TOPIC:

I bought the bike a year ago, and have been having electrical problems ever since.

Initially was charging at 21v and blew every bulb on the bike out.

Replaced the regulator/rectifier and put in a new battery.

After that, could never get it to charge properly. Best of 12.4 or so at idle, never more than 13.2 at any rpm.

Checked the stator. The Clymer manual said resistance should be .4ohm, but it fluctuated between 1.9 and 4.2 ohms. Replaced stator. It was a used one, but it read .4 ohms, just what the manual called for. Slight improvement, but still never getting anywhere near the 14.5v or so I've been told it should be charging at when at cruising rpms.

Rebuilt the starter clutch, but it wasn't electrical.

Have been having electrical problems, too. Sometimes the blinkers work, sometimes they don't. Sometimes the horn works, sometimes it doesn't. Have checked all the connections and put dialectric grease on them, the problems still manifest intermittently.

I shut the bike off at stop lights, etc to save gas. If I leave the bike sitting like that for a few minutes with the headlight on, it will pull the battery down so badly it won't start.

Recently, the bike sat for about a week without being started. It drained the battery completely. I see this as seperate from any charging issues I might be having. I think there has to be some problem with the wiring to drain the battery when it's just sitting like that. Am I right?

The battery has been checked with a hydrometer, it is good.

I am at a loss, and ready to light the darn thing on fire. Can anybody help?

Battery draining trouble shooting is a time consuming chore that many of us face at one time or other depending on the state of repair on our machines. Your problem may be in the main wiring bundle where it bends around the steering stem and goes up to the handle bars. Have you blown any fuses lately?

When I am trying to determine a battery drain I first remove the battery from the bike,fill it to the proper level with distilled water (not tap water as the minerals in the water will eventually short out the battery),connect a suitable battery charger (battery tender is a good one).

The next step is after making sure the battery is good is to re-install it in the motorcycle; connect the negative (black) connection but do not connect the positive (red)terminal at this time. You need to make/buy a 12 volt light with some 4" wire leads to go between the positive terminal on the battery and the positive wire.

When this is done the light will illuminate indicating a short that you can trouble shoot by disconnecting circuits until the light goes out. This is where you may have to open up wiring bundles or other items to figure out why the light will either go out or on when connecting/disconnecting wires.

The motorcycle cannot be started the way it is configured for trouble shooting as the 12 volt light will blow out like a fuse if you try to start the bike.But this is a simple way to see where the short is.

once you have the electrical problem fixed I would go back through all of the connectors and spray them with a cleaner made by Caig labratories sold at radio shack called deoxit www.deoxit.com Use it on switches too.

Also check the gound cable from the battery to the engine/frame as they will sometimes fail internally yet look o.k.

That's a great start. Thanks for the advice.

Sean, You have two problems by the sound of it... something is draining your battery while the bike is not running AND the battery isn't charging. The idea of putting the light bulb in line with the battery cable is pretty good. When you start doing the "disconnecting" to find out where the problem is and trying to make the light go out keep in mind you only have to disconnect THREE connectors. FIRST is the main connector between the right hand switchgear and main harness. Take it loose as there is the BEST chance that the problem is here. If you find that the light goes out, I don't know how your bike is wired but many times, the hot wire from starter button to solenoid runs along with the wires that go to the main connector as well as the yellow/red wire to the coils. Anyway if you find that the light at the battery goes out, start checking EACH wire connections between the two connectors by putting a wire on the contact on one side of the connect and touching the corrresponding side of the other half of the connector. When you get the light at the battery to light, then you have found the wire that is causing the problem. If the light stays on after disconnecting the right switchgear connector, go to the LEFT switchgear connector. Really, the only other circuit that doesn't go through the either switchgear is the RED wire that goes back to your tail light (running light) and you would see that the tail light is on with the key off if that was the cause of the drain. Once you find out where the battery drain is occuring, let me know or put another post in this thread. The charging issue will be simpler to fix/find.

Thanks, George. Will do.

I had to root out the electrical snafu's with my bike as well (mine was a burned insulation power wire in the main bumdle). It is time consuming, but worth every aggravating minute.

As a bonus, you really learn a lot about the system.

Best of luck man.

How long should the battery stay charged while the bike sits not running?

as of now the bike was on charger for 3 days to get full charge and has sat for over a week and almost every day has been checked. started every time and never ran for more than 5 minutes. so drain issue resolved. (crossing fingers) and the multimeter has been left on it the whole time. suspect ignition switch not fully turned off (possibilty). regarding the charging system. bike si stock other than dyna coils and the dyna solid state ignition installed along with wg coil mod. at 4k it will eventually get up to about 13.5v, takes about 3-4 minutes to get there. Have swapped regulator and stator off another bike. No change. Wondering if the magnet could be culprit, my opinion this is not the original magnet. But since it seems this is a chore to change figured i would ask first.

point note; i did remove the wg mod just to identify whether this might be affecting, with the addtional power going to the coils, it didnt again no change.

sorry george i just had to know for sure. your good man.

jim

I have 3 sources for Kawasaki aftermarket stators:

1.www.Electrosport.com
2.www.Ricksmotorsportselectrics.com
3.www.Rmststor.com

Before I go replacing the stator again, though, I want to be sure that's it. According to the Clymer manual, the resistance should be at .4 ohm. The stator on the bike had much higher resistance, so I bought a used one that tested at .4 ohm.

The charging problems persisted, so, in my mind that rules out the stator. Even if the stator was the issue, this one meets the testing criteria from Clymer. What other methods do you use to test a stator?

Why not check AC voltage out of the stator? That makes more sense than endlessly swapping components. Start the bike with the stator disconnected and see how much voltage is on each pair of stator wires. If you have three wires, put meter leads on wire A and wire B and check while the bike is running. Check at idle and 4K rpm. Check the next pair the same way B & C and then A & C. If you have reasonable AC voltages, you will know that you don't need a new stator. Then you can look at other issues that are affecting charging.

George (or, as my friends from South of the border would say: "Jorge"),

What range of voltage do you think we should look for?