Charging woes Pt #20495

[sipsmi]

Hello all.

Not ridden for years (27) and got the bug.
Ended up with a 2006 Tiger 955i which has a few things to do and not really been used for a couple of years ( 60 miles to and from MOT testing station).

Changed fluids and checked over, and been up and down the road a few times then I hit the New Forest for an hours ride around.  On the way back ( near home thanks goodness) dials died and then whole bike died as I got in the drive ( lucky ) .  Turned out I had a flat battery so starting looking at the forums here and some diagnostics.

The stator, off-load - has the same impedance between all windings ( not shorts ) - shows 20-40Va/c with revs but lowers right down when connected to the Regulator.  Battery seemed to charge from a battery charger so I wired in a replacement regulator to see if this was the problem.  Disconnected from the battery the regulator is showing around 15VG output.  Connected to the battery it does not seem to charge it - down to 12.1V running.

So either the stator is no-good under load or the battery is not good given that I swapped in a new regulator.  There may be an intermittant issue though as at one point when I was testing it  actually ran up to 13V ( 14.5 when revving ) but then settled back down to not charging ( around 12.3V and dropping).

The bike has the modification where the output of the regulator goes directly to the battery rather than through the harness and fuse box.

Woould a dodgey battery show this sort of fault ( no way of testing it myself other than it cranks fine and lights etc are consistent brightness etc, .

Any hints would be gratefully received otherwise I guess its replace the damn lot ?

Cheers

Si

[sipsmi]

Sorted - I took the stator cover off and although it checked out OK on conductivity, there were a few suspect heat-damaged wires.  A quality replacement from Electrex has the bike reliability charging.

The only time the voltage dips significantly is when in traffic when the fan comes on - to be expected as that would be maximum load with both headlights too.

Since then,, a new hydralic rear brake switch and a rear sprocket and this is turning out to be a greate ride.

[Lee337]

They are great bikes when maintained well. The electrics are a little weak, especially now that these bikes are probably at least 18 years old. Wires become brittle, the charging circuit, as you found is not the best, but look after them & they'll look after you.

I found that unless used, the battery would fail. I had two in two years, not because they were cr4p batteries, but because the bike was left unused for a couple of months & I didn't have it on a trickle charger to maintain it. In fact the only battery I had an issue with was a Motobatt.

[London_Phil]

Isn't this similar to the sasquatch Mod from waaayback?
There's a sticky for this exact issue, the Achilles heel of the Girly, I hear...along with plastic fuel connectors?