definitions which I have reconciled into a uniform analytic framework for CBM+ CBA (i.e. it was my job to make recommendations to the US Army on how this is done). However this would seem to have little bearing with you nor bear any resemblance to your definitions. It is easy to see how there might be some disagreement.
I don't know the history of the bike but what the P O told me, he did say that he uses the trickle charger during the winter, but it was by the bike when I first checked it out. I did test the battery this morning, 12.37 volts, (3year old) but then I started working on the wiring. Did not know about the tricklers "cooking" the battery.Could it be one that I use quite often? :-k
Ignorance is bliss, and boy, am I happy.
Well, he knows he is starting with a weak battery. What he might not realize is that he might be killing what's left of it by using a "trickle charger". :-k
If it is a MANUAL "trickle charger", it will sit there and slowly cook that battery with 1-2 amps the entire time it is connected. It will not taper off as it reaches full charge.
Even if it's an AUTOMATIC "trickle charger", it can still cook the battery, but it will take longer. It may start at 1-2 amps and taper off to less than 1/2 amp, but it's still too much for a constant charge.
It is better to use a battery MAINTAINER that will actually turn off the charge and monitor voltage, coming back on when needed. "Battery Tender" is one brand name, but somewhat expensive. Schumacher makes one that is available at Wal-Mart for about $20. If you are one who will avoid Wal-Mart, you can get the same exact unit, wearing a Die Hard label at Sears for about $30.
By the way, Killer, one reason to test the system at 5,000 rpm is because the charging characteristics are a bit different at that speed. A bike can charge PERFECTLY at 2-3k. In fact, that is about where it starts regulating. Turning the engine faster, it will start regulating more and more, ending up in saturation. THAT is where you want to do your testing.
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