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haunted charging system

  • Thread starter Thread starter somedeadguy
  • Start date Start date
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somedeadguy

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What a great forum! I am a new owner of a 1977 GS550, and am very pleased to see a whole forum devoted to the model. I inherited the bike, and am very new to motorcycles in general. I do have some mechanical aptitude, (I got the bike running after all) but really have no idea how the charging system on this thing works. I read the Stator Papers and searched the forum for similar symptoms which my bike is showing, and am even more confused than before. So I'm going to take a chance and post this. I'm sorry if this question has been answered already, but I couldn't find it.

I have the basic problem, of course, my battery won't charge. It's not to big of a deal, because I can usually use the kick starter and get home before the bike dies, and hook it up to the charger. I don't have much of a problem hooking it up to a charger every night, but would eventually like to understand how to fix this.

But my real problem is this: The lights on the bike die in consecutive order according to how much battery I have left. Say if I have about 11 volts left in the battery, the brake light will stop working, and then at 9 volts, the turn signals won't work, then at 8 volts the gauge lights go out, and then at about six volts or so the headlight stops working. In that order too.

I have it down to a tee, and can plan out my trip according to when I do or don't need the turn signals. It's dangerous!! I'm not sure if this is some coincidental wiring problem, or what, but it's wierd. Does anyone know what this is all about??

Also, when I ride without lights, the battery still drains. I had heard that after a motorcycle is running it doesn't take any juice from the battery, so theoretically shouldn't I be able to ride the bike forever as long as I use the kick starter and never use any lights?

I'm confused. I appreciate the help!
 
yes that's true, but only if your stator is working properly and giving your coil system enough juice give a good spark. Do you have a multimeter? if not, either buy one or find someone who has one you can borrow. go through the stator paper fault finding chart, and you'll probably find that either your stator or reg/rec unit is at fault. replace as nessecary, and pray this works.
 
In pertaining to your theory, NO the coils take power to run! NO free lunch here, battery charged runs good, battery runs down, things stop working, eventually no spark... you walk home....
 
thanks

thanks

Yeah, I'm gonna have to get a multimeter and figure it out. Is it normal for things to start turning off one by one? I also figured out one cyl isn't firing, looks like it's time to clean the carbs...
 
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