Charging Problems

[Stratman]

Why is nothing simple?

As I said on a previous thread, I went to restart at the petrol station on Saturday and the battery was flat. Wasn't charging at all, although started fine in the garage at home and is always on an Optimate. Battery is quite new.

I thought it would be the rectifier (at 43,000 miles so I replaced the old one with an Electrex one, expectiong to test across the terminal and find a nice fat charge. No.

Now, using the Multimeter etc, battery voltage fully charged is 12.8v (manual says should be 13 - 13.2v), current leakage is about 0.7mA (manual 0.1mA max), stator coil resistance is showing 0.7-0.8 ohms (manual says 0.2 - 0.5 ohms).

Voltage doesn't go above 13v when keeping some revs up, so it isn't really charging still.

When I test for continuity from the yellow wires from the alternator, I get continuity, which I shouldn't, but I get this from all three wires, presumably one from each coil.

The problem I have is that, following the ElectroSport guide from this site, each of these problems points to a different solution, which I have tried, but the symptom still persists. I've checked all fuses, connector and battery connections including the negative to engine terminal

All of which leaves me with the stator coils, but I need to be sure it is them as I don't imagine they'd be cheap and its a fair job to get to them.

Any thoughts guys?

[alan]

No point me giving you advice i'm an electrical numpty i blew over 10 fuses fitting led rear light and theres only 3 wires

[doggit]

well if your multi meter is saying its all ok then why not try swapping your battery, and see what readings your getting with it on the bike, if the charging system is showing ok then maybe your battery is not able to hold its charge thats the only thing i can advise, as i had all the same trouble as you but it was my R/R which was faulty, and swapped it and now good as new, but i am having the alarm disconnected this friday
carl

[sirch345]

When I test for continuity from the yellow wires from the alternator, I get continuity, which I shouldn't, but I get this from all three wires, presumably one from each coil.

Any thoughts guys?

Hi Paul,
According to the Haynes manual, you should get continuity from the three yellow alternator wires, but not from any of those three to earth

[derryUK]

A couple of thoughts.

Don't worry too much about your stator resistance values being high, the important thing is that they are similar. If a winding had failed it would go open or closed circuit (most likely open). It's a shame Honda don't give a voltage output for the stator. I once measured an old Suzuki stator and that put out 50VAC when disconnected from the reg/rec.

I think the important thing here is that your charging voltage is only 13v. To fully charge a battery you need around 14.5V. The nice thing would be to borrow another reg/rec to try.

Ask a friend!

Derry.

[Stratman]

The rectifier is new, but I have checked the yellow wires from the stator and they all show continuity to earth when tested, so it is foobar. I remembered I have a spare one in my old engine which doesn't test continuous circuit so I'm going to do a transplant!

[derryUK]

Keep us informed of the results.

Derry.

[Stratman]

BTW - anyone know what the rotor internal diameter is for the puller? If not, no probs because I'll be able to measure iot when I get the cover off anyway.

[sirch345]

BTW - anyone know what the rotor internal diameter is for the puller? If not, no probs because I'll be able to measure iot when I get the cover off anyway.

You won't need to remove the rotor just to swap over the alternator windings, unless of course you want to swap the rotor as well

Chris.

[Stratman]

Chris, thanks for the post. I took the old cover off this morning before I read it and came to the same conclusion! Each wire from the old one test continuous to earth so it is fubar - old one is OK.

Just waiting for the new gaskets from David Silver now - it is a lot quicker job (and cheaper) than I thought it would be, for once!

[Stratman]

Well, that's all done - didn't take long at all and showing 14.3v on tickover now so it was the stator gone. At least I have a brand new rectifier on now too so that is one less thing to be concerned about in future.

[sirch345]

Well, that's all done - didn't take long at all and showing 14.3v on tickover now so it was the stator gone. At least I have a brand new rectifier on now too so that is one less thing to be concerned about in future.

Well done Paul, at least that's all sorted now

Alway's good to hear the out come