1. Some members were not receiving emails sent from XJbikes.com. For example: "Forgot your password?" function to reset your password would not send email to some members. I believe this has been resolved now. Please use "Contact Us" form (see page footer link) if you still have email issues. SnoSheriff

    Hello Guest. You have limited privileges and you can't "SEARCH" the forums. Please "Log In" or "Sign Up" for additional functionality. Click HERE to proceed.

Over charging

Discussion in 'XJ Technical Chat' started by MBrew, Dec 1, 2008.

  1. MBrew

    MBrew Member

    Messages:
    109
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    16
    Location:
    Ft. Worth
    My 82 Seca 650 has high charging voltage. It reads well over 16 V at 2K rpm and above. I've verified this with two different meters and I have a spare voltage regulator that I installed and it did the same thing. I first caught it doing this last week, but after a couple of minutes it would start to regulate at 14 V or so. Last night it never settled down.

    I think I need to get another regulator, but I'm interested in other ideas or experience.

    Thanks
     
    MBrew, Dec 1, 2008
    #1
  2. kd5uzz

    kd5uzz Member

    Messages:
    419
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    16
    Also check for corrosion on the connectors on the output of the alternator, etc. A poor connection can cause the regulator to output a high voltage.
     
    kd5uzz, Dec 1, 2008
    #2
  3. wizard

    wizard Active Member

    Messages:
    5,282
    Likes Received:
    26
    Trophy Points:
    38
    Location:
    DEVON ENGLAND
    have your battery checked for a dud cell or 2.
     
    wizard, Dec 1, 2008
    #3
  4. MBrew

    MBrew Member

    Messages:
    109
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    16
    Location:
    Ft. Worth
    Thanks for the responses. I've been pretty busy for the last couple of weeks. The battery is reading 12.7V so I doubt it's bad. I'm going to pick up one of those cheap, small hydrometers and check it thoroughly this week. 1 pin on the connector for the regulator is burnt a little. That could indicate high resistance somewhere but I haven't seen any thing obvious yet.
     
    MBrew, Dec 8, 2008
    #4
  5. MBrew

    MBrew Member

    Messages:
    109
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    16
    Location:
    Ft. Worth
    I'm just posting to close this out. I don't like threads that are left hanging. This bike got to where it was charging at 18+ volts and I was blew a brand new headlamp on both the high and low beam.

    I checked the battery with a hydrometer and the specific gravity was way low on almost every cell even though it was reading a full charge and load tested well. I tried to thoroughly recondition it and it just wouldn't get the SG up in the cells which I think was telling me that the battery had suffered from heavy sulfidation. I replaced the battery, but the system was still significantly overcharging.

    I had cleaned the terminal that I mentioned earlier but it still wasn't perfect so I cleaned it again. This was the red wire coming into the regulator and I think that's used by the regulator for its reference voltage. Immediately after I cleaned it, the bike was still overcharging. I was confused and didn't know what I was going to do next. A while later I was poking around the regulator had started doing its thing. I've had no further problems with the bike and I check it fairly often. I can only guess that it was cleaning the terminal that fixed it.

    Thanks for the input,
    Mike
     
    MBrew, Feb 9, 2009
    #5

Share This Page