Charging Circuit Blues

For the past year i have been putting off this problem with my battery not charging. Thankfully i havent really been riding just tweaking.

I followed the manual in checking the ohms for the stator and the core by popping the side cover off and they seem to be in spec at 4. If i check the ohms for the core via the green and brown wires for the brushes the ohms go all over the place. From 70 to 100 ohms never resting. Is this normal?

Also when i check the volts for the battery resting its 13.5 volts, ignition on it drops to 11.6, bike running it holds steady at 11.8.

I attempted to diode test the regulator and i am not sure i did it correctly. And but at this point i think its moot.

So doest it sound like the brushes and the reg are borked?

 

Have you checked brushes, new 17mm long, service limit 10mm and cleaned the face of rotor
and rectifier test is as pic will show
Also check chassis ground cable in left side bolted to airbox .

 

Thanks for that. The bike has been heavily modified where tho mounts dont exist. The frame and everything else is properly grounded. Battery to engine. Engine to frame.

Stator and core were cleaned and lightly sanded with 2000k grit sand. When i opened the case the brushes looked long enough, so i figured they were fine. Didnt know 10mm was the service limit. Just a thought... if it was the brushes and they werent making contact shouldnt the ohms read 0 when connected to the green and brown wire?

 

The meter may show 0 , but under running conditions that they may not be giving enough pressure under load.
One other test they don't give a spec for is alternator output voltage should be about 50-60 volts ac before reg/rec measured on any 2 of the 3 white wires
This is how we tested bad stators on Goldwings and other hondas ... most bikes in general have a 3wire stator

 

use an eraser not emery cloth it leaves grit .
clean with electrical spray cleaner

 

A hard eraser from an art store.

 

I dont think the core or the stator are dirty. When i cleaned them i did a pretty good job. I used rubbing alcohol to wipe everything up.

 

Just curious, when creating a new wire harness, should the red wire on the reg go directly to the battery or is it fine spliced into the battery line to the solenoid?

 

the red reg wire should go thru a fuse, then either place will work. just curious, what size wire are you using in this adventure ?

 

XJ PARTS CATALOG, SECTION D: ELECTRICAL SYSTEM

in above link you will see info on how to id wire sizes as well as wire rating info

 

if 18 works, 16 is better, if 16 works, 14 is better

 

Mostly 16 with 14 and thicker depending on the draw.

 

i just picked up a new regulator and brushes from ricks. Hopefully this fixes the problem.