1989 VTR250 Regulator

Hi - I've got a '89 VTR 250 running well, bought it late summer. I checked the lead - acid battery and the water was way low. I refilled with distilled and charged it. It was ok. As I would put the battery on my Honda/optimate smart charger, it would take a charge, but it wouldn't go over to charged mode. It just kept taking a charge. Amber light, not going to green light. A few weeks go by and I check it again. The water has gone down. I refilled and left it on charge with same results. Amber stays overnight not green. I put the battery in today and checked running voltages. At idle 1500 rpm, it's 12.8 to 13 volts. At 5000 rpm I'm getting 16.6 volts. The service manual says I should have 13.5 to 15.5 volts. Is my regulator bad? Is it the battery?

Thanks much,
Bill

 

The 250 starts fine and runs great....

 

Usually, higher than normal charging voltage will harm both the battery and the CDI eventually.

Your r/r needs replacement before the CDI gets toasted.

 

Squirrelman - Thanks for the help. I've seen your posts at the Radian forum and the vtr org site. The org site has been down and just got back up. Yes, the cdi burns down too with the reg unit as per the org posts say.
Ebay has aftermarket jobs and a used OEM. Any preferences?
Cheers,
Bill

 

Your optimate charger should light up green once charge is up - if it doesnt, it needs to be repaired. There is a potentiometer that may be out of adjustment...Cheers

 

Thanks, rider. I put the charger on another battery and it's working fine. The problem is my battery.
Bill

 

I'd try the used OEM. It seems that the overcharging is what killed your battery.

Have you signed on to the new, improved, spam-free VTR 250 website ?? The older, original site was swamped with spam touting a wide range of low-quality junk until it got ridiculous and only spammers were left there. Administrators never attempted to fix the problem, so someone stepped up and started anew.

 

Good News! I set up a used regulator from eBay with a new Shorai battery. It 15v at 5k rpm. Great. I would go for a ride, but rain just started. Thanks for the help.
Cheers,
Bill