TOPIC:

fordtruck wrote:

loudhvx wrote: Next step, then is to connect the white wire and measure it again (with all other wires connected too). Don't rev the bike if it goes above 16v.

I did and it doesn't show over 12.8 volts at the battery at 4-5k rpms. At idle it shows 12.1 volts. This is with the lights on. If I shut off the lights it will go a little over 13 volts at higher rpms.

Does the white wire go directly to the battery?

If there is a brown wire on the regulator, try the same test with the brown wire disconnected at the regulator. This will stop the regulator from regulating. This means full power is going to the battery. Once again watch the voltage very closely and don't let it go over 16v.

It does seem as if the alternator is simply unable to keep up.

As a last test to make sure it is not a defective regulator/rectifier, you could try to use a simple rectifier in place of the regulator rectifier. Then you will know for sure it is a weak alternator. But that is a lot of extra work (and a little money).

Dyna S ignitions definitely tax the charging system, and if the charging system is weak, adding a Dyna S will make it seem to be defective. The odd thing is that this has only been an issue on the 650's, as far as I can recall. Maybe there have been others.

Do you still have a set of points you can try out temporarily?

loudhvx wrote:

fordtruck wrote:

loudhvx wrote: Next step, then is to connect the white wire and measure it again (with all other wires connected too). Don't rev the bike if it goes above 16v.

I did and it doesn't show over 12.8 volts at the battery at 4-5k rpms. At idle it shows 12.1 volts. This is with the lights on. If I shut off the lights it will go a little over 13 volts at higher rpms.

Does the white wire go directly to the battery?

If there is a brown wire on the regulator, try the same test with the brown wire disconnected at the regulator. This will stop the regulator from regulating. This means full power is going to the battery. Once again watch the voltage very closely and don't let it go over 16v.

It does seem as if the alternator is simply unable to keep up.

As a last test to make sure it is not a defective regulator/rectifier, you could try to use a simple rectifier in place of the regulator rectifier. Then you will know for sure it is a weak alternator. But that is a lot of extra work (and a little money).

Dyna S ignitions definitely tax the charging system, and if the charging system is weak, adding a Dyna S will make it seem to be defective. The odd thing is that this has only been an issue on the 650's, as far as I can recall. Maybe there have been others.

Do you still have a set of points you can try out temporarily?

The white wire plugs directly into the positive battery cable. There is a brown wire on the regulator. I'll try and see if I can disconnect it from the harness plug and test again.

Unfortunately I do not have a set of points. The bike already had the Dyna S and green coils on it when I bought it.

Thanks alot for your suggestions! I had to walk away from it for a few days. I'm going to try and find some time this weekend to get back on it.

If I swap out my taillight bulb for a LED one, will the brake light warning light flake out on the dash?

I'll suggest reading voltage/checking wiring at the kill switch and ignition switch, just to rule out a short of some kind at the obvious locations.

2 cents

You had posted the amp draw of the ignition. What type of meter do you have, does it have a amp clamp that can handle 20 amps? Or is it just through the meter with a 10 amp limit?
You can wire a old fashioned amp meter into the circuit, white out put and battery positive, or the ground. Either end will show you the amps whether charging or discharging, and by how much. I did this and added extra load of an electric fan, to load test the out put of the system. This showed I had the max total output and at what rpm. Also with a volt meter across the battery at the same time. Compare to the FSM for your model. If you make the rated amps, then you have to much current draw. But if you have less that the total rated output, then for sure you still have an issue with the charging.

Not sure about the brake light warning freaking out, but it's not really going to get you a big savings in current, and the LED tail light bulbs are just simply not as bright in daylight.

I'm going to throw this out there because you can't imagine how many times this happened....

Brand new batteries, not properly charged before being installed in the bike have sent more guys on wild goose chases with charging system woes than you can shake a stick at. I lived through that BS with our parts guys at the dealership...

They would take a new battery out of the box, fill it with acid, put it on our Christie charger for 15 minutes, come back, grab it and hand it to a customer....... A day or two later he would be back back with complaints of the bike not cranking over....... The would direct him to service department.....

A loaded check of the charging system would show the battery not charging like it should. Installing another new, properly charged battery fixed many of those situations. NOT ALL because sometimes the actually did have a charging system problem BUT in addition to either a new stator or reg/rec or both, they also needed another battery that was properly charged.......Parts Department had to eat that cost

Also worth mentioning occasionally an AGM will be bad out of the box-don't ask how I know this!

fordtruck wrote: ... I disconnected the negative battery cable and hooked up my meter to measure current draw. Key on, engine off and lights off it draws 5.5 amps. Turn on the lights and it goes to a little over 9 amps. With the engine running and lights on is shows it's discharging unless the rpms are over 5k. Even then it's showing less than 1 amp.

I unplugged the positive wires to the coils and my current draw drops to 0.4 amps. So, the coils draw about 5 amps even with the motor off. Does this sound normal?

With a Dyna S this is normal. It's one of the downsides of the Dyna S. It may draw more when running. At rest one coil will be drawing full current, and the other may or may not be drawing full current depending on where the crank stopped.

So you only have about .4 amps draw when the ignition and lights are out of the circuit. That's not enough to be a problem.

The problem is it's difficult to say whether it's the magnets in the rotor, or the stator.

If you want to rule out the battery, you will have to do draw tests on the battery and the rest of the bike while running. Or you can run it without a battery. But it will require a big capacitor and a little re-configuring of the wiring.

I lean really heavily toward the reg/rec being the problem if the stator output meets FSM spec for A/C voltage.

Have a look at this thread, and the connector for the stator to the R/R.
www.kzrider.com/forum/4-electrical/595062-hot-connections

Motor Head wrote: Have a look at this thread, and the connector for the stator to the R/R.
www.kzrider.com/forum/4-electrical/595062-hot-connections

Wow! That is nasty! My positive battery cable is brand new and therefore this connection is new. Honey-doos prevented me from even touching the bike this past weekend. Hopefully soon I'll get back on it.

I read on an old post about hooking the voltage output and ground wire from the regulator to a second battery. The bike would pull from the battery in it, but charge to the other battery. You could then see if the system was capable of charging since there would be no draw from the second battery. What do you think? Is this worthwhile? I have another battery I could use to do this.

I don't think that's a good idea. Since the second battery will need very little current to get to 14.5v, if the charging system is working, the regulator will be shunting almost continuously after awhile. This can burn out the reg/rec if it was good. However, if you add a couple 60 watt halogen bulbs to the circuit, then you would protect the reg/rec from the excessive shunting. You will also get an idea of how much power you are getting. Make sure you get a voltmeter on it.