Battery useless?

[Anonymous]

81 GS850... battery not charging during use. I ran some tests and it showed that my stator was shot (ohms out of range, volts nonexistent) so I replaced it. But still my battery goes dead after a short drive (maybe 20-30 minutes). I did freshen up all of the connections as well. The battery was new about 6 weeks before the stator was changed and I probably drained and fully recharged the battery 10 times in those 2 months. I mean from below 5 volts back to fully charged repeatedly.

Is it possible the battery is now useless? How can I find out for sure?

Thanks

Mike, the expensive hack mechanic

 

[Anonymous]

How about the rectifier.

How about the rectifier.

How about the rectifier....

Make sure the batery is charged first. Not that Im and expert on this, but I'm fixing the same problem on mine now. Your battery should test at 1.260 or above on each cell with a hydrometer. if its bellow 1.200 it needs a charge bad. If it doesn't charge it may be sulfated from sitting without a charge.

Once you know its good and charged you can test the rectifier. I havn't done mine yet, but once I read my shop manual it didn't sound dificult.

 

[Billy Ricks]

You can check you regulator/rectifier by following the Suzuki procedure below.

With the r/r removed from the bike, fins pointing up and terminals facing you, the terminals from left to right will be A, B, C, D, and E.
Negative probe on A and positive on B you should get 6-7.5 ohms.
Negative probe on A and positive on C you should get 6-7.5 ohms.
Negative probe on A and positive on D you should get 6-7.5 ohms.
Negative probe on A and positive on E you should get 50-70 ohms.

Then switch the negative probe to terminal B and place the positive probe on A, C, then D, you should get no reading. Positive on E should read 6-7.5 ohms.

Switch negative probe to C and positive to A, B, then D, you should get no reading. Positive on E should read 6-7.5 ohms.

Switch negative probe to D and positive to A, B, then C, you should get no reading. Positive on E should read 6-7.5 ohms.

Switch negative probe to E, positive to A, B, C, and D should give no reading.

Hope you can follow what I am outlining here.

 

[Anonymous]

I'll check the rectifier. Should I have checked that before the stator? The stator tests showed it was bad so I replaced it.

Here's some info- I did discover, at the outset of these electrical problems, that the positive wire coming from the R/R was lying metal to metal with my bike frame (shorting?) and the 3 wires from the stator were obvioulsy hot because the protective sheaths on them (where the male/felame connect neat the seat) were charred black. Would this have possibly caused the R/R to fry? Or would it have mostly effected the stator?

I truly hope the battery is just dead from the repeated charging.

thanks

-mike

 

[Billy Ricks]

The frayed wire started a whole series of events. The stator shorted and there is no breaker to stop it from continuing until enough damage is done to stall the bike. R/R may have been damaged as well. Check with the readings I gave you.

 

[Anonymous]

Will do, Billy. thanks. I just hope the damage stopped at the stator. It was reading a big 0 on the voltage meter so hopefully the R/R was allowed to stay out of the loop of troubles.

Thanks again.

-mike

 

[moto_dan]

Will do, Billy. thanks. I just hope the damage stopped at the stator. It was reading a big 0 on the voltage meter so hopefully the R/R was allowed to stay out of the loop of troubles.

Thanks again.

-mike

This falls under the believe it or not catagory...but a while back the three wires from my stator literally burned into where they were chaffed running through the case obviously giving me 0 volts when checking. Assuming the worst, I checked my RR and it checked ok , took the stator cover off, nothing looked charred on the windings, checked the windings with my trusty meter, checked ok... soldered new wires to the stator wires remaining, buttoned up everything, rechecked stator (70+vac), DC output at battery 13+vdc and it has been charging fine since. Soooo maybe you'll be as lucky.

 

[Anonymous]

I might have goofed when I used some of the wire from the old stator in my tests. I'll change all of the stator wirres today and go from there. and of course I'll do the other checks as well.

thanks mr moto

-mike

 

[Anonymous]

Does that test work with it unpluged?

Does that test work with it unpluged?

Take it off the bike and unplug it compleetly? Or leave it pluged in and the bike runing at 5000 rpm.

It sounds like your talking about an off the bike test..... I just want to be sure. Thanks Chris.

 

[Anonymous]

(Numbers below refer to a battery temperature of 25C / 77F.)
At a specific gravity of the acid of 1,28 the battery is 100% charged. Over the next two hours it will drop to 1,27 / 1,275 on a fresh battery, if it over night drops down to 1,22 ? you have max. 40% capacity left. (Invest in a new one, and remember to topcharge it after putting in the right amount of acid.)
If you have a meter, and it tells you 12,2v ? you have less than 30% cap. left. A fresh battery shall hold 12.7v after some hours rest from charging.
Never charge with more than 14,4v or less than 13,8v. (if you want a long life for your btt.)
Battery temperature must never exceed 40C / 104F during charging time.

Also check the level of acid ? it must always cover the cell plates in battery. If you need to fill, always use distilled or cleaned water. (Water straight from the tap can contain iron or cupper ? which is the worst enemy of the battery!)

/jan

 

[Anonymous]

I did the on-bike-unplug-the-stator-wires-and-check-the-ohms test and all were below .5 ohms. According to the stator papers this is an indicator of a lame stator. the wire that was touching the frame made me confident that the tests were correct. The my neighbor walked up, had no idea what I was doing but knew what I was doing at the same time. He took one look at the meter and said "uh oh, you need a new stator" so it all seemed to make sense that the stator was a goner. I also previously did the 5000 rpm test and man they were all reading nothing. Like nothing at all was coming back from the alternator. The fact that the battery dies after a few miles of riding assured me that this made sense.

wow, this electrical stuff is for the birds.

-mike

 

[Anonymous]

I will say that when I charge the battery it seems to charge to just above 12 volts but not near 13. I have a needle-style meter, not a digital one.

You guys wouldn't believe it but there are actually some topics other than motorcycles that I know something about. In this field I'm new and quite the schmuck so far. I could have saved money by paying a pro to do all of this by now but what fun is that?

 

[Anonymous]

First ? digital or analogue meter does not matter.
12 ? 13 v, are you talking wall-connected charger?
It takes time to charge the battery depending on how low the btt was when charging started, but the needle will work its way up around 13,8 - 14volts. If not, the charger is malfunctioning. Get a new one or else you will destroy your btt?s for the future.
If we are talking mc or car or..., the problem is often that they have an insufficient charging power. But, but, but why should it be easy? The temperature of the battery(or the fluid inside) is also important.
At freezingpoint O C / 32F charging power(cp) should be 14,9 volt.
And at 40C / 104F max cp 14,1 volt.
So the best solution for a long battery life must be, invest in a rectifier/regulator with a temperature sensor(btt temp). Without, be sure your rectifier gives about 13,8 volt.

/jan

 

[Anonymous]

I am currently having a problem with the battery not charging, I am getting the 80V + at around 5000rpm from each of the stator wires, but no increase in voltage at the battery. The red wire from the rectifier is giving me between 16 & 20V diconnected from the battery. Having worked through the stator papers fault finding guide the only thing I can find is that I am getting a resistance between the stator wires and the engine casing, approx 1.1 ohms, I believe this may be letting me have the voltage from the stator but with no real current to push it round the circuit when the battery is connected. Anyone have any thoughts on this? I will be removing the stator today to check whether there are any shorts.