[DOBERDEWD]

Last Thursday I was on a 300 mile ride from NW burbs of Chicago up to northern Wisconsin. After about 200 miles , bike just died. I coasted to the side of the road and shut the key off. Turned it back on and had nothing. Turned it off again and let it sit for a while.
When I turned it back on , the dash came back up but not enough juice to start it.
I sat on the side of the road for 2.5 hours before the tow truck showed up.
They drove me into Wausau and I parked the bike.
Threw the battery on charge this morning. After fully charged it started right up.
I hit it with a volt meter and started at about 14.5 it slowly began to climb up and settled in at about 17.7 to about 18.
At throttle it climbed to about 20.
So, my question is, could the rectifier have overheated and shut down but then reset itself after cooling down?
And do those readings sound correct or do have something else going on here?
Any help on this would be most appreciated ..
Thanks,
Doberdewd

 

[dpapavas]

These readings are certainly not correct. The voltage at the poles shouldn't exceed 15.5V at 5000 rpm. Inspect (and probably replace) the rectifier, before the higher voltage does any damage to the electrics of the bike (or to you as batteries generally don't take too kindly to being overcharged).

 

[TwistedMister]

sounds like a battery issue, maybe not charging? got multimeter?

 

[DOBERDEWD]

Ok ... I had ordered a rectifier and a stator just to be safe. I replaced the rectifier and headlights ... seemed to be fine after that. Rode about 50 miles without incident ... to error on the side of caution I checked voltage ar the battery when I got home. Wasn't charging ... voltage dropped when running ... I just closed the garage door in disgust.
So yesterday morning I dug back into it ..
Started it up and tossed the meter back on ... same ... Pulled the left side faring and popped up the tank to get at the wiring to check out the stator before I condemned it for replacement.
Seemed to pass muster. Did see a connection that was slightly loose so I secured it and went to start it up and check charging at battery again.
Now it won't start. Cranks but won't fire.
NOW WHAT ...
ARERRRRERGGGGGG !!!!

 

[TwistedMister]

what was that connection that you thought was loose?

pics?

 

[DOBERDEWD]

It was the red wire at the RR ...
I went back and retraced my steps yesterday afternoon. Pulled and cleaned up all the connections, plugged everything back in and the bike fired up.
Not really sure who was the guilty contact but ...
I tossed the meter back on and it still wasn't charging. Checked ac voltage output and checked ok ... fluctuating a bit based on rpms but was at about 80 @ 5k ... for the helluvit, I swapped in the old RR that I had replaced and it was charging but too much. About 16-20
I'm thinking that the new RR has failed ...
It doesn't change over battery voltage at all and actually drops with rpms.

 

[TwistedMister]

check before RR as well, should be 58v @ 4k rpm I believe? if that checks then the RR is in order, check all your wiring from the stator as well all the way to the coil..

 

[dpapavas]

How do you check whether it's charging or not? The overvoltage condition, that resulted from the failure of the previous R/R, resulted in turn to larger currents flowing through the wiring. Besides damaging devices, this can also cause connectors to overheat and melt, or deform. This may be what you're seeing and it can have the effect of raising the resistance across the connector, which can lead to no charging. What's the voltage on the battery poles, a) with the ignition off, b) when running at idle and c) at 5000rpm in neutral? It'd be best to have a freshly charged battery, before measuring.

 

[dameion76]

Use a multimeter that's how I did mine o had connectors burnt and shorting out and killing my battery.

 

[TwistedMister]

yup, multimeter, set it to V and check, I would watch the video n youtube so you know what wires to put it on and so forth, the steps to take are in the manual tho, easy peezy

 

[TwistedMister]

get er fixed, I would go with a Mosfet R/R from dood, they are charming, and they really stabilize everything no stuttering dash or tweeky needles, pure smoothness... be sure all those solders at the Stator are good and solid

 

[tsonksen]

Do you have access to a manual? The troubleshooting process is detailed there.
First step is to verify the battery is good.
Check the stator for shorts, then verify AC output.
When I have seen this issue in the past it has been a bad stator sending too much voltage to the regulator, which in turn fries it.
Check the connector between them. Is the plastic melted or burned?