Charging sytem questions

Posted: Fri Jun 30, 2006 2:13 pm

I plan to look into my charging system and I just want to confirm a few things before I do something and leak all the smoke out of my meter and/or electrical system.

Issue: Battery is slowly drained as the bike is ridden. Battery is good, it has not been load tested, but after trickle charging it has plenty of juice to turn starter over. After a 200 miles ride, the battery will be drawn down to 11-12 volts and will barely turn the starter motor over. It appears that the charging system only putting out enough juice to supply the electrical system (barely) and that the battery is slowly being drained to make up the difference.

First a couple of question:
1) The factory service manual (FSM) says to test the output between the positive battery cable and the starter solenoid. Either somebody here or maybe it is the Clymer

Posted: Fri Jun 30, 2006 2:37 pm

1) For the FSM test you would need a 30A meter, the Climber test is much easyer and will not hurt your 10A meter (your meter will be fused anyway so the worst thing that would happen is you would pop the fuse)
The Climber test esensialy test the whole electrical system so you will need the meter in there when you start the bike (removing teh fuse will kill everything)
This test (the Climber test) does not test the amount of current going to the starter, just the current needed to pull the relay (when the starter button is pressed) and the current needed to run the electrical (when the starter button is not pressed)
2) I think I answered that one above, you'll be OK with the climber test.
3) Thats probably a missprint on 18-1 unless you bypass the regulator.

This may help too..
http://home.earthlink.net/~trinomial/DOHC_chargeFAQ.html

CB1100F Joined: Mar 03, 2004 Posts: 3278 Location: Seattle

You have a Stator and a Rotor..... Ohm/Voltage test the Stator. The wire wrapping around the magnet, (the rotor). Ohm/voltage testing is covered in the online Service manual, under Electrical/Charging. Shocked

Its easy to check and remove one issue of the problem. If OK, then concentrate on the voltage regulator assy. Odds are your Rotor and Stator are shot. I replaced mine 15 years ago..... Best $300+ I ever spent.

You just MIGHT get lucky and only need some $20 brushes... Brushes?? What are those??

Rolling Eyes

P.S. Make sure the connections to the starter solenoid are TIGHT & CLEAN of corrosion. Just as a precaution, I replaced that bad boy too...

Posted: Mon Jul 03, 2006 1:10 pm

If you send me your phone number and a time you will be by your bike with a multi meter I wll call you and diagnose the problem over the phone.

Posted: Mon Jul 03, 2006 6:03 pm

Thanks SRay. I plan to look into it useing Mike Nixon's 3-step method that CTBio linked me to (thanks Bio). But if that doesn't work for me I may get you on the phone. Thanks again for everbodies help from this site.