Quick question

[the108penguins]

With a properly functioning charging system will the bike run without a battery?

[CatatonicBug]

With a properly functioning charging system will the bike run without a battery?

No. Not these bikes. All the systems run off the battery, and the alternator only charges it back up. Some bikes are wired differently, and run of the power from the alternator, but not the XS's. This is the reason why the kickstart was removed in later years, since the bike won't even start with a kick start if the battery is dead.

[psycoreefer]

I believe that like most cars once the bike is started it would continue to run without a battery, but that would likely be very hard on the electrical/charging system.
It will not start without at least 10v in the battery, I know this to be true as my battery has been slowly dieing for about 6 months, it will hold about 10 - 11v charge for a day or two, pushing the starter button immediately drops it to 5ish so I've been kicking it for all that time - twice everyday - so the kicker does have value!

You could likely replace the battery with a smaller one, or maybe even a capacitor if you were looking to do something custom and only ever use the kicker- although you'd want to research the crap out of it because I am not electrically smart enough to know if it would work or not.

[the108penguins]

I'm tackling charging problems. So when the bike is running if I am getting a magnetic field at the stator cover and a steady 14.6v at the battery would that indicate a good stator/alternator? or can it still be toast and get that?

[natemoen]

Sounds like the charging system is working as long as you are getting the 14.6 when the bike is reved up around 3000-4000 rpms. If your getting that at idle something is wrong.

[the108penguins]

yea I am getting 14.6 at idle.

[psycoreefer]

If your seeing 14.6v at the battery with the bike running I'd move on and look else where. Thats the "general" charging system test.

What kind of issue are you seeing?

I've seen automotive alternators fail such that they produce 14v but can't deliver any "amperage" so they look good with the above test but still fail to charge the battery. Not sure if the system on our bikes can fail like that or not...only way I found the auto one was with the test they do for free at autozone for alternators - my 100amp alternator was only producing 15 amps according to their test, and they didn't want to replace it under warranty, but thats a different story.

I'm a little slow typing...
At idle you should be lower - if you rev it what do you see?

[the108penguins]

when I rev it the v stays the same 14.6 all the way.

[crazy steve]

With a properly functioning charging system will the bike run without a battery?

If you start the bike, then remove the battery, the bike will keep running if the rpms are up enough for full output. But this will quickly kill the regulator, so don't try it!

Alternators aren't 'self-exciting', so you have to have an external voltage source before you can get any output. The old generators were different, as they would usually have enough residual magnatism left in the field coils that you could push-start a vehicle with a dead-flat battery. But running even those without a battery was still bad for the regulator...

[cywelchjr]

yea I am getting 14.6 at idle.

14.6 at idle sounds suspicious. Not about the charging system but your tester as even with geezers better reg you won't get that on these bikes at idle. So I suspect that your not really getting that voltage, but just like another on here have a bad meter that your testing with. You should get about 12.5 to 13.5 at idle and then come up (sometimes slowly) to 14.5 to 14.8 at 3000 RPM. If it's doing different, and/or the voltage is not changing between idle and 3000 RPM then something is wrong.

I would just about guarantee that anybody getting 14.5 or more volts at idle with one of these bikes either has a short in one of the alternator field coil wires, or a bad tester/meter.

[cywelchjr]

when I rev it the v stays the same 14.6 all the way.

You have a bad charging system AND a bad tester that is reading too high. I would bet on it. It can be other things, but the most likely is something in the reg, but make sure to go through the checks in the manual.

[the108penguins]

So I went and did something stupid... the connector that comes from the alternator was melting so I cut it off and put new connectors on it but my problem is that 3 of them are white and don't know which ones go to where on the other plug... ummm also they all get the same reading with an ohm meter... can someone test their connector to see if they can sort it out? or if anyone has any other ideas that would be great.

[cywelchjr]

So I went and did something stupid... the connector that comes from the alternator was melting so I cut it off and put new connectors on it but my problem is that 3 of them are white and don't know which ones go to where on the other plug... ummm also they all get the same reading with an ohm meter... can someone test their connector to see if they can sort it out? or if anyone has any other ideas that would be great.

IIRC the other side also has 3 that are the same color, it matters not which goes to which, AC comes in from the white connectors and is turned into DC in the Reg/Rectifier.

[crazy steve]

Yep, makes absolutely no difference which one is which...

[the108penguins]

well that's a relief