I am destined not to ride my bike this year

Post by jo » Fri May 23, 2008 8:14 am

Well I had my cast off, got the tyres fitted on my bike after a nail was found to be causing a slow puncture, got it MOT'd, rode it over to mum & dad's last night and it died on me half way there. No electrics at all. Nothing on the button. Had new battery fitted and its been on a trickle charge for the last 3 months. Recovery came out and rescued me and took me home. By the time we got home the battery had livened up and it started up. Running at 11.4 volts.
I switched off. Started it. Repeated this about 10 times and the battery was dead again.
What's wrong with it? Alternator was replaced last year and regulator not long before that by Rick Oliver. Had the connectors sorted out too as they were fried.
I checked the connectors to the regulator last night and they are not charcoal or tarnished in any way.
Any tips at all?

Post by **CMSMJ1** » Fri May 23, 2008 9:07 am

I remember you had pretty much everything fixed electrical wise...

bloody bikes not behaving!

Seems like your battery doesn't want to play any more or that it is not getting the charge.

If you feel handy with a multimeter then unplug the large white connector down where your right knee would be which has your 3 yellow generator wires in it. You stick both pobes into the 3 sockets in order and measure the resistance. Any large resistance figures = cooked generator.

What does it do for numbers when runnnig it at 5k revs and holding the probes on't battery to see how much charge it gets?

Bad arrows jo...am sure it will be OK!

Post by jo » Fri May 23, 2008 10:01 am

5.000 revs last night it was reeading 11.4 volts

Post by **CMSMJ1** » Fri May 23, 2008 10:06 am

Got to be your generator then I reckon

check the wiring and be prepared to wince at the nasty melted state of it.....

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m38/ ... CF2070.jpg
this was mine which also reported 11V or so and was goosed...

Post by **viper_biker** » Fri May 23, 2008 10:11 am

BBQ genny, nice one Mark

Post by jo » Fri May 23, 2008 11:11 am

that looks like one that was sitting on Rick's bench in his workshop. lol. They all look like that! Had new alt fitted last year tho.
Gonna do a voltage test on that, starter relay and regulator wiring today and see what I get.
I am so pissed off. This problem has been going on since before Cadwell, which was 2006. I really do need to get it sorted out. Its so intermittent I thought it was fixed with all the new parts I had fitted.

grandpanot · Post by **grandpanot** » Fri May 23, 2008 3:24 pm

Joe
Sorry to hear of the frustrating problems. I had a similar experience with my 78 triumph and blamed it on Lucas prince of darkness. I replaced many connectors and othere parts but no joy until.....

I finally got so pi$$ed I stripped the bike down a replaced the entire wiring harness. It turns out that there were spots in the wiring that were grounding (one on the headlamp and one on the frame). Once the harness was replaced life was much better. I cannot count how many times I was rescued before the harness replacement.

Post by jo » Fri May 23, 2008 5:49 pm

Well our plan of action is to replace the regulator and then hook up some extra + and - wires (with fuses) straight to battery and frame so that if there's a short in the wiring loom somewhere then the regulator should still "regulate". My mate from work has re-wired entire cars and bikes so knows what he's doing. Its worth a shot at least.
This is the FOURTH regulator I've had on this bike

Post by **wullvfr** » Fri May 23, 2008 8:59 pm

to test the alternator properly then do almost the same thing as what cmsmj says but istead of checking for resistance set the multimeter to ac volts and check what voltage the stator windings is putting out......you do this test with the bike idling at 5000rpm and all the readings(three rate readings)should all be 50 volts or above and if any are below or different from the others then the alternator is goosed.

fastdruid · Post by **fastdruid** » Fri May 23, 2008 9:15 pm

I quite re-wired our NC35, I went and put in a set of new earth and power leads fed off the fuze box via a relay to the low beam relay and added a second relay for high beam. I added about 3 new earthing points and (touch wood) we have had zero problems with it since[1].

It clicks rather loudly when you turn the power on now but wont fry the hi/low beam switch. :D

Druid

[1] Apart from the self-amalgating tape falling apart, I've got to re-tape it up some time.

I am destined not to ride my bike this year

I am destined not to ride my bike this year

Re: I am destined not to ride my bike this year

Re: I am destined not to ride my bike this year

Re: I am destined not to ride my bike this year

Re: I am destined not to ride my bike this year

Re: I am destined not to ride my bike this year

Re: I am destined not to ride my bike this year

Re: I am destined not to ride my bike this year

Re: I am destined not to ride my bike this year

Re: I am destined not to ride my bike this year