[stormintba]

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Wow seems like i am here all the time with a problem.. lol.. but you guys always seem to come thru for me...... here is my problem now..... Lucille wont start.. I can push start it and it runs fine... *pain in the backside tho*.... last night i was riding into town.. a bike was broke down on the side of the road so i stopped to help him.. went to start her up.. and she would barely turn.. but finally did and took off.. went to a quick shop got a pop.. went out turned over fine.. went to a fireworks show.. went to start her it went fine.. this am went fine.. rode about 40 miles shut it of.. and it turned slow but it caught and started.. then next stop it would barely turn then finally wouldnt turn at all... now it trys you can here it try and turn but dont for crap.. here is what i have checked and what i am thinkin see if i am right......

with the handy dandy volt meter checked to see what i have for volts. At the battery..11.86 or so.. at the inside of the main fuse about the same.. out side of the main fuse where the fuse is at the same.. but where the wire runs out of the fuse/relay whatever it is called.. not getting hardly any.... and at the starter getting very little like if i am lucky maybe 1 volt..... My thinkin is that the starter relay is bad?? what say you?

 

[Silicon Sam]

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Battery should be reading in the 13's at least. Time to do a stator and stator wire / plug check. How old is that battery?

Measure the voltage at the battery with the bike just sitting, and check it with the starter button pushed, like you're trying to start it. How much does it drop?

Raymond

 

[stormintba]

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Sam thanks for the fast reply... okay.. went out and checked.. the bike.. with the key in the off postion the battery shows.. 11.33......... turn the key on and push the button for the starter.. and it drops all the way down into the 3.8 range......... thats not good... lol P.s.. the battery was replaced about 4 months ago or so

 

[mag]

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I'd be looking at your rectifier/regulator, by the sounds of it. Definitely charging system. What's the resting voltage on the battery with a small draw, say lights + turn signal + accesory?Try jumping the battery +ve  to the starter terminal with a jumper cable. If the starter fires, then it's starter relay/electrics. Also, pull a plug wire, stick in a working plug and hold it to the engine and push the starter. You should see blue spark. Check both plug wires to test both coils. If no spark, then either ignition unit or possible coil/wiring problemo.

 

[stormintba]

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Okay went back out and checked.. had around 11 or a bit over.. turned on the key.. droped it to like 9.8 or so.. with just the lights on.... have tried the jump wire with no avail not sure if i am getting good conection that way or not........ did just notice after out there messing with it now.. after i turned the key back to the off postion.. checked it again with the volt meter and it says about 9.8 now with nothing on..

 

[Silicon Sam]

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I would have to say charging system too. I wouldn't even worry about the starter and relay system yet till you get a good charging system. Put a small battery charger on the battry and get it fully charged up. Then it's time to trace down the charging problem. While the batter is charging, you can meter out the stator coil, inspect the 3 yellow wire plug, the regulator / rectifier, etc.. You do have a good meter and the shop manual? Just follow the test proceedures.....

Raymond

 

[Silicon Sam]

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Well, battery shgould read in the 13's... Not much below that and it'll never start, regardless of how good your starter and relay is. The starter motor takes a lot of juice to crank a motor over, and 9 volts in the battery ain't gonna cut it. Check your charging system one component at a time.

Raymond

 

[stormintba]

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Okay got the charger on the battery letting it charge up.. and looking in the manual.. ugggggggghhhhh i hate electricly crap.. lol

 

[axelwik]

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Could be many things. Less than 12 volts and your battery is pretty much dead... it should read higher than 12, more towards 13 volts with the engine off. Check the acid level in the battery... if your charging system ischarging a little too muchit can boil off the electrolyte. This is not a big problem unless you don't maintain the battery.

There should be two horizontal lines in the side of the battery toward the top. You should be able to see the acid liquid level through the side of the battery. If the acid is not close to the top line you should add DISTILLED WATER.

Other things to check are your 30-amp main fuse. Sometimes they have a crack in them even though they look intact. Most people replace the fuse block with an automotive 30-amp in-line fuse holder. Check the stator wires (3 yellow wires) where they go from the stator into the nylon plug near the battery. They should not look burned or overheated. Most people eliminate the plug by soldering the wires and wrapping with shrink-wrap and/or electrical tape.

With the engine running you should have about 14 volts on the battery terminals.

 

[Silicon Sam]

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I didn't mention the fuse, since Storm said he read the same voltage on both side of the fuse. Plus the bike sounds like it had a failing battery and he can push start it... But since I have gone to AGM batteries, I didn't think of the water. I have had my share of bone dry batteries in the distant past.

Check that first before you start to charge it. And how did the bike run overall when it was running? Sounds like you said it was running just fine, which sounds like the stator was doing it's job. With a dead or dying stator it runs like crap because the coils need so much voltage to work right.

Raymond

 

[stormintba]

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well made me feel good there.. your comment bout the stator.. coz yes the bike runs fine.. push start it and it runs as good as it ever has.. as for the man fuse... it was checked and replaced... the level of the battry looks to be okay.. i will go out and check that again to.. i glanced at it before coz that came to mind but might not of looked at it close enuff... Okay got lucille sitting pretty level now.. and umm okay it is low on fuild the battery..... hoping like hell that is what the problem is.. it is right at the line maybe just a tad below the low line......... hoping that it is something that simple.......

 

[Silicon Sam]

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If it's that near the FILL line, it's fine. My old battery would work fine until it was EMPTY of water.

Have you checked the yellow stator plug? More and more it sounds like the regulator / rectifier or a crapped out battery. There are separate wires feeding the coils, and others that feed back to the battery.

Basically the R/R takes the 3 wires from the stator, converts that voltage down to a usable level and sends the power out the green wires to the bike electronics, and the red wires go to charge the battery. Black wire is ground. Take a meter and make sure the black wire has a good ground.

And when I had a charging problem, it's because I had removed the coils and missed putting the green wire terminal back under the mounting bolt. Something wasn't grounded and it wasn't running right at all.

Raymond

 

[stormintba]

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Okay just got back so i didnt see your last post before this sam.. i ran into town and got some distilled water and added to the battery....... did notice that when riding into town that the volt meter was reading about 10 is all...... went got the water went to a buddys took the battery out added water what not.. push started it.. let it run there for a bit.. when i left and around town the volt meter was reading clear down around 8.. turn signals nothing working right.. but bike sounded and ran fine... got out on the hiway headed home.. the meter goes back up to about 10.... but thats it.. once out on the hiway.. the horn works turn signals so on..... got back to the town i live in.. and yep slow down and in town the meter drops clear back to 8.. but bike still seems to be running fine..... maybe that will help the powers to be on here figure it out...... i still dont really think it is the stator but something else.. got the charger back on it now... wondering if cheapest and fasted would be to change out the battery.. but still not sure about that......

 

[Silicon Sam]

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Some automotive places will check car batteries, not sure if they'll check bike ones. If theres a Batteries Plus near you, they could check it. May have to go to a bigger town than Bradshaw!

Or find a fellow Winger that you can swap batteries with. There's a guy in St. Libory, but that's a bit aways, maybe. Or go top an auto store and get a Hydrometer for check battery acid. That'll tell you if you have a dead cell.

Raymond

 

[stormintba]

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Silicon Sam wrote:

Some automotive places will check car batteries, not sure if they'll check bike ones. If theres a Batteries Plus near you, they could check it. May have to go to a bigger town than Bradshaw!

Or find a fellow Winger that you can swap batteries with. There's a guy in St. Libory, but that's a bit aways, maybe. Or go top an auto store and get a Hydrometer for check battery acid. That'll tell you if you have a dead cell.

Raymond

Hey raymond... lol yea must of looked on a map at my town. yep it is a smalllllllll town... 330 people and pretty much a 2 bike town and i own em both.. lol... but a buddy of mine that comes here.. outlawearl.. he is a wing rider... what the bike is doing it might be a dead cell??? i wasnt sure if that could coz this or not... would be great if it was something that simple.... Just a update..... had the charger on the battery for awhile.. went out and it checked the battery with the volt meter it read 12.68... so i started the bike and checked the volts then at the battery... it showed 13.68.. let it run for a few and the volt meter went up like it should to around 13..*volt meter on the bike........who knows maybe by adding the water it did the trick.. coz the meter didnt go up like that before.. will ride lucille to work tomorrow and see h ow it acts and what it does..

 

[mag]

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Keep the battery on the charger as long as possible without overcharging...a couple of hours at least.

 

[stormintba]

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Okay fellas here is the skinny on what i found so far.... *think maybe i got it figured out...... started the bike this morning.. rode it to work. the volt meter on the bike read 12 all the way in nothing over...... poped the cover checked the battery with out the bike running.. it was right at 13 volts... tonight got off work.. rode the bike 10 miles home.. picked up the g/f.. rode the bike 10 miles back to town *starting and shutting the bike off a couple of times* the volt meter on the bike read anywhere between 11 and 12..... sitting idleing it would read 10 to 11.. going down the highway around 12... get to my buddys start checking things out.. decided to check the stator even tho i figured it was okay.. *yes it still has the plug* ducking from all the flying wrenchs headed my way for that* just aint had time to cut it and soder it yet.. but will soon anyway........ checked it and it checked out..... plugged it back in and decided would ride the bike into my buddys shop and pull the tank cover off and check the regulater and so on... started the bike rode it into the shop.. looked down and the volt meter reading 13.... hell yea.... checked volts at the battery with the bike running 3000.. and it was 14 plus volts.. so figured wouldnt test anymore.. rode the bike down to get gas.. the meter reading 13 to 14 all the way.. about 14 blocks or so... put gas in started it and it went right back up to about 14... rode about 5 miles and it dropped back down to right below 12...... stopped at a walmart.. came back out and started it and it went right back up to 13.. for about 3 blocks.. then dropped back to around 12.. and held there for about 15 miles home..... I am thinkin just not getting a good connection in the plug for the stator.. once again what do you say??

 

[exavid]

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Very possible, it'd be a good idea to splice out the stator plug before you go too much further. Also take a look at the upper end of the stator wires where the connector near the regulator is. It's common for that connector to show some melting.