For about 3 months now I have noticed my headlight get brighter as i revved the engine past 7,000 rpms. Some have told me the battery will be gone soon and some have said my R&R was going bad. Well today, my bike won't turn over. Tested the battery and it read 10 volts. Charged it full and it only read 12.1 volts. Shouldn't a fully charged battery read 14.2 volts? It's a Lemans battery i think about 3 years old. I think it is a GRT maintanence free battery because I dont see any water holes or water level markers. What is this R&R (rectifier volatage thing) anyway?

 

Headlight getting brighter (generally) = voltage regulator(rectifier) is fried. Fried voltage regulator has the nasty habit of causing undo stress on the battery, and killing it. Your battery may sit, assuming the system is off, between 12.5 and 14.5.

It's possible, in addition that your stator is FUBRd and just not charging, but My bet would be on a faulty rectifier and the resultant bad battery.

 

SO, before I purchase a new rectifier, how do I know if its bad? I seem to think the rectifier is still good and the battery is just not holding charge because lights only do that symptom when first started. Once the bike has run for a few minutes, headlight stays the same brightness. What do you mean by FUBRd?

 

You should be able to pull your battery and take it to Batteries Plus or somewhere and get it tested for free?

But, if you have a multimeter and your factory shop manual, it'll have a test procedure for testing it. Unfortunatly, I only have manuals for my bikes. The ghetto way of doing it is. Hook up your multimeter to the positive and negative terminals of the battery. Keep the bike at 5k rpms and measure the voltage. Then drop to idle and measure the voltage. Then scream it up to 9-10k for a few seconds and measure the voltage. If it drops when your rpms drop, and rises when your rpms rise.. 90% of the time your regulator is messed up.




[Modified by project_mercy, 6:14 PM 12/18/2002]

 

Thanks for your assistance. I will try that when I get home. Unfortunately, I will have to kick start it. This doesn't do any damage by starting the bike like this right? (ie: clutch in, bike in first gear, push roll it and then pop the clutch)

 

Yeah. Bump starting is fine as long as you don't fall or anything. Good luck, Tell me how it goes

 

A fuly charged 12v battery will not hold more than 12v. The charging system should provide 14.5-or more volts when the engine is running Your bike probably makes it's peak charge @ 5k rpm if it's like my Hondas. Batteries are consumable and usually dont last more than two seasons depending on quality and the maintenance you give them. Keeping the water level and a deep charge each season will make them last if they are a good brand. My guess is you have a weak battery and need to get another one. Buy OEM if you can handle the coin. They are better than wallmart batteries.

 

Maybe my multimeter is totally off, but I've seen my car battery range from 11v to 13.5v (just this weekend when SuperHatch and I were diagnosing his faulty ground/starter problem.. 13.5v)

 

Mighty want to have someone runs a charging system analysis on it before you ride off happy w/ a fresh cell and find out its crapped out come spring

 

proly something other than the battery. One of the more important properties of a battery are its ability to limit (filter) voltage. Thats why you see tham in things such as computer line suppression and backup systems.