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Battery or regulator?
When i turn the switch normally my headlights , neutrual light and so on turns on. for å while now they havent. i have a 1991 3tb with kick start.
when i drive i have lights, but not strong, when i idle it the lights dimms. today i had a two hour ride, and normally i should have some power on the battery then, right? but there was no lights when i turned the switch. im going to try to measure the charging tomorrow if i get the time. but whats your bet, the battery or the regulator/charging system? i wouldnt have driving lights if it was the regulator/charging right? earlirer this spring i mounted heated hand grips and noticed emidiatly that the lights went according to the trottle. i might have a small battery due to the kick stand. whitch battery is the right for this bike? maby a messy post, but it would be nice with some pointers. cheers |
my xt600e from 2003 have around a 8-9Ah battery.
If you can, charge the batterym and put a loadtester to it. You can make a DIY with a big bulb (like a 100w or anything close to that), and hold it on the battery, and see if the voltage just drops way down below 12v. If the battery is fine, meassure the voltage on the battery with the bike of, with the bike idling (should be a minimum of 12v) and around 2-3000rpm you should get around 14ish, both with lights on. If its the reg/rec, its usual bad/corroded wires. The reg/rec itself holds up good, depending on which year the bike is. Mine have a reg/rec with cooling fins, almost unbreakable. Im srruggling much to turn my thoughts into functuanally english sentences, but hope it makes sence. |
Battery - definately. Regulator - maybe that too.
Your regulator is supplying the current to run the lights with the engine running. If it is not working properly it may be putting too many volts out and that may have killed your battery. You can use Jen's suggestion but I think turning the lights on and pressing a brake lever will get you (55W + 5W + 25W) 85W anyway. The voltage on the battery should not go much below 12V. If the regulator is OK you should get 13V - 14.4V above about 1500 rpm. Mine (43F so different electrics) put out 13.8V. Rev it up to about 4000 rpm and it shouldn't increase any more than 1V and shouldn't go above 14.4V in any case. If the regulator is shot you will get: 1. No more volts on the battery with the engine running than without (I don't think you will find this). This will be a corroded or broken terminal as Jens says - this happened on my mates XT660E, the output (DC) terminal broke off from corrosion. 2. Lots more volts (like 18V - 24V). The regulator is recifying but not regulating. This is a quick way to boil and kill a battery. I don't know about XTs but Hondas generally go the second way and are horrendously expensive without the replacement cost for the dead battery to include as well. |
a bad fuse connection can be the fault!
I had to replace my fuse cable as it was not making enough contact as it was only hanging there by a few cores of wire... good luck! Vando beer |
i have now measured the battery and charging. i mesured on the poles of the battery.
the battery is a yuasa- super mf- YTX4L-B3 whit the engine off : 3 volts whith low rews: 10 volts whith higher revs: 5-6 volts so it dropps when i turn the gas roll... from the engine off to turning the key, before starting engine it altso dropped from 3 volts to under 2 volts... |
You need a new battery. Obviously...
I have seen wierd voltages like that before though. I had 3 dead cells in my battery (43F so different electrics) so it was only putting out around 6V. The regulator wouldn't provide a decent voltage with this battery, I assume because there wasn't enough resistance. So even with the engine running, it was only getting slightly more than battery current. I would just do the battery first and see what you get. It fixed mine a treat the regulator is working properly now it is feeding the correct load. If you have a booster pack, you could test it first. Remove the battery and connect the booster to the terminals. Like this: http://www.bandit127.com/images/Chas...ctrics%20S.jpg |
I have one of those boosters too.. tho mine doesn't hold charge anymore lol
Vando beer |
ok, im buying a new battery tomorrow. i see that my local shop has both normal and gel batteryes. do i need a gel battery.
i have kick start only, but i need some power for my hand warmers |
well.. hold on!
Are you gonna buy the same size battery as your stock one?! First you gotta find out if your charging system can actually charge a larger battery than the stock! Also, the little price difference between normal acid batteries and gel batteries I'd go with a gel battery as there aren't risks of it spilling! I had a similar problem to yours. and I explained on my previous post.. The connection was good enough to allow the bike to start but wasn't enough to actually keep the battery charged! Check, double-check and triple-check every connection! Vando beer |
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hello again. the battery thats on the bike now is only 3 amp.
wount the charging system handle a 8 amp battery? will it then not work, or will it only not use the full capasity of the new battery. the 8 amp is the only battery they have for this bike |
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The charging system should cope as the volts will be the same so the charging current will be the same. You will just have a bigger reserve of amps so it will take longer to charge. Once charged the electrics will use the 8 amp/hour capacity just like it used to use the 3 amp/hour one. It will just last longer. As Vando says - this assumes all the connections are OK. |
i have now connected the OLD battery to a battery charger. when charging i measured on the poles again and got 12.6 volts right after starting the charging
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Get a bigger battery and get a gel one for sure. Ofcourse the bike can charge a bigger battery. You have the same volts and the same current. It will take 3 times as long to fully charge a 9Ah than a 3Ah, but you get a "buffer" that 3 times bigger. Its simple :)
The battery (old one) might not hold a charge, eventhough it looks good coming straight fromt he charger. If you have meassured it with very low voltage It will never be really good again, and it makes the reg/rec work harder. Ditch it. |
went to the store and bought a new battery. the 8 amp was too big to fit so i got a 4 amp gel battery. i used it home and the lights are atleast bright. im charging it now on the new batterycharger i altso bought :)
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