Ok heres a new one...

[Qkenuf4u]

Customer is gonna take it as is since he's heading home in a few weeks (new Zealand) .. So out here putting it back together n figured.. What the heck ill put in the new battery that I fully charged last night...
Its smaller but starts bike fine.. Weird thing is it actually charges at 12.7-13v .. (Fully charged Old battery stopped at 12.5v) .. So not fixed but might work ok for riding around a bit.. I told him to keep a back up plan in mind if bike won't start or shuts off on him....

WTF... Omen of a bike..

[Qkenuf4u]

Lmao.. So first start up w headlight fuse pulled n it charged perfectly @ 14.5v or so... Messing around trying to track down exactly where the problem is n voltage just kept getting lower n lower till back to square one (even w headlight fuse out) ...
New battery it would atleast charge close to 13v.. Old battery back in n it goes to 12.8v or so (w headlight fuse pulled) ..
Maybe just getting to hot sitting here idling..

[scottw]

Just for Ha Ha's your are you sure your voltmeter is reading properly by trying a 2nd (know good!) volt meter as a verification of the 1st meters readings?

Scott

[davej]

Lmao.. So first start up w headlight fuse pulled n it charged perfectly @ 14.5v or so... Messing around trying to track down exactly where the problem is n voltage just kept getting lower n lower till back to square one (even w headlight fuse out) ...
New battery it would atleast charge close to 13v.. Old battery back in n it goes to 12.8v or so (w headlight fuse pulled) ..
Maybe just getting to hot sitting here idling..

So are you saying that all this testing and volt readings were all at idle? Are you saying that your test wasn't done at around 2500 rpm?

[Doc_V]

Did you try just disconnecting the headlight bulb with the fuse in place? If not, give that a try and be sure to check how many watts the bulb is. Lots of people put higher wattage bulbs it and it could be sucking down the juice. I believe stock is 35/55w. Maybe someone else can confirm that.

[davej]

Did you try just disconnecting the headlight bulb with the fuse in place? If not, give that a try and be sure to check how many watts the bulb is. Lots of people put higher wattage bulbs it and it could be sucking down the juice. I believe stock is 35/55w. Maybe someone else can confirm that.

A couple post up he said the customer picked up the bike "as is" so he don't have it anymore to check anything else. I was just curious if all testing was done at idle instead of reving up the engine. If so it won't charge in the upper 13's and 14V range. He said something in his last post that makes it sound as if he never reved it up to check charge.

[Jclevesque]

It does sound like he is only checking at idle. It may be charging good all along if thats thr case.

[Horsehammerr]

Why is my battery charging at 15.8+ and continuously climbing as i get past 3,000 rpm ? What is the proper method to test my Regulator ?

[Bikerron]

I think you already have. These regulators shunt extra voltage to ground to keep the feed to the battery constant. When that process breaks down it’ll throw more to the battery.

The permanent magnet alternator in motorcycles outputs higher and higher voltage (and power) as the engine revs up.

The voltage regulators job is to limit the voltage to about 14.4 Volts by dissipating the extra power that does not get used by the battery, lights, etc. That's why motorcycle regulators have big metal fins and should be out in free air. If this regulator fails, then all that extra power gets pushed into overcharging your battery.

[Horsehammerr]

Will an '05 1700 Regulator work on an '01 1600 ? Tim Parrot rewound my '01 1600 Stator to '05 charge specs. 5 years ago and the regulator he sent seems to have died . No doubt OEM on replacement , just wonder about upgrading . The 1600 regulator lasted 5 years but , I've had to replace my battery every year . Yes I plugin my maintainer when ever it is going to sit for more than over night.

[Bikerron]

Yessir.
What kind of output were you getting to the battery when it is charging?

And, a float charger every night is an overkill to me.

I don’t dig mine out unless it’s going to sit for a month or two.

[Horsehammerr]

I replaced my Regulator with an OEM 1600 part . I'm charging at 4.48 at all RPM's above 1500 . Could a Battery Maintainer of 1.5 watts over charge a battery ? Mines a Shumaker that shuts off auto when charge is reached and only comes on if battery trikkles down . Like over a month plus , during winter storage.