Strange charging probem

[Gene563]

I'm kind of in a rush here, so I'm not going to give a full-blown explanation of my problem just yet.
I have two questions first.
Is the charging system on these bikes similar to that of a cars ... meaning, if I have the bike running without the battery installed, should I see full charging voltage at the terminals?
Secondly, is there a way to determine what type of stator (number of poles) without having the flywheel off? I ordered a puller, but it hasn't arrived yet.

Thanks, Gene

[kz1000st]

Is the charging system on these bikes similar to that of a cars ... meaning, if I have the bike running without the battery installed, should I see full charging voltage at the terminals?

Yes.

Secondly, is there a way to determine what type of stator (number of poles) without having the flywheel off?


No, unless you can call the distributor.

[Gene563]

Thanks KZ.
I tried reading across the battery terminals with bike running and no battery and only read about 6vdc. A reply from another forum told me I couldn't with a digital voltmeter, but possibly with an analog unit, which I haven't tried yet.

I don't appear to have charging voltage on my scoot. After a fair amount of riding and starting, the battery seems to die out. I did some Youtube research and checked the stator, R/R, and wiring connections. At first I thought I solved the issue by re-seating the stator output connector; that corrected the AC levels hitting the R/R, but still only have 12.8VDC out at ~5, 6K RPM. I replaced the R/R and charged the battery before firing it up and had no improvement.
I just received the puller I ordered and will pull the stator to bench check it.
I also bought a digital voltmeter that I mounted on the dash. I connected it to the output side of the ignition switch (as opposed to the battery terminals) so it only works when the ignition is on. Last night I took a ride; it was only registering 12.4 VDC at it's best, and would drop to 11.9 when I hit the brakes.

[Gene563]

So, I've had some success with this, but not going to write it off until I'm satisfied it remains good. I guess I'm paranoid after all these little glitches.
I pulled the stator and bench tested it; it checked out fine. I tried bench testing the 3 R/Rs I have and had mixed results. Two of them had sketchy readings and the newest one had decent readings. I showed nothing, anywhere in the Ohm setting, but on the Diode setting is where I had results.
I did some checking on the bikes harness and reassembled everything. I did find a pin in the Stator connector that was back out; when I pushed it in it clicked.
With a freshly charged battery (13.3 VDC), I was reading up to 13.5 VDC at the battery revving the engine. I took a ride and saw 14-15VDC, but that was without the headlights attached; once re-installed, I was reading 13.0 VDC.
I had some confusion with the R/R pinout, but can't seem to find any reliable info on it. My wire arrangement didn't match that of the Tank 150 manual I was using.

Slightly difficult to read the 13 volts @ 4K RPM.


A recent shot of the bike ... stickers removed, mirrors replaced, the nose painted blue and my home-made, soft trunk.

[Gene563]

Well, I was wrong. The increase in volts read were from a freshly charged battery. Consecutive rides showed the voltage levels continually decreasing.
The lack of consistent wiring info on the R/R had me baffled as all signs pointed to the R/R being bad, but 2 replacements had no improvement.
I decided to change up the pin configuration on the R/R. I made up four, 4 inch long jumpers with male and female connectors on each end; I plugged the female end to the R/R, then was able to change up the connector end. I played with different pin configs until I had good charging voltage out and strong headlights (another symptom that showed up with a night ride ... I couldn't see).
Since the re-configuration, I have had about 5 rides; voltage readings are from 12.9 - 14.1 VDC, and the headlights are perfect. My night ride was well lit.