Hi all Just recently went out riding and when I got back home I noticed that both my lowbeam headlights had burned out. Normally I would think nothing of this and just replace the bulbs, however I'm skeptical about the fact that both bulbs burned at the same time. I put a voltmeter on my battery and found that the load there is 14.9 volts with the bike running. I put the same meter on the socket for the bulbs and found that both of them are running at a steady 15 volts. Anyone think this is too much? and if so, where do my problems lie in the electrical system?
I would start by doing the "drill", that way you can get an idea as to the health of your charging system
Hmm 14.9 volts sounds a bit high. OK for a short period if the bike has just been fired up as the RR is doing its best to offset the start-up battery drain. If that remains the number at idle I would seriously consider running the drill checks. It may be your RR has had enough, and is about to start causing damage to the other charging system components. Definitely two blown bulbs suggests the volts have already spiked significantly higher (they are nominal 12 volt bulbs but can usually handle short periods of up to 17 volts). The drill is in post #9 in this thread - do the tests twice once cold and then repeat the tests asap after it has been out for a 30 minute ride - by which time electrical gizmos will have got hot. Sometimes components test OK when cold but insulation on stator windings and diodes in the RR can fail when hot and depending on what fails the voltage can drop or rise alarmingly. http://vfrworld.com/forums/showthread.php/39277-How-to-fix-common-regulator-Stator-failures? NB the thread started with 5th gen models but sadly the same problems can also affect 6th gen models and the testing process is the same. SkiMad
