I bought this bike about 3 weeks ago. The seller said that the battery was about one yr old. I brought her home and could not start the bike cuz the battery was dead. I thought that might have been the hand warmer got accidentally turned on and drained the battery flat. so I bought a battery tender kit and charged the battery fully. I unplugged the tender two weeks ago and today when I tried to start the bike...nothing..the battery was dead again. I started the bike 3-4 times in the past 2 weeks and put maybe 7-8km on it (mostly on my buddys driveway, cuz I want to do a training course before I put the bike on the road). Now I am wondering if the battery needs to be replaced or its the alternator not charging the battery...
Is there a way to tell the batteries life? I can hook a multi-meter to the battery...but I don't know what voltage indicates 'the good battery'. also how to check whether or not the alternator is broken...
thanks in advance

 

Not sure how things work up in Canadia, but there are several places here that will test your battery for free. There are places that will test your alternator as well, but if the bike is otherwise running fine, it is most likely the battery.

 

Funny you should ask that, there is a sticky post at the top of this tech section that explains how to diagnose your charging system.
https://cbrforum.com/forum/general-t...-system-51691/

You could have a bad regulator/rectifier too that's burnt up that's keeping it from charging the battery. F3's and F2's are notorious for weak R/R's. read the post on diagnosing your charging system and it will put you in the right direction.

 

Thank you Sir!

 

If it's your regulator/rectifier there is a way to convert it using one from certain bikes that is beter than the stock one. Heat is their enemy and sometimes they can short and burn up the plug going into them too. Just use the link above and follow the steps to check it. it's simple.

 

So I followed the flow chart in the repair manual, and these are the results:
Battery voltage: 12.83v
Battery charging voltage (rev over 5000rpm, in neutral):12.76v
Leakage test with regulator/rectifier connected: 1.6mA
Leakage test without r/r:1.6mA
The chart led me to two options: 1)shorted wire harness 2)Faulty ignition switch

I would like to know if I am heading in the right direction or there is more to it. Based on these results, Does it mean that the r/r is not broken and, the battery is fine? Any input is greatly appreciated.

 

If you started you bike and brought the rpms to 5,000 and your not seeing over 14 volts, near 15 volts, something is wrong. Either your Stator is not hooked up, or its not working.

Unplug the stator at the rectifier and measure the resistance across all three leads. You will see they are all the same color, so it doesnt matter what order you go in, just make sure you get all in combination, such as 1 and 2, 2 and 3, 1 and 3. Your resistance should be under 1.0, probably around .6-.7 ohms. If you are getting a higher resistance reading on any combination, theres a good chance the stator is bad.

 

First of all, I am not an electrical guru, so my next few questions might sound very dumb, I am sorry, you will just have to bear with me.

I inspected the connector yesterday and it looks ok to me. No melted plastic or anything. There are 5 wires come in the connector, one is red/white and one is yellow, the rest 3 are all green if I remembered correctly. I will measure the resistance tonight when I get home. Here is my dumb question, how to measure the resistance between the green wire and the ground(according to the manual)? Do I just connect + probe to the green wire and -probe to the bike frame?

Also, how much is a stator? Anyone here is selling one?

 

What your going to want to do is find the 3 wires that are coming from the stator. the stator is located to the side of the engine, under a cover. You will see 3 of those wires leading to a grommet. Im going to guess that the 3 green wires are the stator wires since they are all the same color. You will want to measure the resistance between those wires and it should not exceed 1.0 ohm. Then, take each of those wires and measure the resistance to ground. Again, it should not exceed 1.0 ohm. The chassis will work fine as long you have a good ground, but battery ground would be better. What your doing is measuring the resistance to make sure 1, the stator didn't short internally, and 2, the stator didnt shorted to ground. If either of those happened, the stator won't work and needs to be replaced.

As for the connector, they usually only melt when the rectifier fails from overheating, not the stator. A little rundown on what happens. The stator produces AC current, but is not regulated and the faster it spins, the more it produces. the rectifier is responsible for converting that AC current to DC current. While it is converting, it is also regulating the current so the voltage output does not exceed what the battery can handle, usually around 15 and a half volts is max charging. When the rectifier fails, you have overcharging of the battery and the voltage test at the battery would have shown voltage above 15, usually around 17 or so. What can also happen is the rectifier stops converting to usable DC power and frys the battery. But most common is it just quits working and overcharges.

Have you asked the person you bought the bike from if it had a charging issue? Im going to guess he knew it when he sold it.

as for price. It depends on if you change it yourself, buy a used one, a new one. But the stator by itself, depending on model, will run around 150 or less for a new one. Its a fairly simple change, so I would suggest doing it yourself.

 

He totally knew it and he is a mechanic. I emailed him about the issue after I purchased the bike and he never replied.