TOPIC:

Hey all
My 1980 ltd 750 is having some charging issues. the bike never fully drains the battery while running (either at high speeds or in town cruising), but, the voltage meter never says it's putting out a lot of volts either.

with the ignition on, bike not running, I am getting about 11.8 volts at the battery terminals.

With the bike running, at idle, I am getting about 12.2 volts, measured on a voltmeter at the battery terminals. If I shut the bike down, my reading actually goes up a bit.

At highway speeds, I am probably getting around 12.5 volts (if I rev the bike up to 4000 rpm in the garage, the voltmeter will to to 12.5).

Has anyone ever heard of a voltage regulator rectifier over-regulating the voltage? I have never heard of this before.

Thanks in advance

Jason

It sounds like you are getting nothing from the charging system.

Don't be fooled by the slight increase in voltage with RPM. Ignitions use LESS power at higher RPMs because the ignition coils don't have enough time to fully charge between sparks. Because of this, battery voltage goes up slightly with RPM even when no charging system is present.

Could be your alternator (stator) is bad, or the rectifier/regulator is bad, or some wire or wires are disconnected.