Battery go blah (SERIOUS HELP NEEDED)

[luhbo]

Yes, that might be so. My point was that an alternator doesn't pump current. You might see higher than average currents in case the regulator goes nuts. What you discribe would cause a slight shift of the regulation target only. No real chance to fry the regulator or any other part of the bike this way I'd say.

When my regulator quit its regulating service I first noticed a smashing headlight (at the price of two bulbs a week) and then, more annoying even, a heavily sweating but only three weeks old Hawker battery.

 

Hubert

[Kiwi_Roy]

Yes, that might be so. My point was that an alternator doesn't pump current. You might see higher than average currents in case the regulator goes nuts. What you discribe would cause a slight shift of the regulation target only. No real chance to fry the regulator or any other part of the bike this way I'd say.

When my regulator quit its regulating service I first noticed a smashing headlight (at the price of two bulbs a week) and then, more annoying even, a heavily sweating but only three weeks old Hawker battery.

 

Hubert

Updated

Hubert,

You are correct of course, it doesn't pump current, I shouldn't have used that terminology, all it does is turn the current pulses ON if it thinks the battery is low. It has no control at all over the size of the current pulses, they are whatever the alternator will put out, once turned on it can't turn a pulse OFF. What it does however is control how many pulses are skipped thus setting the average current.

I am presently dealing with a guy who has a 2 Volt drop between the battery and black wire. His regulator will try and get the battery up to 16 Volts so it sees 14 back at it's reference, this is too much for a 12 Volt battery, somethings going to give.

My whole point is there should be very little voltage drop between the battery and the reference (

 

Your extra bright headlight and sweaty battery were probably caused by a bad contact in the reference circuit.

 

I'm guessing you have added headlight relays, yes or no?

[luhbo]

... I'm guessing you have added headlight relays, yes or no?

 

I have, of course! I'm a grown 6V kid, you know

 

hubert

[Kiwi_Roy]

The reason I asked the question about headlight relays.

 

The regulator is connected to the headlight circuit (after the headlight relay)

 

With original wiring and bad connection Voltage is lost in the wiring between battery Positive terminal and the headlight relay. The regulator thinks the battery is low and cranks up the charging to compensate. The headlight sees normal Voltage, the battery is overcharged.

 

With headlight relays powered directly from the battery the lights will go bright as the battery is overcharged.

 

Either way eventualy something will fail, probably the regulator.

 

It's quite ok to see a moderate increase in brightness from idle to high revs as the battery goes from 12 - 14 Volts but any significant increase should be investigated.

[gstallons]

Kiwi,

I haven't been paying attention..... what are you saying about adding headlight relays?

[Kiwi_Roy]

Kiwi,

I haven't been paying attention..... what are you saying about adding headlight relays?

I was pointing out that with the original wiring the regulator takes care of the headlight voltage at the expense of the battery because it's reference (black wire) is connected to the headlight circuit after the relay.

The wiring on my bike is in fairly good condition, I took some measurements last night.

With the addition of headlight relays the load on the original headlight circuit drops significantly, from 4.3 Amps to 0.22 Amps.

Without headlight relays I measured 0.45 Volts drop at the black wire of regulator, with headlight relays it was only 0.05 Volts.

Without headlight relays the regulator will charge the battery up to 14.45 Volts, with relays it will charge the battery up to 14 Volts.

 

Now if your headlight relay wiring is not in good condition, say a loose contact at one of the bases the regulator might way over-charge the battery.

The Charging Voltage / Charging Current of a lead acid battery is not a linear relationship so the current (average) goes sky high eventually destroying the regulator and possibly the battery.

Some Guzzis (not the V11) have the headlight relay fed from the ignition switch, this is terrible IMHO.

 

Headlight relays not only improve your lights they also improve the battery regulation.

[jrt]

Headlight relays not only imrove your lights they also improve the battery regulation.

 

You make it sound like a good dose of fiber for breakfast