chrisk
Hero member
- Location
- Brisbane, Australia
Odd Charging Question
- Thread starter Vince
- Start date
rocketonarail
Hero member
- Location
- Gloucestershire,England
On my Mirage with Bosch CDI and silver matchbox rectifier never checked the voltage once.A regular requirement would be topping up of the lead acid battery as the level would dip below the top of the plates after a week or so or after a trip of more than a couple of hundred miles.
Just got used to checking the battery,tyre pressures,chain and oil level (that seemed to disappear as well) every weekend.
The original Fiamm 32 amp/hour battery would presumably have enough capacity to soak up any excess charge from the unregulated generator,but then the generator output was so weak (140Watt) it would struggle to do that anyway.
It was the replacement (usually 28 amp/hour) batteries that seemed to need the topping up,maybe the weak generator had an easier time keeping those charged up.
Never affected the ignition side of things,the battery just provides power for the lights and starter motor.
I believe until an engine stop relay was fitted the very early CDI triples could be push started with the ignition switched off!
Just got used to checking the battery,tyre pressures,chain and oil level (that seemed to disappear as well) every weekend.
The original Fiamm 32 amp/hour battery would presumably have enough capacity to soak up any excess charge from the unregulated generator,but then the generator output was so weak (140Watt) it would struggle to do that anyway.
It was the replacement (usually 28 amp/hour) batteries that seemed to need the topping up,maybe the weak generator had an easier time keeping those charged up.
Never affected the ignition side of things,the battery just provides power for the lights and starter motor.
I believe until an engine stop relay was fitted the very early CDI triples could be push started with the ignition switched off!
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Just read this thread, Rob and especially Cam has the solution to the "conundrum" of rising volts on rising load, its the sense wire operation on SH530 doing what is was designed to do, been covered so many times in the past decades. As the bike harness wiring/connectors and switches age, IR ( current times resistance equals voltage ), so as the I increases in the wiring the voltage drops increase in the harness and where the sense wire is terminated the voltage drop is sensed and converted to a voltage rise in the RR output, does this in proportion to the formula of IR, ie nominal charged battery float of some 14,2V ( 13,8V is not good enough at Battery terminals point of measure ) to 14,4V. at say the incorrect 16.1V overvoltage, you had some 2.0V of losses in the wiring system. Yikes Vince this was not difficult to diagnose and cure, easy most fix was to connect RR sense wire to Battery Positive terminal direct, allowing for the slow discharge at some 1 to 2mA ( 0,001 or 0,002 Amps ) of the direct sense connect... Much ado about nothing... a wry smile here. Hope you have sorted the RR on your bike by now. j.
Would be difficult to be certain Vince, the condition of a battery with excess charging current, flooded cells are sometime charged at near 16.4V as an equalizing charge, ie belt all the 2.25V cells with sufficient charge to reach 100% from all cells. Specific Gravity is always used with terminal volts and or charging current to assess a battery condition. A few weeks ago i bought a graphite pile battery tester, low cost Chinese though will do the jobs here nicely, can pull 0Amps to 300 to 500A while looking at terminal volts on the battery, saved me tossing my diesel van battery too soon, paid for itself already on that test alone. Tested a number of batteries since, you can assess the capacity degradation in a short test, especially if a battery sags under 11V. Badge engineered
"carbon pile tester" on ebay et al. Name brand have them at $200, non badged are $85-95 delivered. HTH j.
"carbon pile tester" on ebay et al. Name brand have them at $200, non badged are $85-95 delivered. HTH j.
Indeed Vince, Deka power sports had my attention, then the field failures started happening, my favored Yuasa also had high failures, at that time. Any time over 2 years of installed usage is good, these days. Myself, plumb for flooded cells with spill proof capping, SSB have been mostly ok, even then some early failures noted. Allowed for replace each 2 years, ie consumable item like air filters and oil. Have you ordered your heated socks yet??? Should just about top out your after market alternator....wry smile... started to assemble an ex Suzuki TL1000R 400W alternator setup many moons ago.... you may need it sooner that later... bye for now j.