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Post by sellinson on Jul 11, 2009 21:12:29 GMT -5
Hi all - just acquired an NTV, which seems good BUT (there's always a but) it seems to leak charge when stood - over about 5 days it flattens the battery. The battery itself is fine (tested off the bike) so I'm suspecting the reg / rec or the alternator itself. I'm getting about 13.5V at the battery when running with no lights, so it IS charging. However, i still wonder about an internal short.
All lights etc seem to work as they should with no flickering or odd behaviours.
Any ideas?
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Post by Jake on Jul 12, 2009 2:44:04 GMT -5
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Post by sellinson on Jul 12, 2009 9:54:50 GMT -5
I had indeed had it off the bike and stood on the bench for a week or more in which time it lost nowt.
When fully charged it was showing 13.5; In the 24 hours since then, it's dropped to 12.3.
I've also unplugged the alternator, so the charge loss wasn't through there
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Post by honda on Jul 12, 2009 14:37:49 GMT -5
A "short" will either blow a fuse or burn wires.
The Alternator is only connected to the battery via the rectifier.
The rectifier could be at fault although a "leakage" via the rectifier is not usual.
You quote 13.5vdc with engine running and lights off. 13.5v is barely enough to charge a battery. What happens when the lights are on?
Are you useing the bike for a week when it looses charge or is it parked?
Dermot
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Post by sellinson on Jul 13, 2009 16:47:45 GMT -5
Some further figures; having charged the battery, i get the following readings with the battery connected but the alternator unplugged:
saturday 6pm: 13v
Sunday 5pm: 12.3v
Monday 10pm: 9.75v
so there's a fairly clear voltage drop. With the battery on the bench i was losing nothing over a week or more.
If 13.5v is barely enough to charge it (which is what i'm getting when it's running), it all sounds like something's amiss in the reg / rec area....
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Post by sellinson on Jul 13, 2009 16:49:21 GMT -5
by the way, i'm not using it at the mo - won't hold enough charge to start reliably.
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Post by Jake on Jul 14, 2009 1:34:41 GMT -5
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Post by sellinson on Jul 14, 2009 6:16:45 GMT -5
my suspicion is that it's the reg/ rec - I have restored bikes for a living, so there's not a lot that scares me (although they were british and had electrics made from string - I do guzzis too, though) . I'm just looking for people who might have had a similar problems. I'll start with the regrec and connections and then head off to the starter solenoid which wasn't somewhere i'd thought of...
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Post by Jake on Jul 14, 2009 12:42:50 GMT -5
Hope you get it fixed soon, Stewart…… Let us know where the problem was and we can add to the list.  |
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Post by honda on Jul 14, 2009 16:59:26 GMT -5
You would probably be correct about the rec/reg. It has a habit of giving up.
It is located like most jap bikes out of the way and therefore away from air flow which they really need to stop over heating.
If you are used to Euro machines they mostly have an alternator with both feild coils and a stator. The voltage and thus charge rate is controled by controling the amount of current to the feild coil. Like most jap bikes this does not have feild coils. It has a PM (permanant magnet) alternator which runs at full output all the time. The rec/reg is a bridge rectifier for the three phases and a voltage limiter which wastes the excess current via its heat sink and sometimes the metal it is bolted to.
There is no way to go easy on it. Keeping the lights or heated grips off doesnt go easy on the alternator. It is probably better to keep most things on as the rec/reg doesnt have as much to do.
There are many better rec/reg available other than the troublesome type fitted to most Honda's.
All you need is one with the same amount of wires. There is no need to worry about the three phase's. Any order of connection will do. If I remember correctly there is only a pos and neg after that on this one. Ebay is full of them.
If you have a voltmeter it may be best to check that the coils in the stator are good. Usually if there is a problem there will be a large imbalance in the phases. Do this with the alternator unplugged.
As before unplugging the alternator wont stop the discharge. Try unplugging the reg/rec. Plug behind r/h side panel.
Regards
Dermot
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Post by sellinson on Jul 16, 2009 17:18:22 GMT -5
Thanks for that dermot - I'll be onto it next week.
The ironic thing for me is the idea that the honda reg / rec is poor. I spent some of the early '80s running a suzuki GSX250; these had an appetite for reg / recs, which was often cured by using a honda superdream reg/rec in place of the suzuki original. The honda one was less sensitive to the fluctuations which the suzuki alternator suffered from if it got hot, and it got hot when the oil level dropped - which was often in the case of some bikes!
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Post by sellinson on Jul 30, 2009 10:16:49 GMT -5
d**n!!
replaced the reg/rec, but the problem's still there (it took me a week to see this cos i went on holiday). looks like it could be on to the starter solenoid now.....
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