Battery Issue needs sorting.......

SO this has happened to me a couple times now. The first time it happened I attributed it to just really cold temps, but now it happened in 70 degree weather.

This year I put in one of those Lithium ion batterys (Battery Tender) in my bike to shave off a quick 8-9 lbs. All was well, the battery charges well with my tender etc etc. Heres the problem. Sometimes after riding the bike a couple hours, it will run the battery dead. The ONLY thing I have on the bike other than safety wiring (VFRness etc) that would go over factory battery load is a small cpu fan on the rectifier that barely draws any juice. Everything else is regular lighting, although my bike is a streetfighter it uses lights that probably actually draw LESS than factory ones. So my question is this...do i need a Ricks stator? My bike has around 55k on it..i think original stator. Or are older VFR's just not the kind of bikes you want to run a lithium ion battery in?

Ugh.

 

Once again do the Drill, this problem comes up on nearly a daily basis, I think this should be a sticky on the front page so people can look at it before asking the same questions time after time

 

If you mean testing the rectifier etc...I think I did that back when I had to replace my pulse generator. I can't remember if I tested the stator or not. I wanna say I did and it was fine.....

 

You have to test the whole charging system and pay particular attention to the stator connectors they melt and short out and take everything else with it.

 

I figured the vfrness setup prevented stuff like this...

 

No, the vfrness beefs up the R/R to battery connection. The 3 yellow stator to R/R wires are their own problem.

 

So just how hard is it to put voltmeter leads across the battery posts while the engine's running ?? It could explain why the battery isn't being properly recharged.

 

I completely customized my bike into a streetfighter....not sure why you want to try to imply im some sort of dumb***. Anyways, theres a whole procedure I watched last night on the wiremybike website under the stator add.....so I shall do this test when I get the chance. Wires on my battery to see overall voltage was one of the first tests i did when diagnosing my pulse generator.....voltage was fine.

 

well it is not fine now, hence the dead battery, do the drill and report back

 

Nobody is implying that you are a dumb*** you are asking for help, we are telling you what you need to do but you are telling us that the voltage was fine, in most cases the voltage is always fine, until it isn't and if it shorts out that only takes a few seconds for the voltage to not be fine

 

Ok heres the deal. I did the stator tests per Ricks "Wire my bike" website. Results are as follows

(Ohms test while bike was off)- roughly .04 between a-b, b-c, c-a etc. That appears normal?

(AC Voltage test with bike running) seems that between all connectors i got 11.8ish-12.3ish volts...so right around 12 but heres the thing...when i reved the engine the volts did NOT change at all. According to the video the voltage should be rising exponentially when the revs go up correct? Does this mean fried stator?

Also connectors are the three seperate spade setup that you get when you use the VFRness. The spades themselves werent black or anything but the three wire housings did appear to be glumped together a bit like they had gotten really hot at one or multiple points. Would need a razor to seperate the housings.

 

Sounds like stator is shot A/C volt readings should be much higher, even if they were D/C readings they would be too low. Sounds like your spade connectors have got hot and shorted it out. Solder and heat shrink them unless you want to go down the road again

 

OK - each of those three yellow wires should be separate and insulated from each other, as they are used to carry three phase AC output from the stator to the RR. They must remain separate wires and not touch each other (or the frame) or there will be a short and you loose 2 or more of the three AC phases. As you are getting only seeing 11-12 volts AC then it sounds like only one phase of the stator is now delivering volts to the RR and battery - which is never going to keep a bike running for long.

At tick-over my stator is putting out around 14 volts AC down each of the three phases, which rises to over 60 volts AC at higher revs - with roughly similar voltage on all three phases. If the AC volts are not rising then it may be those connectors have allowed the wires to short across and probably indicate your stator is dead. As it is an expensive component to replace then it might be worth confirming the stator is dead by simply removing the cover off the stator and the chances are you will find deep brown crispy fried windings on the stator when you open it up, and quite probably notice a distinct smell of burnt electrical windings. If your stator looks like this - then either buy a new one - or if you are lucky enough to have an electrical shop nearby who is capable of rewinding electrical motors - they should be able to do a stator rewind for a lot less than a brand new stator.



BUT please don't install it until you check out those connectors - the three yellow wires running from stator to RR need to be completely separate/insulated - ideally with soldered joins and each sealed in heat-shrink. (PS don't fret about which yellow wire from the stator goes to which yellow wire leading to the RR - it don't matter.)

Then do the DRILL TWICE! - Once with the bike cold and then again after a decent 20 minutes plus ride so everything is good an warm. Why? Well a charging system can check out fine when the bike is stone cold - but as electrical insulation gets warm it can start to breakdown especially in windings - likewise RR's can go bad when they warm up so instead of charging the battery it can rapidly drain it.

Finally - you mention fitting a Lithium Ion? Battery? Some types of lithium based batteries can be damaged if overcharged - so in many cases you also need to use a compatible battery charger - as some conventional lead acid chargers can rapidly kill them. So you may also need to check your battery is in good health!

Take care



SkiMad

 

Damn, you really went the whole 9 with that response!^^ Thanks guys. I think I'm just going to call it Stator 1, me 0 and order a new Ricks. I can grab one for $110 on eBay brand new and it comes attached to a brand new harness with clip, so it would solve all problems at once. On my way out I'll put in a fresh gasket. I'm not one for taking shortcuts and the stator is really the one electrical thing I haven't replaced yet. I'll also install a permanent volt meter so I can monitor everything.

I didn't mention it because I mentioned it in another post but awhile back my earth ground got loose on the bike and the ignition got fried. I wouldn't be surprised at all if at that time it roasted the stator too. It didn't get the rectifier because of the vfrness. I've since installed an aftermarket side mounted ignition.

My battery is a battery tender brand as well as my charger....it shuts off charge when full

 

For get the harness and clip deal. Solder the yellow wires together or it's going to be a problem down the road.

 

As Grey said, cut that stinkin clip of and bin it, people don't seem able to understand the problem the clip causes, think about it you are thinking of plugging a new clip into an old clip, bingo, gets hot and melts again and you loose the whole bloody lot again, usually after the second meltdown people start to listen

 

+1 to what he said^^^^^^

 

Except I think the "old" clip it plugs into is actually a part of the vfrness which is new. If I'm not mistaken.

 

Ok so the vfrness is new, was that before or after those spade connectors got all stuck together and needed cutting apart with a razor? if so it isn't a new vfrness anymore it has had heat damage to it