What a concept - A Girl Bringing Back Her 1966 Super Hawk

sarals · Post by **sarals** » Sun Oct 01, 2017 9:11 pm

Chase knows this story already, because we've been in touch.

I got everything put back together and working properly, neutral light - check, and kickstarter - correct. I put the battery on a charger overnight and then fired her up today with a multimeter attached to the battery. The battery showed 13.4 volts prior to the start, and then 11.7 volts when the bike was running. At 4000 RPM it would go no higher than 11.8 volts. When I shut the engine down, the battery voltage would slowly rise to 12 volts and change. I topped the battery up again and installed the regulator rectifier. Once again, the battery dropped to 11.7 volts (or so) with the engine running, and would go up to 11.8 or a little higher, slightly higher than it did with the bridge rectifier in the circuit. With the engine shut down, it once again slowly rose to 12 plus volts.

I checked the wiring, all was correct. The connections were all good, grounds were good, and the ignition switch was properly connected. There were no shorts. The electronic ignition draws .2 volts with the key on and the engine off. With the engine running and the lights on, the battery will drop to 11.4 volts, and rise to 11.6 when revved to 4000 RPM.

Folks, I'm beginning to think I have a weak battery.

G-Man · Post by **G-Man** » Mon Oct 02, 2017 2:30 am

Sara

I would expect to see more than 12 volts with the engine at 4000 rpm.

It sounds like you are drawing current from the battery with the engine running rather than charging it.

An ammeter in circuit with the battery would tell you whether this is the case. You will need something that can handle at least 4 amps.

Depending upon your meter there may be too much 'ripple' on the voltage to get a sensible reading with the engine running. Depending on how long it takes for the batter to recover this could be a batteror or alternator problem.

G

sarals wrote:Chase knows this story already, because we've been in touch.

I got everything put back together and working properly, neutral light - check, and kickstarter - correct. I put the battery on a charger overnight and then fired her up today with a multimeter attached to the battery. The battery showed 13.4 volts prior to the start, and then 11.7 volts when the bike was running. At 4000 RPM it would go no higher than 11.8 volts. When I shut the engine down, the battery voltage would slowly rise to 12 volts and change. I topped the battery up again and installed the regulator rectifier. Once again, the battery dropped to 11.7 volts (or so) with the engine running, and would go up to 11.8 or a little higher, slightly higher than it did with the bridge rectifier in the circuit. With the engine shut down, it once again slowly rose to 12 plus volts.

I checked the wiring, all was correct. The connections were all good, grounds were good, and the ignition switch was properly connected. There were no shorts. The electronic ignition draws .2 volts with the key on and the engine off. With the engine running and the lights on, the battery will drop to 11.4 volts, and rise to 11.6 when revved to 4000 RPM.

Folks, I'm beginning to think I have a weak battery.

sarals · Post by **sarals** » Mon Oct 02, 2017 3:42 pm

Graham, I have an entirely different alternator in the bike. I replaced the rotor with a high magnetism rotor and the stator with a pristine piece I found on eBay. The voltage readings are identical to what I saw with the original rotor and stator assembly. That causes me to think that either the battery is bad or there is a mystery current draw problem somewhere.

I'll get my hands on an ammeter and see what i can discover.

supervision · Post by **supervision** » Mon Oct 02, 2017 7:02 pm

What I do is turn on the key, honk the horn, the you start it up, the horn will be stronger, if the charging system is working

G-Man · Post by **G-Man** » Tue Oct 03, 2017 1:11 pm

Hi Sara

Yes - I'd forgotten that you'd gone for an upgraded rotor & stator.

I find it quite hard to remember/visualize other people's sagas.... I would love to come and help get it sorted for you.... :-)

One more question. Have you connected pink /yellow wires together to feed into the regulator? Once you have a regulator, you no longer need to match input and output using the lighting switch.

And another. If you just ride around for say 1.2 hour does the battery lose charge and not recover?

You might be a victim of 'overthinking' and should just do as DJM does....

G

sarals wrote:Graham, I have an entirely different alternator in the bike. I replaced the rotor with a high magnetism rotor and the stator with a pristine piece I found on eBay. The voltage readings are identical to what I saw with the original rotor and stator assembly. That causes me to think that either the battery is bad or there is a mystery current draw problem somewhere.

I'll get my hands on an ammeter and see what i can discover.

sarals · Post by **sarals** » Tue Oct 03, 2017 9:22 pm

Graham, I DO have to tie that pink wire to one of the other legs from the alternator! I haven't done that yet.

To answer your question about the battery dying? It does, after an hour or so, the battery is too low to start the bike.

I wish you could come and cast eyes on this thing for me, too! What it needs is someone else to pick out what I've missed!

:)

sarals · Post by **sarals** » Tue Oct 03, 2017 11:12 pm

I wonder if this qualifies as a "DOH!"? Item Number 10 on the Podtronics instructions says "Note for techies. If you try to measure the output of the Podtronics it will read around 11 Volts. This is because the output is pulsing DC and your meter will read average and not peak."

I need to put an ammeter in circuit to see what the draw is, and where.

I'm still thinking I have a weak battery.