My battery worked great last season and after charging it worked great the beggining of this season too, but after having the bike apart for about 2 months it's dead as a doornail again. I trickle charged it again but this time no go. It turns the bike over about 2 and a half times slowly then nothing. Any clue what would make it not want to hold a charge after just 2 months? It stayed in the bike the whole time.

Also was told that this would charge the battery he he:

Found out that doesn't work 8OP

 

This exact same thing happened to me...twice. On mine, the rectifier died and let all 20 volts into the battery. This overcharged the battery to the point where it swelled up and eventually would not hold a charge. It's like each time the capacity gets less and less.

Then, on a new rectifier, I drove around a bit and the same thing happend to my new battery. This time, it swelled to the point where I could smell the sulfer leaking out of the battery and could hear an increadibly high pitch whine.

So, I think I would use the setup you have now and measure the current coming from the rectifier at around 6k rpms. I bet it's really high. The bigger car batteries seem to be able to take it though. The two batteries I killed were Yuasa 9aH stock batteries.

--Chris

 

Well the battery isn't swollen at all so that might not be the problem. It's almost like its not being charged at all because even after an hour ride with the battery in the bike it will be just as dead when I started, and still the same size.



JR



P.S. What is a rectifier?

 

The stator(generator in the motor) has three yellow wires that run to the rectifier. The stator produces about 50 volts alternating current. The rectifier/regulator converts that AC current into about 14 volts DC, which charges your battery.

You have one of four problems: Bad stator, bad rectifier, blown fuse in the wiring harness, or bad battery.

The rectifier is a small black box with a plug coming out of one end. Some have fins some don't depending on when it was manufactured. They are usually found on the right side of the bike just behind the seat bolted to the side of the sub frame.

If you have a multimeter and a manual it is fairly easy to troubleshoot.

Here a link to another forum where this topic has been throuly discussed. I posted abunch of info there including a link to a troubleshooting guide you can download.

http://www.fireblades.org/forums/hon...stem-woes.html

 

DMACk said it perfectly: test everything with a multimeter and see where you are. Also, you won't see your battery swell up. You might hear and/or smell the release of gas vapor. If you cannot charge the battery with a trickle charger (i.e., it keeps throwing a error code or just does nothing), I think it is dead. Too much current hitting the battery is very bad.

I've never heard of a stator going bad, have you guys?

--Chris

 

Yeah I've heard it happens. It's often one of those things where you say which happened first. Rectifier went bad or stator went bad killing the rectifier. I've heard that one of the wires will burn through making contact with another wire. Then one of the yellow wires send out no current, one is regular, and one sends out 70-100 volts which kills the rectifier. Or the opposite the rectifier burns out and isn't noticed due to a tough battery that won't die, and the over charging extra voltage feeds back overheating the stator coil.