hey again everyone, here comes my bike with more problems (i had a thread or two before about charging problems, just ordered a new stator so hopefully i can get that fixed myself)

my bike still has charging problems, so i have 2 batteries and a battery tender in which i swap in and out every couple days because my bike literally does not charge the battery anymore (if i rev it up to 5k rpm the voltage increases by .01, now that's just sad.)

having said that, i was at school swapping the battery out because it had died on me earlier that morning and when i started the bike it was fine as usual and when i had come to a couple stoplights, the bike cut out. temp was fine everything was fine, the battery was fresh there was still electrical power, but the bike just cut out. i tried to re-start it, push start it, both didn't work. it would just try and start, like turning the ignition in a car but the car just won't start. is that something wrong with the fuel pump? i've never run into this problem before...

 

oh, it'll start with the choke on but if i take the choke off it dies unless i set idle rpm to higher than 1.5k (like 1.8k)

 

well, i just put half a bottle of seafoam in it, so we'll see how that turns out...

 

I'd check the battery again ...

Hopefully the stator is your problem, but as discussed - if the rectifier is bad it can take the battery with it.

I think this one will have to wait for the stator to be swapped and see if that makes any difference. When you remove the old stator check it for wear.

 

thanks, will do
what are some signs of wear? frayed wires and such?
or should it just be really apparent?

 

oh, and i'm pretty positive it's not r/r, i replaced that a couple months ago with a brand new one

 

I have heard horror stories about people replacing one thing after another. The three main components are the R/R, the Stator, and the battery... if any of those parts are weak they will stress/damage the others.

When my stator goes I'll be replacing it with a non-OEM unit...

how many miles on your bike?

Note the stator is two parts - the coil and the rotating magnets... if the coil wires are broken it will produce power on only the complete circuits - usually 3 phases which are out of sync with each other - the R/R is just a clever cleaner/converter. The second wear item is the magnets themselves - some have been known to break off (ex500s pre 94 IIRC) and others were known to wear out quickly (xj650). Low output voltage to the R/R is the general symptom - you'll see it as low voltage out from the R/R to the battery.

So that's one possible weak spot.

If any component is weak, it'll stress the others out trying to compensate... so if you don't get immediate improvement - keep looking.

 

+1 on that.

If there is insulation break down on any of the leads on the stator the other two leads will try and compensate for lost power. That can make wires and the connector at the R/R melt. And worst case scenario it fries the R/R and you need to replace that again.

You *have* to have a known good battery to correctly diagnose a charging system. Not doing so will cause false test readings and you could end up chasing a never ending problem. But I'm sure you already knew that And IMO even more so on a TPI ignition system bike

 

could it be i need new spark plugs?
i just ran into the problem again.
i have electrical power, and i click the ignition and you hear the engine trying to start like when you turn the ignition in a car, but the fuel doesn't ignite/engine doesn't start so it just keeps chugging like it's trying to start

 

Have you checked for spark yet? If you have spark on all the plugs, the gaps are good on them and they are in good condition they should be fine.

One thing you have to realize about TPI ignition systems is they are sensitive to battery. If the battery has a bad "state of health" (It may read 12.00+ VDC on the Volt Meter. But that doesn't mean its a good battery.) the bike might be able to turn over (By the way how fast is the bike turning over?) but the coils may not be able to push out enough Peak Voltage to ignite the plugs under the condition of compression and fuel/air ratio in the combustion chamber.

I just recently had to replaced my battery. It was reading 12.00+ volts on my volt meter but it was toast in this Arizona heat after a year. If your problem is electrical (which it "seems" like it is) then I recommend getting a brand new battery. Your batteries take allot of abuse b/c they are run dry and then charged. That can drastically shorten the life of a battery. AT THE LEAST you should load test your current batteries.