went for a blast out today, and all was well untill it really started to poor it down and decided to head home.
but not long after heading home the engine died completely, liights on dash really dim and starter wouldnt crank.
i know that the battery is dead but causes? magnetos, rectifier(heard nasty rumours that hondas have a habit of the rectifiers blowing batteries)how do you know if these are goosed? well will have a tinker tommorow but suggestions are welcome.

well, batteries cooked and the voltage out put goes up to 18v at 10k rpm. new reg/rec and battery methinks!

Yep if you are getting 18v then it is over charging so the reg/rec is bad.

hi chaps the correct way to check charging

step 1. use a fully charged battery (if yours is shagged disconnect bike battery with jumpers use car battery DONT DISCONNECT CABLE WHILE BIKE RUNNING you will kill your electrics)

Note :- if you use a flat battery or faulti battery you will get a false reading

step 2. with a volt meter set on DC (Vdc) connect across the battery with light on high beam you should get 12.8-13.2Vdc at idle and 14.7-15.5Vdc at 3,500RPM the lowest the read can be and still be acceptable is 13.5-13.7Vdc if below go next step

step 3. disconnect the source coils (three yellow/white if old suzi its a 1 white with green tracer 1 white with blue tracer 1 white with red/yellow tracer wires ) with meter set for AC start the bike at idle with meter connected to any of the three wires in any order (check all combination's) you should measure 12.3Vac-16Vac then raise the the revs to 2,500-3,000RPM you should measure 35Vac-85Vac (most the time its 40-50Vac) if you get this coils may be ok

step 4. with motor warm and switched off using multimeter set on ohms measure the three wires in all combination's the resistance should not be more then 1 ohm some models 0.16-0.80 ohms with no continuity to earth if there is coils are problem there should not be more than 10% difference between the phases (wire combination)

step 5. if coils test ok take 2 12v batteries connect in series (positive of battery 1 to negative of battery 2) connect the negative of battery 1 to any of the ac in wires (3 yellows etc) and the positive of battery 2 to another so that you have 24v input to the regulator then take multimeter and connect to the regulators output (bikes battery side normally red and green or black) if there is a 6th wire normally black connect to the red you should get 13.5-15.5Vdc disconnect the black or orange or brown wire (depends what model you got) you will get 20-24Vdc if so regulator is ok repeat test on all phase combination's to ensure same result to conclude regulator is ok

step 6. if you conclude that both regulator and source coil is ok you are left with 2 last suspects 1. the battery 2. the wiring

tip if the regulator is acting up (with lights off good charge lights one bad charge) and its a 6 wire type there is a temp fix get a 14.5v Zener diode and connect it in-between the black wire (regulator switch on) it will make the regulator switch on later in the volt range (direction of connection of the diode depends on regulator but normaly the black band side goes to the regulator on some bike the other way round )



hope this helps all in need

for the lazy buggers for a quick check to see if there is any charging happening does not matter on battery use a multimeter set on AC at idle with meter connected across the battery the meter should show 45-65Vac thats means you are getting power out the coils but does not mean you found out any useful

lastly some bikes can have a faulty flywheel in which all items are ok but there is not a good induction on the coils this can be from magnets been re-glued in the wrong order or flywheel suffered intense high heat and magnets not very strong

wow, electricery guru!!!!! luv u man!!

cheers very much

templin wrote:hi chaps the correct way to check charging

step 1. use a fully charged battery (if yours is shagged disconnect bike battery with jumpers use car battery DONT DISCONNECT CABLE WHILE BIKE RUNNING you will kill your electrics)

Note :- if you use a flat battery or faulti battery you will get a false reading

step 2. with a volt meter set on DC (Vdc) connect across the battery with light on high beam you should get 12.8-13.2Vdc at idle and 14.7-15.5Vdc at 3,500RPM the lowest the read can be and still be acceptable is 13.5-13.7Vdc if below go next step

step 3. disconnect the source coils (three yellow/white if old suzi its a 1 white with green tracer 1 white with blue tracer 1 white with red/yellow tracer wires ) with meter set for AC start the bike at idle with meter connected to any of the three wires in any order (check all combination's) you should measure 12.3Vac-16Vac then raise the the revs to 2,500-3,000RPM you should measure 35Vac-85Vac (most the time its 40-50Vac) if you get this coils may be ok

step 4. with motor warm and switched off using multimeter set on ohms measure the three wires in all combination's the resistance should not be more then 1 ohm some models 0.16-0.80 ohms with no continuity to earth if there is coils are problem there should not be more than 10% difference between the phases (wire combination)

step 5. if coils test ok take 2 12v batteries connect in series (positive of battery 1 to negative of battery 2) connect the negative of battery 1 to any of the ac in wires (3 yellows etc) and the positive of battery 2 to another so that you have 24v input to the regulator then take multimeter and connect to the regulators output (bikes battery side normally red and green or black) if there is a 6th wire normally black connect to the red you should get 13.5-15.5Vdc disconnect the black or orange or brown wire (depends what model you got) you will get 20-24Vdc if so regulator is ok repeat test on all phase combination's to ensure same result to conclude regulator is ok

step 6. if you conclude that both regulator and source coil is ok you are left with 2 last suspects 1. the battery 2. the wiring

tip if the regulator is acting up (with lights off good charge lights one bad charge) and its a 6 wire type there is a temp fix get a 14.5v Zener diode and connect it in-between the black wire (regulator switch on) it will make the regulator switch on later in the volt range (direction of connection of the diode depends on regulator but normaly the black band side goes to the regulator on some bike the other way round )



hope this helps all in need

think my bike has been completely re-wired at some point, couldnt find the wires you described from the source coils, where exactly can i find these? is it under the seat or off the main coils l & r which supply the ht spark? did find a proper knackered wire which is on a connecter block (orange), voltage became better after it was repaired.