Charging problem

[Bigfoot]

Rode the midnight special all over town yesterday and then down to Russ79's last night to sync the carbs. On the way home the battery warning light came on and the battery drained. I made it about a mile from my house. I had SWMBO bring my a battery and got it home. Would have made it if it hadn't been for stoplights. The ground cable for the battery broke off when I went to change the battery so it must have been pretty shoddy to begin with. I replaced the cable this morning and now everything seems ok. No warning light.

Would a bad ground connection cause the battery not to charge? The cable was not completely broken until I went to change the battery. And if someone could tell me how to check and see how much juice I am getting from the charging circuit I would appreciate it. Sorry, I am a little bit of an electrical idiot.

[3Phase]

Bummer but nice fix, Harry!

Quick and dirty charging system test: start the bike and look at the headlight or it's reflection on a wall while you rev the engine up around 3,000 RPM. It should get noticably brighter. If it stays dull or the increase in brightness is more "meh" than "max!" you need to get out the multimeter and start testing components and connections.


Regards,

Scott

[lvrsnr]

yes a bad ground would do that, and it would never have broken if it was'nt in bad shape, to verify your charging system hook a volt meter up to your battery note the voltage, then start the motor the voltage should increase to 13 to 14 volts with the motor reved to 3500 RPM...if you don,t have a volt meter you can use the hillbilly method of shining the head light on something with the motor idling, rev the motor and the light will get briter

[Bigfoot]

Thanks for the replies. The headlight increases nicely when I rev it up so maybe my problem is fixed. I will still get the multimeter out and test it tonight.

[trbig]

Sorry, I am a little bit of an electrical idiot.

So... Electrical is all you're fessing up to at this point??


Tod

[Bigfoot]

yep, just electrical..... and women. But I don't think the last one really counts. I mean does any straight guy really understand them?

[XJOK2PLAY]

Hey Bigfoot...

As Tod can most certainly verify for me...My reply is a loud "NO WAY!!!
And I've had 28 years experience at that troubleshooting technic!

[Ivan]

Harry,

Go to the parts store and get an inductive ammeter. SOme DVOMs have a clip looking thing that you can use, but there are cheap ones that are just a round gauge that has a couple grooves in the back. All you do is hold it next to the wire in question and it reads out the amperage. Most of them have a x1 slot and a x10 slot.

Here is the snap-on model.

If you have that and a volt meter, you can do the V=IR thing and figure out how much resistance your battery has when in operation. The great bit about this information is that it is absolutely worthless, which is the best kind of info IMHO.