charging woes 2nd time

[Spud Murphy]

Took the Girly out for a ride the other weekend, I admit I have neglect it for a while as I have been having an affair with a little dirty Japanese number.

Ride off no problems into the middle of Wales I notice a little hesitance on the throttle, then I notice no dash instruments, oh shit a run for home was on order, got to within 21 miles of home and it died completely.

Into the workshop after being recovered,

"no worries sir we'll fix that in a jiffy it's the Rec/stator"

couple of days after,

"yes sir your bike's not charging, we need to change the rec/stator"  "ok give me a quote and start the work" Well it's ***&^%" me "oh ferking much"  me to self calm down you need the bike sorted especially after I have just had the suspension done me "ok do the job"

then I hear nothing for over a week so I give them a call.....

"well sir it's like this we fitted the new parts, but the bike is still not charging very well, we thinks its... " and now he gets technical and basically as I understand it the "magnets" on the end of the crank has FUBAR and need replacing, "so how much are they matey ?"....

"erm genuine Triumph are £600"

WTF!...... came my reply  I feel like someone's pulling my pissa 

cheers Spud       

[Sin_Tiger]

Ask them what the voltage out are, the rotating fields rarely fail unless by dumb mechanics handling 

[Spud Murphy]

spoken to him again and he has replaced Rec/stator and put a Mosfet on and it's now kicking out 12.4 I believe he said at tick over, he did some research and did some mods, he still states he replaced the magnets and the coil as the winding were showing signs off damage

sorry for poor description as I'm no mechanic 

cheers Spud 

[Bixxer Bob]

I think he's trying it on Spud.  Ask for the old parts.  If he's really changed them he'll be happy to show you what was wrong.

[Chris Canning]

The dreaded Net V My dealer said thread

[Spud Murphy]

The dreaded Net V My dealer said thread

more trying to understand Chris, this is the second time my charging system has gone kaput in 45k miles ish  I think there may be an element of me misunderstanding 

I personal like to trust tradesmen first until proven otherwise 

cheers Spud 

[Chris Canning]

Electrics have never been my strong point and ironically I have a back up that comes for free but owning more than one bike like you do my first port of call is my own garage and some home work be it the charging mod or the R/R thread or the alternator and while its a gamble you start with the cheapest and work your way along if all else fails you put it back to together and try a repair outfit/ dealer and even then I'd be asking about that as well.

[Spud Murphy]

been reading the threads I need to change my battery as well now as it appears full charged leave it over night and it will not turn the motor over, 2nd battery put on and the repairs are now kicking out 14v if I have understood right, I furkin hate electrickery 

Interestingly some mention has been made after me to talking to the mechanic and him doing some research about leaving it on a battery tender seems to be people out there saying don't 

cheers Spud 

[Bixxer Bob]

I'm forming the view that battery tenders appear to kill gel batteries for whatever reason.  The lead acid on my Blackbird is in it's 5th year and only gets a monthly top up over winter.  The old Tiger gel battery was the same.  The gel holds it's charge longer than the lead acid, but dies without warning where the lead acid does give a clue it's struggling.  So yes, I have a tender for it's intelligent chagring cycle, but no, I don't leave it on indefinitely.

And seeing as they only cost a bit more than a tank of fuel why hesitate?

[Chris Canning]

Having learned the hard way a couple of years ago I put all on mine on a tender till showing fully charged then disconnect for 5/6 weeks at least.

[HockleyBoy]

been reading the threads I need to change my battery as well now as it appears full charged leave it over night and it will not turn the motor over, 2nd battery put on and the repairs are now kicking out 14v if I have understood right, I furkin hate electrickery 

cheers Spud 

Surprised your dealer/mechanic didn't test the battery before anything else!

[Spud Murphy]

yes I did question that one but he tested all the electrickery things   

cheers Spud 

[Bixxer Bob]

I'm no expert, but I fail to see how you can properly test a battery for it's ability to crank other than by cranking.  My guess is the tester has a big low-value resistor to cause a significant voltage drop if the battery is weak but I'm happy to learn....

[Spud Murphy]

he ended up charging the battery then left it over night it would not turn the bike over, put a different battery on it all fine, since had the bike back and done 350 miles and it was flying 

so all appears to be good now

cheers Spud 

[JayDub]

I'm no expert, but I fail to see how you can properly test a battery for it's ability to crank other than by cranking.  My guess is the tester has a big low-value resistor to cause a significant voltage drop if the battery is weak but I'm happy to learn....

you're pretty much right BB, like a pair of scissors with a coil/ammeter etc, bridge the terminals and measure how long it takes to drain by a certain amount, haven't seen one for a while, but I think it's now a case of ' how old is the battery - just bin it, they're cheap enough'