[Mjp]

Hi all,

I am curios as to what your charge rate is at idle. Mine is whatever battery voltage is, that is it doesn't charge at idle. It doesn't start charging until about 2000rpm. This has never been a problem until I moved into the city (Brisbane). Now I sit idling at lights and the cooling fan just drains the battery. I fitted a volt meter and have noticed that even while riding at 60km/h it's charging at 14.2v and when the fan kicks in it drops to 12.3v. Is this a sign of a weak stator? or failing fan?
I've done all the stator tests and they are good, 60v ac, no short to earth and good continuity. I have fitted a mosfet FH020AA regulator recently with no change to charge rates. Any thoughts are appreciated. Thanks.

 

[TheDuck]

I think what you are seeing is the effects of an old style reg/rec.

When the inj Birds first came out they wouldn't charge at idle and you could flatten the battery if you left it idling for a long period. With the fan running you could flatten the battery in double quick time.
Later designs of reg/rec allow far more volts to find their way to the battery. I have different systems on my 2 Birds but both show 14 - 14.2V at idle.

With the good figures showing from your stator a change of reg/rec to a 'mosfet' type should see your charging system working from idle upwards.

 

[Krisbiker2]

+1 on what duck says, plus- when in traffic try not to be in line with any car exhausts, the fi is so marginal on charging, keeping the rad temp down can help. Unfortunately, once the fan kicks in, the added load on the stator means it's adding to the problem by producing more heat as it's working harder

 

[fizzy]

Hang on boy and girls, Mjp said he already put in a mosfet FH020AA regulator, and no change.

Mjp, you say the stator produces 60v. That is good but it should also be tested under load. Do this by hooking up a 60W 120V INCANDESCENT bulb (or equal) on each pair of the 3 output wires. Bulb should glow brightly at 5000rpm all 3 times.

Did you hook output from mosfet directly (w/fuse) to the battery?



Also, you may have a bad ground somewhere. This can draw down voltage. In my case I lightened the load on the factory ground by adding additional grounds to both headlights directly from the battery + a relay on the low.

Fan on 03 model is already on a relay, but yes, fan may be bad.

 

[Mjp]

Thanks for the replies.
Yes I did wire straight to the battery. I was thinking it may be a bad earth after doing some more research here. The next time I have a couple of hours after work, I'll wire the lights as you suggested and do the bulb test. Cheers.

 

[bikerian]

Thanks for the replies.
Yes I did wire straight to the battery. I was thinking it may be a bad earth after doing some more research here. The next time I have a couple of hours after work, I'll wire the lights as you suggested and do the bulb test. Cheers.

Did you ever figure it out?

 

[Porky]

Make sure that the RR connector is not shot. Feel it after taking a ride. If it's hot you are losing volts across the crappy contacts Honda used. I cut mine out and hardwired it and while that may make it hard to replace the RR in the future, I never have issues with charging anymore.