Electrical / Charging woes
 

Hey folks, my 1999 XT600E is giving me grief with the electrics and charging. First the battery drains; it charges well on the wall charger but in just one or two short rides it drains again. I took it to the shop fully charged for testing under load and it was dropping to 8v.

The regulator / recitifier seems to be working ... in the garage anyway! A new battery gives me 12.7v, at idle around 13.8v and at revs 14.2v.

1) I noticed however that revs do not brighten the headlamp!
2) During the last night ride I noticed that when switching-off from bright gives me only the side lamp .... but flicking on & off the bright switch again gives me the normal lights
3) The new battery does not drain overnight when parked ... so can I assume no current leaks?
4) What is my next step? Pulling the stator and check for resistance? Anything else?

Thanks in advance for any help!

Regards,
Chris

Sounds like Stator
 

Hi Chris

A mate of mine has just had similar problems with his Triumph charging (but no symptom of light switch issue you describe).

Checked all connections etc and also fitted a new battery which kept charge for a few days then died.

Turned out it was a fried stator so that's what I would check next on your XT


Good luck

Steve

no need to dismount the stator for a check, just unplug it, check that resistance between the three spade connectors, should be about 1 ohm and that none of them is grounding.

Run a ground wire from the battery neg. post to one of the reg/rect. mounting bolts to verify it's still grounded good . I mounted mine on the airbox intake when I build my E-start bike and the bike would only run till the battery hit the shut-down voltage for the TCI . It showed charging voltage but due to no grounding of the reg/rect. wouldn't go into the battery .

I'd think if the stator was bad it wouldn't show normal volts at idle and then higher volts when rev'd plus be right in spec. I'd guess somethings going on with the light/light switch or wiring shorting out when running and draining the battery.

Thanks to All for taking the time to reply, will check on the pointers you gave me. Regarding the stator, if it turns out to be the culprit, would a rewind be worth the time and money? Or is best to buy a new one? In that case, are there any aftermarket ones better than OEM?

My mate bought a pattern one and hasn't had any problems since fitted 3 months ago. It was roughly half the price of OEM as well. Here is the link for the company he used

Electrex World Ltd | Electrex World Ltd

Cheers

update
 

So, ended up taking it to a shop as I didn't have the time to do it myself. The guy checked all the main harness, alternator, the phases, ac and dc, the ground, r/r, the switch etc. Only found just a very tiny bit of corrosion on like 20% of connectors ..... everything checked out fine. He even checked with a hot bike. I hate when this happens as now I will be commuting with the risk of being stranded.

Anyone has any more suggestions?

Thanks.
Chris

charging sounds ok

how old is the battery?

could be on its way out...

two quick checks

disconnect one pole and run it through your meter on amps settings

with switch off current should be zero amps, switch on, lights off, under 1 amp or so

with battery still disconnected and charged, check Volts and then check again in 12 or 24 hours, should drop by just few tenths. if more then its self discharging badly

Some electricals don't lend themselves to be accurately so they may test fine but actually fail under steady load for a period of time . I'd be tempted to buy a new R/R and possibly a battery if it was getting old anyways or I had other uses for another battery .

Possibly swapping out the light switch if there seems to be a headlight issue when switching to low if a new bulb didn't solve it.

So far the new battery seems to be holding up well, and in combination with the cleaning of the connectors etc. might have done the trick. Thanks all for the help mates.

Hello there .... Happy New Year!

I'm having issues again with a drained battery. Before pulling the trigger on a new R/R ... does anyone here run with a battery status monitor ... the ones ones with the flashing LEDs that tell you the voltage status?

Also, re. the R/R .. I had read that a MOSFET type lasts much longer and is more efficient than the normal type. Does our XT have a MOSFET one? If no, is anyone aware if there is one that fits the XT?

Thanks a bunch!

Chris

I have a small voltmeter on mine, fitted through a relay.
Something like this: https://www.ebay.com/itm/LED-Display...QAAOSwSQFaIPPu

Mine is much like this one:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/12V-Motor...IAAOSwQS1aQiw-
It monitors the battery - it has it's own on/off switch, so it doesn't drain the battery - and it has two outlets for charging USB stuff.

Just get yourself a new regulator rectifier!

Here:
https://www.ebay.com/dsc/i.html?_fro...ator+rectifier

Buy two or three if you want even to keep as spares.. Yes, they are cheap but they are just as good or even better than stock since some of them have cooling fins on them.
And they cost as little as 8 USD

If you need a stator, they also have it on ebay for 35 USD
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Stator-Coil...BZNcZV&vxp=mtr

Thanks guys, I went ahead and bought this voltage monitor which I wanted anyways:

http://gammatronixltd.com/epages/bae...fbe/Products/A

Where do you reckon is best to hook it up so that it works only when the bike is running? I would also like to install a double USB charger on the bike so potentially I should hook both to the same place.

All wired direct to the battery, in my case
 

I've skim read the instructions on their webpage: you are expected to wire in the yellow wire to negate the possibility of completely discharging the battery.

Your new equipment could be wired directly to the battery - mine is, via a two wire connection. Yours has a built in fuse so there is no need for a separate one.
As I mentioned in my earlier post, mine has a built in switch - you could choose to add a simple, separate switch and forget about the yellow wire (then you just have to remember to switch it off when not using the bike).
I have left mine on for a while - can't remember for how long - and it draws very little current in any case. In other words it would take an "age" for this kind of kit to discharge a bike battery.
On the other hand, I don't leave a phone and the like charging on my 1/2.1 Amp dual USB connection unless the engine is running.

For me, I choose a voltmeter which shows actual voltage.

Fit it through a relay, together with your other accessories. This way, no power will be drawn when the bike is of. Some USB chargers have a slight poweruse, even when theyre not in use, when ired "hot" all the time.

I chose the same type of voltmeter i.e. with the digital display of actual voltage.
However, I chose one to wire it directly to the battery so I can switch it on to see the battery voltage reading without inserting the bike key.

Certainly, it does require me to pay an amount of attention to switching the thing off when I don't want the read out - as you say, the "USB transformer" from 12V to 5V draws a very small amount of power when it is activated.

Jens, what is the use of installing a relay too if the voltage monitor is installed to a switched live feed? Isn't that accomplishing the same thing using the key / ignition?

Thanks a bunch :)

I've been going thru my bikes and installing volt meters . Have picked up several styles to see which one I like the best , one has those multi color LED in a line to show state of charge . I'm hooking mine up with the red wire coming directly from the battery hoping to minimize voltage drop from tapping into another circuit at fair distance already from the battery . I then hooked the ground wire to my right hand kill switch (I don't have most hooked up to the ignition anyways ), just have to hit the switch when shutting down and starting up , not sure if I want to do them all that way or not yet .

Otherwise will hook one up to a mini relay that's signaled from the red ignition wire coming out of the key switch , the relay is for accessory lights and see how close it'll read off that compared to right at the battery .

Yeb, that would be two of the same thing. But i feel "tappin in" on the bikes wireharness is a messy solution. I have a relay and use only switched live feed to trigger the relay. I also have other stuff fitted to the relay, 12v output, and heated grips.

An added benefit of wiring the voltagemeter throug a relay, is that the voltage it meassures is straight at the battery, and not through other drains and through the ignitionlock, switches ect.