testing an R/R

im having some electrical problems with my bike. i suspect its my R/R but im not completely sure. a while back i had some charging issues but i found that it was just the connection from the R/R to the battery. i guess it just got hot and worked itself loose. it also was a little burn...dont know if that had anything to do with it. anyway, i cleaned it real good with electrical cleaner and put it back together and taped it up and havnt had a problem with the battery charging since. recently, my bike has been just randomly dying. i know that its the fuel pump not pumping the gas, but im not exactly sure why its not. if i hook it up to a 12v power source i can hear the pump clicking like its working fine. however, when its in the bike it doesnt do anything. i double checked all the connections and everything is hooked up right. because i cant keep the bike running for more than a few seconds it makes it very hard to test the R/R. anyone have any ideas what i can do?

 

Try getting a multimeter...it can tell you a lot about whether your battery is getting a charge from the r/r. Also, you can check the stator to see if it's still good. And infinity rating on the Ohm setting is a good sign. (At least, that's what I remember...)

When I replaced my r/r a few weeks ago, I used the multimeter (you can get one at Autozone, Sears (probably the best bet, they have tons of selection) I bought for about $25 or so. Put the red multimeter lead to the positive of the battery, the black to the negative. Start up your bike, watch for a voltage increase to around 13.5 or 14.0 or so, depending on the RPMS you rev (around 5,000) If your r/r is bad, like mine was, my battery wasn't charging at all. There's a post I created a few weeks ago about it...Now, with the new r/r, the battery jumps up a few notches higher than 12.8, but then settles back down to 12.85 or so when the bike is turned off...

There's guys here more knowledgable than me but that's what I gleaned...

 

yeah i was through all that when i had my charging issues. but like i said, i cant get my bike to run for more than a few seconds so i cant even do that again.

 

i have good news! i got the bike working perfectly. well....except the starter. which is my new problem anyway...i got the bike running by filling the gas tube with gas and letting gravity take it to the carb. it ran long enough to go through the fault finding flowchart. it turns out it was the connection from the engine into the R/R. i took the connector out of the picture by wire nutting the wires together and now its running just like it did a few months ago now to my new problem....my start switch was always broken, ever since i got it. so while i was doing this work today i went ahead and took the switch off and fixed that too. i dont know if it was due to the switch being broken or what, but i think the thing next to the battery that has the fuse went bad. (not sure what it is. its circular with 4 wires going in the top and the positive side of the battery goes to it.) sometimes when i push the starter switch i can hear it click, other times, theres nothing. and it never starts, no matter what. my workaround for that was to wire a switch to both the posts on the top to start it. it works ok but it will start in gear, without the key, ect. so what the hell is that thing and how do i fix it?

 

it sounds like you somehow bypassed the ignition switch with your workaround. you need to find out whats up with your starter switch, and maybe end up replacing that combination switch assembly on the right handlebar there...

 

well yeah thats what i was trying to do until i figure out whats wrong with it. the switch itself should be fine though.

 

disconnect the wire from starter hold in your hand and wigel the starter button while pushing it leave in neutral,etc if you get a buzz you know its a bad connection may need new wires..