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RPMs to make the charge?

  • Thread starter Thread starter viking4christ
  • Start date Start date
V

viking4christ

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I have a 78' GS550. So I just replaced my stator, reg, rect with the suggested gear. It seems to be working well. I have been driving the bike for a couple of days with the light on, and I have been testing the volts on the battery when I get back from a ride. They always fall around 12.2V.
Tonight my wife and I were riding home from church. Everything worked well. However, when I turned off the bike after parking it I decided to hit the started to see how the battery was holding up and it didn't have enough juice to start the bike back up. The lights came on still, but no start. After kicking it once it was running again.
Here is the deal, I ride especially easy with my wife on the bike (never going much over 4,500 RPMs and taking slower back roads). How high do I need to get the RPMs to adequately charge the Batt?8-[
 
How old is the battery? It may not have survived the bad charging system. Right after a ride no-load voltage should be at least 13volts. Lead-acid batteries should have 2.2 volts per cell, so our 6 cell "12 volt" batteries should read 13.2 volts with no load. The rpm's should be ok, the book says to test the system at 5000 rpm, but it should still be charging below that.
 
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A good condition lead/acid battery after a ride should be showing (on the average) about 12.7 to 12.9 volts. The 12.2 you are showing suggests your battery is old and pretty much ready for the trash pile.

Earl
 
actually a fully charged battery in a "rest" state (sitting with no load or input for 4 hours will have 12.8volts right after shutting off 13.2 volts is good but the voltage slowly drops down from whatever the input voltage from the regulator was at shut off.

5000rpm is the peak charging RPM above that and the voltage will normaly drop some.

it looks like eather the battery is suspect, or there is still a charging issue.
batteries do sometimes substain damage from charging problems (sulfate is formed on the plates as the battery is discharged)

I hope you didn't get electrosport parts.
 
On the 650 and 850 that I have here, both of them start showing above 13 volts when they get above about 1500 rpm. They peak at about 2000, then drop ever so slightly as the engine speed keeps going up.

Sounds like you have a definite charging issue. :oops:


.
 
Most of these bikes dont start charging till 1500+ RPMS so if you are doing idle running work such as tuning your carbs or whatever pull the headlight fuse so you dont kill your battery :)
 
Ok Focus Frenzy. Why in the world would you bash ElectroSport Parts? This site suggests that they are like gold to the waxing Suzuki systems. Have you had a bad experience?
This is a pretty new battery, but when I was first charging it up I over-charged it (I didn't know much about batteries). A lot of the acid came out at that time. I replenished it with distilled water, but it sounds like that was not good enough. I will pick up a new battery tomorrow. Sounds like that is the issue.
Thank you for the direction. I will post on my results.
 
Originally, Electrosport was a British based company (my understanding anyhow) and their products were excellent. A few years ago the company was bought out and I started hearing of quality complaints that I had not heard before. My suspicion is it is highly probable the products are outsourced to Asia now rather than being made in house in England. Quality is not what it used to be. (in my opinion).

Earl


viking4christ said:
Ok Focus Frenzy. Why in the world would you bash ElectroSport Parts? This site suggests that they are like gold to the waxing Suzuki systems. Have you had a bad experience?
This is a pretty new battery, but when I was first charging it up I over-charged it (I didn't know much about batteries). A lot of the acid came out at that time. I replenished it with distilled water, but it sounds like that was not good enough. I will pick up a new battery tomorrow. Sounds like that is the issue.
Thank you for the direction. I will post on my results.
Click to expand...
 
Maybe time to clean and relube the starter motor. A new set of brushes and springs would be a good idea.
 
I replaced the battery this past weekend, slow charged it for about 14 hours, and everything is working beautifully. I have ridden the bike over a hundred miles with the headlight on.
Thanks for all the help.
 
When the headlight is turned off, voltage may momentarily surge to 15.5, but if it does not drop to 14.8-9 within a second or two, the regulator is not working properly. 15+ volts will kill a battery in a short time and also reduce the life of an electronic ignition system. There will be problems coming soon if the system is running at that voltage level.

Earl

RacingJake said:
With the headlight turned off and RPM at 5000 you should have 14 to 15.5 volts
Click to expand...
 
Don't tell that to my 78 550 sitting in the garage :lol:

Been coast to coast on it a few times and the ignition is still running strong at 31K but then again with points (you know I've never replace them and I bought this bike in 1980) you don't have to worry about an overvoltage condition. You'll just burn out some bulb's or the gear shift indicator first 8O
 
viking4christ said:
Ok Focus Frenzy. Why in the world would you bash ElectroSport Parts? This site suggests that they are like gold to the waxing Suzuki systems. Have you had a bad experience?
This is a pretty new battery, but when I was first charging it up I over-charged it (I didn't know much about batteries). A lot of the acid came out at that time. I replenished it with distilled water, but it sounds like that was not good enough. I will pick up a new battery tomorrow. Sounds like that is the issue.
Thank you for the direction. I will post on my results.
Click to expand...

earlfor said:
Originally, Electrosport was a British based company (my understanding anyhow) and their products were excellent. A few years ago the company was bought out and I started hearing of quality complaints that I had not heard before. My suspicion is it is highly probable the products are outsourced to Asia now rather than being made in house in England. Quality is not what it used to be. (in my opinion).

Earl
Click to expand...

like Earl has already said, electrex (still available across the pond) sold their North American operation and quality control and IQ points quickly went right out the window.

I purchased both stator and R&R from them shortly after the sell out and the R&R failed after a couple weeks. I ran a full battery (pun intended) of test and documented stator outputs on all three legs at three different RPM points, resistance numbers from all combinations as well as the numbers from the test of the regulator.

I got over 12 volts (12.4V) from the output of the R&R and the tool who eventually (two weeks) answered my E-mail had the nerve to state that output over 12 volts (I had 12.4 volts at 5K rpm, battery voltage before starting was a hot 12.8) showed it was working and nothing was wrong.

I replied back that the running battery voltage was lower than the static battery voltage and he replied back that I was testing wrong and spewed out a bunch of stupid gobbly gook nonsense that clearly showed he had no clue how these charging systems work.
 
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