A friend of mine has a 2001 1800 trike. I recently ripped all the extra lights out and put in a 2006 alternator as it wasn't charging. Now when running its showing between 14.7 and 15.2 volts at the battery but still its running the battery down when riding.
Any ideas guys.
Cheers Bash.
Does the cruise control work? I will admit it has been a while since that happened to me but on my 02 if the fuse for the cruise control was not good the bike would not charge. Just something to check. Again I could be wrong since it was a long time back when this happened but will only take a minute to check
Just with a normal charger. It did it to the first battery so he went and bought a new one and it did it to that one to. Charges them up then after about 40 minutes riding there dead again.
Cheers Bash
I suspect you have an intermittent charging issue. You just happened to test it while it was charging. Leave the meter on and take it for a ride. Bet it drops suddenly then slowly.
New information....2nd battery doing the same as first. Also this is the 2nd alt that is not charging. From the alt, if you have high resistance in series with the battery this could show voltage but no current will flow. Check the connectors and the full length of the wires as well as post 6 above. Good luck basher.
If you are seeing that voltage it is charging....at that particular time. Will the bike actually shut off when the battery gets low? Is it possible there is a different issue that mimics a dead battery when the battery is in fact OK? Battery voltage when "dead" at 12.0 or so when dead?
Dennis,
You would be right if the alternator was working. If you assume at some point the battery is receiving no charge it would only last about 40 minutes with a 20 amp draw. I think that might be a reasonable amount of draw with the lights, engine, radio etc running. That is another reason I think the charging system has an intermittent issue.
Basher,
One other thought. When the bike is running, with the charger disconnected what trend do you see on your voltmeter. It should be steady or increasing voltage. If the voltage is trending down you have an issue and the reason you saw such high voltage might have been surface charge. Try this. Turn the key on for a few minutes with the charger disconnected. This will remove surface charge. Read voltage not running. If the battery is full charged you should see 12.6 or so volts. Now start the bike with the voltmeter connected. The voltage should rise quite quickly to 14.7 or so. If it slowly drops there is an issue.
Ok thanks for all the info guys. Finally got round to have a look today and first thing i find out is it's not charging so looking like an intermittent charging problem. Can't imagine I've had 2 alternators that dont work. Any ideas what i could try next please.
Cheers Bash.
Yes, it is in the alternator. You need to connect a volt meter to the battery and run the engine for 30 minutes or so and see if it continues to charge.
OK then, it's much easier to figure out when it's not working. First check if it is getting power on the black/yellow wire at the alternator with the ignition on & also on the terminal where the large white wire connects.
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