GS Charging System Health

[jroels]

Thanks Posplayr! Great step by step tutorial, it helped me a lot.
I recently discovered that my battery wasn't charging (I always hooked it up to the charger at home, so it was only after the first long ride that my bike wouldn't start again).

One of the three wires coming from the stator, that runs through the lefthand headlight switch was interrupted,
because my headlight switch is simply not there

I bypassed the switch as suggested in the instructions, and it appears to be working just fine now.
I also did the R/R connections and ground, which reduced the voltage drop significantly!

The only thing I'm not sure about, is why Suzuki has one of the stator cables running through the headlight switch in the first place?
Does anyone have a clue?

Here's a picture of what the wiring looks like on my GS 750 '78 now.

 

[tom203]

"The only thing I'm not sure about, is why Suzuki has one of the stator cables running through the headlight switch in the first place?
Does anyone have a clue?"

that was to reduce stator load when headlight was off. 81 and earlier models had a two pole headlight on/off switch- when headlight was off , stator current was cut off at same time in one stator phase.

 

[Boriqua]

I tore out all my old had connections and replaced them and I am pretty sure I have the SPG down. Think ..
I have one question which may lead to ridicule but I can take it. I am going to shorten my RR B/w and attach it to the mounting bolt along with a short wire to the frame and a short wire to the battery and in the first post I read a short wire to the Negative side of the Solenoid. I have a 1982 gs750E. I dont see a solenoid? Will I have similar success in going to the negative side of the starter relay?

 

[Steve]

I have a 1982 gs750E. I dont see a solenoid?

Take a quick look under your finger. That is the starter solenoid.

Will I have similar success in going to the negative side of the starter relay?

That might depend on what you are calling the "negative side of the starter relay". :-k

The true "negative side of the starter relay" (which is usually called the starter solenoid) is the round case. The blue wire in your picture is connected to the "negative side".

The two black wires on the top of the solenoid are both POSITIVE wires. One is 'hot' all the time, the other is switched, it is only 'hot' when you press the starter button.

.

 

[Boriqua]

Thanks Steve!! I knew I would feel like a dufus but it beats ruining my bike after all the work and $ I put in so far. I am still learning and at light speed due to this forum. I haven't had to absorb this much information this quickly since College admittedly a long time ago.

 

[posplayr]

Thanks Steve!! I knew I would feel like a dufus but it beats ruining my bike after all the work and $ I put in so far. I am still learning and at light speed due to this forum. I haven't had to absorb this much information this quickly since College admittedly a long time ago.

The confusion about the solenoid ground connection is due to several reasons. Realize that generally on all OEM harnesses there will be a harness ground (B/W with ring lug) that is connected to the solenoid bracket to provide a reference for the 12V coming from the start switch(this has tripped up many).

In addition, a B/W ring lug from the harness needs to be connected to the R/R(-) so all the charging current can return from where it cam (i.e. the R/R/stator).

No this is what can get confusing (and what lead me to focus on a single point of connection for all the groudn returns), on some bikes Suzuki would run the R/R(-) wire with a ring lug to one of the R/R mounting bolts and then run the B/W harness to teh solenoid bracket. Both devices are mounted on the same side plate. This is part of the problem. The B/W from the harness has to pass current through the mounting bolt to the side plate and then come out where the R/R(-) ring lug comes out. If the Harness B/W was only carrying harness current returns that would not be so bad, but all other return currents are coming through the same harness B/W as there are no other grounds coming to the side plate. This is especially bad becuase any current returning from the battery has to to go back to the engine case, jump over to teh frame, come out of the frame into one of teh B/W ring lugs, flow up to the hartness and then come out another B/W ring lug to eventually get back to teh solenoid bracket, where it goes back to teh side plate before coming out the R/R mounting bolt.

Just remember to collect-up all returning currents (Harness, Frame, battery) to something called SPG and put the SPG close to the R/R (a short wire from the SPG to the to the R/R). Sounds like you did that except you want the Harness B/W coming to the SPG but it is not super critical like the battery is.

 

[Boriqua]

Crazy question but like I said in other threads I actually want to learn what, why and how stuff works. I did the changes to the ground as was outlined. It made perfect sense once I got my head around it. I also cut out some crusty hardened connections including the ones to my new Dyna S ignition and the stator lines were a mess. There were some 5 lugs under the negative terminal coming out of burnt up blocks and I cleaned all that up too.

Today when I started the bike up after reassembly the idle was smoother than it had ever been. It wasn't my imagination because my wife standing next to me gave me a crooked Spock look when it was idling like .. what happened. Could the rewired ground connection be responsible for the improvement?

 

[posplayr]

Crazy question but like I said in other threads I actually want to learn what, why and how stuff works. I did the changes to the ground as was outlined. It made perfect sense once I got my head around it. I also cut out some crusty hardened connections including the ones to my new Dyna S ignition and the stator lines were a mess. There were some 5 lugs under the negative terminal coming out of burnt up blocks and I cleaned all that up too.

Today when I started the bike up after reassembly the idle was smoother than it had ever been. It wasn't my imagination because my wife standing next to me gave me a crooked Spock look when it was idling like .. what happened. Could the rewired ground connection be responsible for the improvement?

That is a bit unexpected, but then again I generally just make sure that grounds are good and I don't have to experience unexpected round related problems.
Just an educated guess; the Dyna S grounds through the Engine cases. If that is not a great ground then maybe it can cause problems for the Dyna-S.