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Charging system again

  • Thread starter Thread starter Anonymous
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Anonymous

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Having a problem on my 82 GS1100GK. A bike that sat for years and only has 2650 miles on it. Battery is new and the engine turns over and starts easily. The four wires between the regulator/rectifier are running very hot. Hot enough so you can't keep your fingers on them very long. The wires cool down quite a bit at idle but get very hot at 3000 rpm. Does this even if I pull the headlight fuse. None of the fuses are getting hot. The stator puts out 90VAC rms on each winding at 5000 rpm. The regulator output is 13.1VDC at 1200 rpm and 14.1 at 3000 rpm. The headlight starts flickering at around 4000 rpm. I probably would see the problem if I put an oscilloscope on the DC side. I have to guess the reg/rec is defective but was wondering if anyone out there has had a similiar problem. Someone suggested the regulator is charging the battery after it's at full charge so tonight I guess I should put an ampmeter between the regulator and battery. Appreciate any help and have learned a lot reading this tech. forum, thanks everyone! Ernie
 
Dirty connections make hot wires. Intermittent connections also make hot wires. I had a loose ground earlier this year that caused my headlight to flicker.

You are partly right that the RR is continuing to charge a charged battery. It will output current even when the system is at 14 Volts. It will not drop down to 12 volts when the battery is charged.

Using a scope would be good to see what is happening. Some people don't realize how slow multimeters are compared to what is happening in real time.

Steve
 
I agree with Steve, clean the connectors and all your grounds. If you are getting flickering, it could be a loose connection or possibly one of the transisters in the R/R is breaking down. There is a Zener diode that could also be failing, if the R/R is the original Suzuki unit.

A scope will work if it has some type of recording capibility and you set the trigger correctly. In my opinion a quality multimeter like a Fluke meter would probably be your best bet. A High quality analog meter such as a Simpson meter will also do the job...if you can see the headlight flicker, you can see a Simpson meter needle move.

Hap
 
srivett said:
Dirty connections make hot wires. Intermittent connections also make hot wires. I had a loose ground earlier this year that caused my headlight to flicker.

You are partly right that the RR is continuing to charge a charged battery. It will output current even when the system is at 14 Volts. It will not drop down to 12 volts when the battery is charged.

Using a scope would be good to see what is happening. Some people don't realize how slow multimeters are compared to what is happening in real time.

Steve
Click to expand...
I have a 30 mhz scope that i built about 20 years ago to use in my cb shop. I mostly tested audio with it out of hand and desk mikes. Can you tell me how i can I can put it to use to test anything on the suzuki. I dont know how to use a scope except for the simplest audio wave tests.
 
I have a 30 mhz scope that i built about 20 years ago to use in my cb shop. I mostly tested audio with it out of hand and desk mikes. Can you tell me how i can I can put it to use to test anything on the suzuki. I dont know how to use a scope except for the simplest audio wave tests.


Yea but isn't it fun to see your voice in sine waves?
 
I know the regulator output should be a straight line DC level on the oscilloscope, which it can't be if the headlight is flickering. I think the headlight is the main load on most bikes, around 14 amps for a 60 watt and up around 17-18 amps for a 100 watt. Measured these once on my Honda after I installed a 100 watt headlight bulb and the charging system wouldn't keep the battery charged.
Believe the output from the alternator should be a clean sine wave increasing from 40 or 50VAC at idle to 80-90VAC at high rpm. I'm sure I've looked at these on a scope in the past but you usually only need a multimeter, as you already know. You can sync on the one channel you are using, it may not sync properly but you will be able to see what's going on.
Couldn't run my bike in the basement last night so couldn't do much testing, because of a night shift person sleeping. I loosened the starter solonoid mounting screws, where the RR is grounded, put wd40 on them and retightened them. They do look like they were already a good ground though. Could see someone had already loosened these screws before. Will probably get a chance to try that tonight, then run a jumper directly to the battery ground from the RR ground. I also put wd40 on the interconnect between the RR and the stator, but this also looked like a good clean connection. I'm always careful about replacing the RR because I've seen so many good ones replaced. Have a spare Honda RR and planned on going back to a post I read on how to wire this up to the GS for a test substitute.
 
Slight mistake there, the oscilloscope will be peak to peak AC voltage. Think 1.4 times the RMS you would get on a AC voltmeter. DC voltage should be the same as the meter reading.
 
terrybird said:
I have a 30 mhz scope that i built about 20 years ago to use in my cb shop. I mostly tested audio with it out of hand and desk mikes. Can you tell me how i can I can put it to use to test anything on the suzuki. I dont know how to use a scope except for the simplest audio wave tests.


Yea but isn't it fun to see your voice in sine waves?
Click to expand...
I also use it to play with the outputs on sine and square wave generators. 8O i can adjust the sweep to watch a little dot go by. It would be great if i finally read my book on how to use a scope.
 
MidnightRider said:
Slight mistake there, the oscilloscope will be peak to peak AC voltage. Think 1.4 times the RMS you would get on a AC voltmeter. DC voltage should be the same as the meter reading.
Click to expand...
I believe he meant tht a dc voltage of any type would register as a straight line. My guess is that because the output from our alternators is a rectified ac voltage we should see little humps in the scope readout. Perhaps some sort of major deviation in the humps would indicate something. Just a guess on all i have just said.
 
Thanks for the suggestions everybody! Someone had pushed a tool into one of the spade sockets of the 4 wire interconnect between the RR and the stator. So a poor connection or none at all. Don't think this system likes running on two windings. Corrected the problem and no more hot wires or flickering headlight.
 
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