Hello everyony Help me please. Charging nightmares.

[jim_haley]

I am another new guy crying for help on a charging nightmare. I tried everything I could find but still a problem. I got the best deal on an 81 xs11 Special. It runs good and everything works with no missing parts (side covers ect.) for 300.00 It starts right up but it doesnt charge right. I have to rev it over 2500 rpm to get charging voltage. I followed Climers manual and the green wire coming from the stater area is less than 1.8 volts with key on engine off which is right. when its idling it is supposed to ramp to 9 to 11 volts. What it actually does is reduce to .8 volts and idle (900 rpm) charging fluctuates around 12.3 to 12.6. I would really appreciate help on this.. Im stumped. I put another rectifier in, the stator and rotor are within specs to the manual and went through all the connectors I could find and cleaned them and added a small amount of dialectric grease to each.. Any ideas. What am I missing.. Thanks for any advice.

[oldyam80sg]

What is the battery voltage key off?Think it should be around 12.2 volts.The more experienced should chime in soon to help out.

[bikerphil]

Clean the connectors coming from the alternator. They're behind the fuse box.

[DGXSER]

If it still has the original fuse box, consider upgrading it to the stab fuses. Also, did you check all the grounds? There are a couple that tend to corode up and not make good grounds.

[jim_haley]

Its me again

I moved the fuse box and cleaned both connectors coming from the alternator and even used alittle bit of dialectric grease. Still to no avail the power coming from the alternator still does not ramp up like the manual sais it should.instead of going up it goes down alittle bit. And the battery has a 12.6v charge. All the ideas are so appreciated. I did already change the fuse box from the glass buss fuses to spade fuses because their were a couple broken clips.

[lvrsnr]

Jim where are you? if you are close I can help, if not me there may be other XSives near you.

[DGXSER]

I'm not positive, but I think there are three alternator connections back behind the fuse box.

Also, look at this thread, read TC's ideas, he knows these things REALLY well.

http://www.xs11.com/forum/showthread.php?t=20836&page=2

[jim_haley]

thank you for the link. I checked it out but I didnt see anything pertaining to electrical. Since I do get a 14 volt charge avove 3000 rpm could I assume that this rectifier is ok. I bought this used one to replace the bad one.. And I live in Marion, Indiana for the gentleman that was asking.

[bikerphil]

These charging systems are weak to begin with. If you have 14V at 3K rpm's, that's not too bad. At idle, the charging system can't really keep up and you will be slowly discharging the battery. This is pretty much normal.

[trbig]

I was thinking the same thing as Phil. One thing you can do though if you have the money... A member on here named Geezer sells aftermarket regulater/rectifier units. The one I installed starts fully charging much sooner.. more like 1500-1800 rpm or so. Also has a LIFETIME guarantee on his units.



Tod

[jim_haley]

Thanks Bilkerphil.. Is there anything I can do that anyonecan think of to raise the idle voltage up alittle bit. Like some kind of battery maintainer that will engage when the voltage goes to a low level?

[tinman905]

Try a different battery if that isn't the problem the have a good look at the stator coil.
Seems like the very same problem I had with my 80 SG. It was a problem with my stator coil, one of the white wires was grounding out some where. Some how my tach and headlights were still operating okay too but it wasn't charging. When I changed the field coil it was as good as new.

[trbig]

One thing.. is these bikes are air cooled, so it's not really designed to be sitting around idling a lot. Another thing that will help.. is that they are supposed to be up @ 1100 RPM at idle. That may help you some too.

The only kind of maintainer is something that you'd plug into the bike after you parked it. If that's what you're talking about, there's tons of them on the market. A good cheap option can be found at Harbor Freight.

Tod

[mrutah12]

help me

Hello there did you test the stator you need to test all three wires coming out of the stator take the rectifier out of the system you should have voltage coming out of the stator and you need to set your dvom to ac because thats what your reading coming out of the stator the rectifier changes it to dc i cant remember the voltage readings you can also do an ohms test
disconnect the five wire connectorthe three wire connector and measure the resistance between each of the wires in the following order
b1&u
b1&v
b1&w
b1&b2
u&g1
v&g1
w&g1
b&g1
then reverse the order one way should read high and te other way should read low.each set of readings should not differ by 10 ohms.if you dont have good reading from any of the readings then you probaly have a bad stator assembly. if it passes the ohms test check for lose wires in the connectors a loose wire can cause all sorts of problems also make sure you have a good battery, sorry for the long post

[jim_haley]

ok thank you. I did the ohms measurements on the rectifier the other day using the but might have screwed up the test so I will do it again. On the rotor and stater wires I did not realize for some reason that it would create AC and not DC. Ill have to recheck that too. I will put the results online tonight..Wish me luck. Thanks for everything so far everyone.