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Bike died on me today (electrical problem)

  • Thread starter Thread starter jester
  • Start date Start date
Have and idea!

Have and idea!

jester said:
Today I was out for a 20 or so mile ride, and as I approached a stop sign, I happened to notice my gas gage was down to E. It was moments ago at 3/4 full!
Click to expand...
Jesse, I was just reviewing your original post and had an idea. Maybe the two wires that you talk about here....
The green/white from this bundle goes to a BLUE/white from the R/R.
And the red/white from the bundle goes to red/white from the R/R.
Click to expand...
.... are the wires that are supposed to be connected to your fuel sending unit. that might explain the erroneous readings on the fuel gage. Check under the gas tank on the right side for two wires extending from the fuel sending unit... what are they hooked up to?
 
Thanks...I thought something was suspicious. I will investigate more after work today.
Yes, indeed, the 3 wires from the stator are literally twisted together!

This makes much more sense now. But, I still don't know what the other two wires from that other bundle would be from. Sheesh!

Thanks, guys! You're getting me through this. This is like good therapy.

Jesse
 
OK, I had 5 minutes before work today, and ran out and re-wired things a bit. Connected the three wires from the R/R to the 3 yellows from stator. Started it up...

Attached voltmeter...

And saw about 13 volts! Revving the engine to 4-5000 RPM moves it to 13.5 or so!

I know it's supposed to read 13.5 at 2000 RMP, BUT my battery may be a bit low to begin with.

So, I really think this thing is nearly licked! Yahoo! The angels sang over me!

Now, the last mystery is...what are those other two wires that they'd put into this loop?

There is a bundle of 3 wires that come from under the seat. One of them is the red that attaches to the R/R.

The other two are green/white and red/white. My fuel gauge IS working!

Any thoughts?

Jesse
 
jester said:
OK, I had 5 minutes before work today, and ran out and re-wired things a bit. Connected the three wires from the R/R to the 3 yellows from stator. Started it up...

Attached voltmeter...

And saw about 13 volts! Revving the engine to 4-5000 RPM moves it to 13.5 or so!

I know it's supposed to read 13.5 at 2000 RMP, BUT my battery may be a bit low to begin with.

So, I really think this thing is nearly licked! Yahoo! The angels sang over me!

Now, the last mystery is...what are those other two wires that they'd put into this loop?

There is a bundle of 3 wires that come from under the seat. One of them is the red that attaches to the R/R.

The other two are green/white and red/white. My fuel gauge IS working!

Any thoughts?
Jesse
Click to expand...

I am thinking that they may be the headlight switch that cuts off power from one of the phases from the stator when the headlight is turned off, ... not sure though.

Do you have the headlight switch that will turn the headlight completely off?
 
There is a switch, but it doesn't move! Like it's glued down or something...

Thanks,

Jesse
 
jester said:
There is a switch, but it doesn't move! Like it's glued down or something...

Thanks,

Jesse
Click to expand...

ok, with the power off on the bike try putting your meter on the continuity check setting, and then to those two wires. My guess is you will have continuity there.

If your headlight is always on anyway, you can just bypass that connection as it only comes into play when you turn the switch off, which you can't.
 
Solved, I think!

Solved, I think!

Rewired the whole deal, even put the old R/R back on, and battery shows 13.5 V when running.

Went for a 15 mile cruise tonight, came back and the battery is still fully charged!

What a great family of riders you all are to help me out. Bless you all.

Peace,

Jesse
 
Great work Jesse. I'm glad we could help you out. Did you find out what those two wires were for? Was it something to do with the headlight? I guess as long as it's charging and not arcing and sparking and busting fuses you'll be alright. If I was you, I'd hang on to that new r&r, but if you need some money, you should be able to sell it for it's retail value. sorry you had to spend the money to purchase a new one before we found out that those wire were twisted together. See you on the road buddy.
-Dean
 
I am glad I found this thread as I am going through almost the same thing with my '79 550. I rode this bike for almost a year then my wife went out to ride it after it sat for a month. She got a half mile and it died on her. I put a new battery in it and rode it home. I checked the voltage at idle, 13, at 2500 rpm, 13.6 and at 3000 rpm, 13. Seems like the higher it revs the lower the voltage goes. I will be trying to go out and figure it out some tomorrow as I have the day off and the wife will not let me ride til I fix her bike!
 
Charging system DIY, my way!

Charging system DIY, my way!

This is a long thread but I will just post it here in case anyone follows it!
I had the same problems with my bike as every other person that posted here.
Situation; (GS1100G, '82)
Bought the bike with a charging problem, replaced stator after checking it and finding it was not charging properly. My mistake was not to check the R/R.
Bike ran great for a few months. The other day a vent of smoke came out of the battery's area. I didn't know what it was but found at home that the ground (-) cable of the fuel gauge touched a positive(+) wire. Well, I am new to working on bikes so I guess that it could do without the fuel gauge for a while. It happens that this cable melted the liner and exposed one of the stator's cables somehow. All the three cables came in contact and messed up the stator. The output was less than 50 on the Voltage test. I parked one day a week or so later and the bike was dead. I opened the side panel and it got worst, because of my laziness there was a BIG-TIME short. I lost my stator so I ordered an Electrex replacement and installed it after redoing all the wires and isolating all of the bare connections, i.e. the "Y" connection that grounded the fuel gauge and the cause of all problems.
Well, that happened yesterday, today while riding to work the bike just died while riding. When my father went to jump start the bike noticed there was a short as we connected the jumper cables. I disconnected the stator cables and no more short. Charged the battery and got home with no problem on the juice from the battery.
As I undid all the cables looking for the short I did what I had to do to start with. I checked the R/R. It is not giving me any reading in connections where it was supposed to read 7-8 ohms. In other connections that were supposed to be OFF, it was giving me 9.2 ohms.
The R/R is dead, probably my new stator too, I'll have to wait until everything is reconnected to test the new stator.
The wiring is not as complicated as I first thought and I hope that the stator is not burnt.
I need my bike to go to work, my van is too expensive to use anymore with gas prices as they are. That is why I rushed through fixing it.
Solution; (partial)
My point is that if you are going to replace stator, check the R/R and all cable connections. In my case, a little useless ground cable from the fuel gauge burnt my system and made spend more than $300 including loss of work.
Now I am going to buy a new R/R, call in sick and hope they can FedEx the R/R in two days to me.
Thanks!
Since I don’t have my bike working yet, this story continues.
jrs
 
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