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Post by stooedwardes on Sept 13, 2008 0:19:49 GMT -5
sorry, Iseem to be posting electrical questions all the time now...electrics do my head in!
My bike runs fine, easy to start and ticks over nicely.
If I hook up the battery all my electrics work but the battery is slowly going flat. If I check the current of the battery (when hooked up and bike running) it does not increase and if I turn on the lights the current drops. This does not really worry me because I ultimately want to hook up an eliminator. But it does suggest to me that the battery is not getting charged.
When I hook up the battery eliminator (brand new) I have not electrics at all (the bike continues to run fine though).
Does this indicate that my regulator is stuffed? or could it also be the lighting coil?
And...is there a difference between a regulator and a rectifier?
I have a manual (two in fact) but electrics just do not make sense to me.
cheers
Stew
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Post by sjef on Sept 13, 2008 2:06:38 GMT -5
Hallo Stew ,
you can check the coils by measuring ohms at the 3 statorcoils.
engine off.
these wires you find at the connector on your rectifier/regulator
u/v= yellow/white 0,73 ohm
u/w= yellow/white 0,73 ohm
v/w =white/white 0,80 ohm
if your coils are oke, big chance the rectifier/regulator is not.
can also be checked by measurement.
a rectifier rectifies ac-current to dc-current.
a regulator keeps the voltage around 14 volt .
regards sjef
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Post by wotavidone on Sept 13, 2008 2:34:49 GMT -5
Starting with the last question, a rectifier changes the AC (alternating current) from an alternator into direct current. A regulator "regulates", in the case of a charging system it regulates the voltage so that the battery does not get overcharged.
In the case of an SR500, I do believe the rectifier and regulator are a single unit.
The ignition circuit is entirely separate from the rest of the electrics, so yes the engine will run if you have a problem with your battery and charging system.
Not sure what you mean by checking the current of the battery. If you mean you check the voltage of the battery with engine running, I would expect to see that voltage higher than when the engine is not running.
If you are disconnecting the battery wire and putting an ammeter in series, one would expect to see current running into the battery when the engine is charging the battery. This is dangerous to do, the manual says that running without a battery can blow the rectifier, so a momentary disconnection of your test leads could do damage. I advise not doing it unless your ammeter leads have nice alligator clips on them.
My Cycleserv manual warns against running the bike with no battery connected, it says this can cause overvoltages that blow the silicon rectifier.
Try turning off everything and disconnecting the positive wire to the battery. Put a multimeter on the amps scale and connect the positive test lead to the battery, and the negative test lead to the battery wire. If you don't see any current flow, at least you have not got a short draining the battery.
Reconnect the battery. At this stage a good battery will read around 13 volts. Start the bike and run it at about 2000 rpm. The voltage should increase to about 14.5 volts.
If it doesn't move you need to do the tests in the manual. Don't try to jump ahead. Start with checking the resistances of the stator coils, check the rectifier as per the manual instructions, etc.
Just do it all as per the manual, if all readings come up right then your charging system must be ok.
Start at the beginning, follow all instructions to the letter and you can't go wrong.
Let the forum know what readings you get for ever test, and we'll be able to help you decide what, if anything is broken.
Oh yeah the other thing to do, perhaps even do it first, is take you battery out, make sure its up to the levels with distilled water, and give it a decent charge with a good battery charger. When you have done so, take it off charge, rest it for say half hour, then measure the voltage. You'd expect to see 13 volts or thereabouts after its had time to settle down. Then check it in 24 hrs time. If you've got only 10 volts, the battery probably has a dead cell and should be replaced.
Mick
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Post by stooedwardes on Sept 22, 2008 20:26:50 GMT -5
Thanks Sjev and Mick for the advice.
I tested the ohms coming from the coil and there was nothing (easy diagnosis). Luckily I had just picked up a spare ratter SR500/XT on the weekend so thought I would just swap coils over and go.
Of course nothing is simple and found that cover over the coil is absolutely jammed on (with evidence of someone else having tried to remove it with a hammer at some stage). Consequently, if there is anyone out there with a spare cover (I don’t t know the correct term for this part sorry) I would like to hear from you.
I decided to have a bit of a look at the coil and noticed that 2 wires had been severed somehow. Hooked them up and all was sweet!!
Started it up and I have electrics again! I am almost there!!
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