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Stator has given up the ghost
- Thread starter alke46
- Start date
Do you have another battery? a half-decent car battery will do in place-of.
If the bike is running, and only showing " @5000 12.36" your battery would have to be a short circuit to cause this reading. USUALLY, even with a bad battery, charging voltage is maintained, it just isn't "retained" in a bad battery.
As said by Rich~, your R/R is suspect. Check the connections, particularly where it is grounded. You have a meter, so you can at least set it to ohms lowest scale ,touch probes to BAT NEG and the place grounded to ,and it should read between 0 and 1.2 (most meters set to lowest ohms scale show "1.2" or near when you touch the probes together This value is subtracted from any reading to give you an accurate value of ohms. It's a way of "zeroing the meter")
Where stator and regulator are both good, Your bike will actually run at the regulated voltage (14+) WITHOUT a battery. But don't do it. (a "symptom" where this is actually happening is a pulsing headlamp)
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Today I have found a connection problem and corrected it--I think.
Now I just checked it again and with the headlight "OFF", I get better numbers. I'm seeing 13.1 at 1500rpm. 14.4 at 2500 and 14.4 at 5000 rpms.
Turn the headlight back on and those numbers drop to 12.5---13.1---and 13.4 respectively.
I can retry this same test tonight after the wife gets home as the battery in her car is pretty new.
Thanks for your advice.
You’re charging now, which is great. But the headlight-on numbers aren’t exactly stellar. Curious what difference you might see if you installed an LED headlight like a Trucklite. Steve may have done some tests before and after with one of the bikes in his stable. I did not.
I agree, it sure seems the headlight is overwhelming the charging system but did this just start? I don't know.
When I get ready to test with a car battery, should I just jumper it or would it be better to remove the bike battery to isolate it from the car battery?
And don't worry, I do know not to have the car running when jumping ��.
And don't worry, I do know not to have the car running when jumping ��.
Sorry, I have now experience or opinion using a car battery for any kind of testing on the bike.
Larry, for what it's worth, I jumped my Yamaha Venture Royale using the truck, not running of course. Bike battery dead but still in place. It started but ran rough, even staying connectedto the truck. Replaced the bike's battery and it started easier and ran smoother.
Larry,
I had a similar problem before when testing the output voltage across the battery + & - posts and later found that I had a defective Hi/Lo beam dimmer switch on my left handlebar switch which caused both Hi and Lo beams to be lit,both at the same time.This caused more draw from my system and made it look like the battery/charging system was weak.The little spring which returned the dimmer switch to the center position was gone and the contacts were touching both beams.
I had a similar problem before when testing the output voltage across the battery + & - posts and later found that I had a defective Hi/Lo beam dimmer switch on my left handlebar switch which caused both Hi and Lo beams to be lit,both at the same time.This caused more draw from my system and made it look like the battery/charging system was weak.The little spring which returned the dimmer switch to the center position was gone and the contacts were touching both beams.
So if this was the case, were they both lit all the time? I just checked my dimmer switch and I still have both low and high beams separately.
Correct,both my beams were lit at the same time:which was twice the normal draw.I'm glad to know yours are separately lit and the dimmer switch is functioning normally.
Larry,have you cleaned up the connections on your wiring harness,switches,fuse,etc. including the ground connections to the frame,etc. ? They can sometimes get corrosion or paint which will keep the system weak.The electrical systems on vintage vehicles seem to be the weakest thing and don't seem to get much preventative maintenance.
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Pretty much everything has been cleaned and coated with dielectric grease.
Related to the headlight, the 3 prong connector was in bad shape so I replaced it with a new one from Autozone. It seemed pretty straight forward to me though.
You might consider bringing the battery to an AutoZone,etc. to have it load tested,then you'll know.
Just got home from taking the battery in for testing. It tested good so no need to replace.
I'm thinking the problem has to be in the headlight circuit since the charging system shows good with the headlight off but bad when it is switched on.
Also the 2nd step of the quick test shows the voltage dropping .7v
Time to open the headlight bucket again and look for corrosion somewhere in the light wiring.
Hope I'm taking this in the right direction.
Will keep results posted.
Sounds like you found the problem but I wrote all this so it stands 
But basically Any 12v acid battery that shows more than ~12.25 after sitting around overnight is fine to try and this includes your motorcycle battery. If there's water in it (given it's a wet cell) and it can start your bike, that's all you need to test the charging system. Naturally, your stator can't do an awful lot forthe battery from a tugboat, but most car batterries of 100 amps or so will show pretty close to 14+.... Ignore the "Quick test" requiring a battery to do such and such key off key on. Those values are not required to test the charging system. For instance, the voltage of a battery just taken off a charger does NOT indicate how good the battery is. It must "rest" at least overnite. and a battery that tests 12.6 or above after a rest is a brand new battery. Older batteries that will run your bike quite well always fail this "quick test" procedure.
That aside,
LED headlamps can have all sorts of circuitry...I don't have one, but I can identify them on my dash cam because they blink. Without bothering to look them up, I'm guessing because the circuitry is pulsing the leds as a way to keep them bright while convert the car's voltage to suit. All to say, it would not suprise me if your headlamp is defective
A bad contact in the switch will not cause a voltage drop for a headlight that is bright unless it's a short circuit or a partial one and I'd expect heat in a partial short.
I just have an old car battery on the floor beside the bike. You can take your motorcycle battery out and use jumpers to connect to a non-running car battery, but it's inconvenenient... with those heavy cables and all.
But basically Any 12v acid battery that shows more than ~12.25 after sitting around overnight is fine to try and this includes your motorcycle battery. If there's water in it (given it's a wet cell) and it can start your bike, that's all you need to test the charging system. Naturally, your stator can't do an awful lot forthe battery from a tugboat, but most car batterries of 100 amps or so will show pretty close to 14+.... Ignore the "Quick test" requiring a battery to do such and such key off key on. Those values are not required to test the charging system. For instance, the voltage of a battery just taken off a charger does NOT indicate how good the battery is. It must "rest" at least overnite. and a battery that tests 12.6 or above after a rest is a brand new battery. Older batteries that will run your bike quite well always fail this "quick test" procedure.
That aside,
is an improvement. Your headlight is loading the system. If it's an LED one, that seems strange. Try a normal headlamp. An old headlamp will drop the voltage too but anything below 13.8 or so would be questionable assuming the stator and R/R are good.
LED headlamps can have all sorts of circuitry...I don't have one, but I can identify them on my dash cam because they blink. Without bothering to look them up, I'm guessing because the circuitry is pulsing the leds as a way to keep them bright while convert the car's voltage to suit. All to say, it would not suprise me if your headlamp is defective
A bad contact in the switch will not cause a voltage drop for a headlight that is bright unless it's a short circuit or a partial one and I'd expect heat in a partial short.
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Sounds like you found the problem but I wrote all this so it stands
I just have an old car battery on the floor beside the bike. You can take your motorcycle battery out and use jumpers to connect to a non-running car battery, but it's inconvenenient... with those heavy cables and all.
But basically Any 12v acid battery that shows more than ~12.25 after sitting around overnight is fine to try and this includes your motorcycle battery. If there's water in it (given it's a wet cell) and it can start your bike, that's all you need to test the charging system. Naturally, your stator can't do an awful lot forthe battery from a tugboat, but most car batterries of 100 amps or so will show pretty close to 14+.... Ignore the "Quick test" requiring a battery to do such and such key off key on. Those values are not required to test the charging system. For instance, the voltage of a battery just taken off a charger does NOT indicate how good the battery is. It must "rest" at least overnite. and a battery that tests 12.6 or above after a rest is a brand new battery. Older batteries that will run your bike quite well always fail this "quick test" procedure.
That aside,
is an improvement. Your headlight is loading the system. If it's an LED one, that seems strange. Try a normal headlamp. An old headlamp will drop the voltage too but anything below 13.8 or so would be questionable assuming the stator and R/R are good.
LED headlamps can have all sorts of circuitry...I don't have one, but I can identify them on my dash cam because they blink. Without bothering to look them up, I'm guessing because the circuitry is pulsing the leds as a way to keep them bright while convert the car's voltage to suit. All to say, it would not suprise me if your headlamp is defective
A bad contact in the switch will not cause a voltage drop for a headlight that is bright unless it's a short circuit or a partial one and I'd expect heat in a partial short.
Thanks, I will check it out.
2BRacing
Forum Mentor
According to the information originally provided by the author of "Quick Test" (Posplayr) the voltage drop between steps 1 and 2 could be approximately 0.5V so you are not too far off that.
For the sake of helping others who may have a similar problem, I would be interested to know what you found in your post #23 ("Today I have found a connection problem and corrected it--I think.").
What I found was just a bad connector at the solenoid that I apparently overlooked earlier. Just changed it and stuck it back on the solenoid.
