Charging issues R/R or Battery?

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davidon

davidon

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Charging problems. Battery fully charged (12.8V) before riding. Ride for about an hour come back and stop engine. Try to start and barely turns over. Voltage is at 11.75. Checked Stator before riding and was fine, Checked R/R before riding..diode test fine... Output about 13.9V when reving. Connections looks fine. Have HD ground kit. If the battery does not hold charge will a charger not help? After charging, battery back up to about 12.8V. Is this a sign of a bad battery (pc680 by the way). Seems like battery will not hold charge from R/R but with charger is OK.
 
What's your charging voltage at idle? You're saying the battery will charge for a battery charger but the R/R doesn't charge the battery? I would use that fault finding guide and see what you find. It initially sounds like either a bad battery or you have a short somewhere that's draining your battery. Do you keep a pigtail attached to the battery for your charger? Make sure that's not shorting out somewhere.
 
Mark

I think I found a possible cause but will have to ride and recheck charge after riding..I have a metal brake reservoir bracket attached to the screw on the negative engine ground bolt ..this could possibly be screwing things up
 
davidon said:
Charging problems. Battery fully charged (12.8V) before riding. Ride for about an hour come back and stop engine. Try to start and barely turns over. Voltage is at 11.75. Checked Stator before riding and was fine, Checked R/R before riding..diode test fine... Output about 13.9V when reving. Connections looks fine. Have HD ground kit. If the battery does not hold charge will a charger not help? After charging, battery back up to about 12.8V. Is this a sign of a bad battery (pc680 by the way). Seems like battery will not hold charge from R/R but with charger is OK.
Click to expand...

My first thought is that it a problem with the battery. It seems like it can't charge or keep a charge when there is a load on it but will "charge" when there is no load on it. See if you can borrow a battery off someone to see if it is an issue with the battery.
 
I've noticed the dip with my bike as well. However, it's only just after firing up. Once the bike is at temp, it doesn't do it.

I've been attributing it to the fact that I don't have my batter on a batter tender and as of late, it can go a week or two without being fired up. So I figure for the first 5min or so that I let it run to warm up the oil a bit, the idle is a tad higher and most of the charge is going back to the battery. Granted, I also have a fairly new battery, but like I said, once the bike is warmed up, there is no dip in the lights what so ever.

Have you checked to see if your's is still dipping when warm?
 
No..the battery is drained after an hour so i believe it is the battery. going to have to get a new one although this one is less than 3 years old and its the ODyssey.
 
davidon said:
No..the battery is drained after an hour so i believe it is the battery. going to have to get a new one although this one is less than 3 years old and its the ODyssey.
Click to expand...

Wow, it's an Odyssey... I haven't heard of one dying in 3 years... but you never know.
 
If a batteries run down far enough it could be damaged. It may have been over-charged at one point too. Any product has a lemon once in awhile.
 
2nd Odyssey installed. It's doing it again..one dumb question ..I noticed the positive lead to battery was loose (I could jiggle it a bit). Could this be preventing recharging by the R/R? Seems like the terminal screw for the Odyssey is rather long or the positive lead of the bike is too thin causing a slight gap of the lead to battery connection when tightened (or assumed tightened). Is there such a thing a a positive lead upgrade and would it make much difference? I have the negative lead upgrade.
 
davidon said:
2nd Odyssey installed. It's doing it again..one dumb question ..I noticed the positive lead to battery was loose (I could jiggle it a bit). Could this be preventing recharging by the R/R? Seems like the terminal screw for the Odyssey is rather long or the positive lead of the bike is too thin causing a slight gap of the lead to battery connection when tightened (or assumed tightened). Is there such a thing a a positive lead upgrade and would it make much difference? I have the negative lead upgrade.
Click to expand...

Loose connections can make a difference. Try and put a washer in there as a spacer so that the connection is tight. That would explain why the charger would keep it charged but not your bikes charging system.
 
Died once again in mid ride...I'm now wondering if there is a short somewhere..would this cause a slow drain on the battery? Gotta go over all wires with a fine tooth comb although I did notice my aftermarket speedo died just before the bike quit..maybe the power wire to speedo is the culprit?
 
davidon said:
Died once again in mid ride...I'm now wondering if there is a short somewhere..would this cause a slow drain on the battery? Gotta go over all wires with a fine tooth comb although I did notice my aftermarket speedo died just before the bike quit..maybe the power wire to speedo is the culprit?
Click to expand...


A short would definitely put a slow drain on the system. The Vmax alternator can barely keep up with a good working system, let alone one that has a short.
Check the speedo first, as it appears to be a culprit.
 
:damn angry:
Checked all connections..did have some bare spots..now taped up. Fully charged again and went for test ride for 1 hr. Came back and again battery was at about 12.2V. I'm wondering if R/R is now at fault but I'm conflicted on how to determine this. If I follow the Electosport chart part C, all tests are below 1.00 V which would indicate bad R/R. If I follow Yamaha manual continuity tests are fine. I have 2 R/Rs (one is the R1 one is OEM) with me. Did both Yama and Electro tests on both R/Rs and both show same results. I am pretty sure the Yama one is functioning (maybe not?) which is making all this confusing. What is the purpose of checking Volts for the diode test instead of ohms?
 
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