marcus22
Junior Member
Hey all,
Heres the deal! While driving down the road i noticed my volt meter at 11.5 ish. and soon after the battery went dead. its a brand new battery and when fully charged and running it never get above 12.5 at any rpm. I have the bike home now and looked up "testing the charging system" in the self help section and went through the steps. I have a couple questions though and here are my findings. I colored the steps blue=pass, red=fail, and orange=maybe
on Step 2, I found no light on a test light but i did find 11.6vdc on a digital meter, but only on one prong and nothing on the other. bad right?
Step 2. To check the regulator unplug it from the stator. Take a test light and clip it to the negative terminal of the battery and then touch first one pin and then the other on the plug that goes to the regulator. If you get even the slightest amount of light from the test light the regulator is toast.
To do this with a meter which is more accurate: black lead to battery ground, red lead to each pin on the plug, start with the voltage scale higher than 12vdc and move voltage scale down in steps for each pin. Any voltage is a bad regulator.
You may get battery voltage on all three pins on the newer 3 phase regulators.
The no voltage is for older type regulators with diode indicating the diode is bad and the regulator needs replacing.
on step 3 i did find 0.2ohms. Good right?
Step 3. On the other part of the disconnected regulator plug. Set the multimeter for Ohms x1 scale and measure for resistance across the pins of the stator. You should read something around 0.1 to 0.2 ohms for the TC88 32 amp system.
for step 4. What selection on the volt meter should I check this? and where would the best place to check be? I did check from the stator prongs to a few different bolts where the motor connects to the frame. i did get 0.2-0.3 for a reading. Bad right?
Step 4. Then check for continuity between each pin on the plug and frame/engine ground. The meter needle should not move (infinite resistance)(digitals will show infinite resistance) if the meter needle does move (indicating continuity)(digitals will show some resistance), recheck very carefully. If the meter still shows continuity to ground the stator is shorted (bad).
on step 5 I only got 3.0vac at idle. bad right?
Step 5. Set the meter to read A/C volts higher than 30 volts (the scale setting for voltage should always be higher than the highest voltage you expect or you may fry the meter). Start the bike, and measure from one pin to the other on the plug (DO NOT cross the multimeter probes! - touch them to each other). You should read roughly 16-20 vac per 1,000 rpm.
so....what do you think? could both be bad? i did replace the regulator about 30,000 miles ago.
any help is much appreciated
thanks,
marcus
Heres the deal! While driving down the road i noticed my volt meter at 11.5 ish. and soon after the battery went dead. its a brand new battery and when fully charged and running it never get above 12.5 at any rpm. I have the bike home now and looked up "testing the charging system" in the self help section and went through the steps. I have a couple questions though and here are my findings. I colored the steps blue=pass, red=fail, and orange=maybe
on Step 2, I found no light on a test light but i did find 11.6vdc on a digital meter, but only on one prong and nothing on the other. bad right?
Step 2. To check the regulator unplug it from the stator. Take a test light and clip it to the negative terminal of the battery and then touch first one pin and then the other on the plug that goes to the regulator. If you get even the slightest amount of light from the test light the regulator is toast.
To do this with a meter which is more accurate: black lead to battery ground, red lead to each pin on the plug, start with the voltage scale higher than 12vdc and move voltage scale down in steps for each pin. Any voltage is a bad regulator.
You may get battery voltage on all three pins on the newer 3 phase regulators.
The no voltage is for older type regulators with diode indicating the diode is bad and the regulator needs replacing.
on step 3 i did find 0.2ohms. Good right?
Step 3. On the other part of the disconnected regulator plug. Set the multimeter for Ohms x1 scale and measure for resistance across the pins of the stator. You should read something around 0.1 to 0.2 ohms for the TC88 32 amp system.
for step 4. What selection on the volt meter should I check this? and where would the best place to check be? I did check from the stator prongs to a few different bolts where the motor connects to the frame. i did get 0.2-0.3 for a reading. Bad right?
Step 4. Then check for continuity between each pin on the plug and frame/engine ground. The meter needle should not move (infinite resistance)(digitals will show infinite resistance) if the meter needle does move (indicating continuity)(digitals will show some resistance), recheck very carefully. If the meter still shows continuity to ground the stator is shorted (bad).
on step 5 I only got 3.0vac at idle. bad right?
Step 5. Set the meter to read A/C volts higher than 30 volts (the scale setting for voltage should always be higher than the highest voltage you expect or you may fry the meter). Start the bike, and measure from one pin to the other on the plug (DO NOT cross the multimeter probes! - touch them to each other). You should read roughly 16-20 vac per 1,000 rpm.
so....what do you think? could both be bad? i did replace the regulator about 30,000 miles ago.
any help is much appreciated
thanks,
marcus