This is a electrifying topic

[Guest russ]

Just returned from a 2 hour ride on my LeMans. When I arrived at my destination, and tried to restart the battery was dead. The driving lights must have sucked the juice out of the battery. It seems incredibly cheap of Guzzi to put such a wimpy charging circuit on a modern bike. Some questions?

 

How many watts does the alternator put out?

Anyway to increase output performance?

 

I know it may have been covered before but please indulge me.

 

BTW, nice smile Jaap. Had to use it at least once.

[RichMaund]

Russ

The charging system isn't a cheap-o. It has about a 100 watt leeway to spare. For a air cooled alternator of that physical size, that is about as good as it gets. I have this system on my V11S and it has never needed a trickle charge.

 

Is there a chance you left your bike parked with the key switch in the "park" position? That'll do it every time. Don't ask how I know this can happen! I did it one day back in 1990 with a Honda. That was a heavy beast to push start!

 

Barring that, you have a failed component. Time to do some troubleshooting. I hope you find it easily! Good luck.

[Guest russ]

Well, all the relays (save one) have been changed to Bosch. It appears that I will have to trace it down. Any other thoughts would be helpful.

[docc]

While refitting a Merkur (Ford Sierra) i read the opinion that the vast majority of electrical problems can be traced to connections and conductivity. I've found this to be largely true (on the Ford and on an older bike I spent 4 years unravelling). Sure, you could have component failure, but it's worth your time to clean and inspect the harness and connections first.

 

Good hunting and keep us posted! docc

[Guest Phil/TX]

Russ, check the bolts on your voltage regulator, mine came loose, and the ground (under the volatge regulator right hand bolt)caused the batter to drainvery quick, I thought it was the battery, but found out different.