Help Testing if Stator is Functioning

rocksandhammers · Post by **rocksandhammers** » Tue Jul 10, 2018 3:28 pm

Hello everyone. I've had some electrical issues recently and I was hoping I could get some help making sure everything is on the up and up.

Some background: yesterday I believe someone tampered with my ride while I was at the office. I left and started to go for a short ride before heading home and I was less than 10 miles away when the bike died on me. As I was sitting on the side of the road waiting for the AMA tow I was looking at the battery and the positive connector was sitting just on top of the terminal and bolt, but not actually bolted to the terminal. It was touching just enough that the bike started fine, but must not have been getting any charge. Got it home, pulled the battery out and it was fried. I only suspect someone tampered with it because I rode close to 500 miles this past weekend without any issues, and I had disconnected the battery last Wednesday to wash the bike so it was definitely connected before, and even if it wasn't I wouldn't have made it to my destination, let alone there and back.

Anyway, picked up a new battery on my way home and threw it in. I'm worried that the loose connection may have caused other things to short, specifically the stator. I have a voltage meter, but after reading the manual and trying to follow what they say about testing the yellow wires for the recharge system but I honestly don't know what I'm doing so that didn't really get me anywhere.

I put the new battery back in, ran the bike for 15-20 minutes until the fan kicked on and I let it run for a few more after that. Turned it off, took the battery back out and put it on the charger figuring if something was wrong with the stator then the battery would be drained. When I plugged it in the charger said the battery was at 95%. If I had let it run for that long and the stator was fried then it would be much lower than that right? It sounded great when running and didn't notice any issues with the electrics, but I'm afraid of riding too far until I know for sure it's good to go.

Any advice on testing the stator or if things sound fine based on what I've done would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for the help.

Herb · Post by **Herb** » Tue Jul 10, 2018 6:14 pm

at the top of this forum there is a link to the manual for the 700-800 intruders. It is downloadable and chapter 8 has the testing for the electrical system.

Basic test, with the battery fully charged, use a multimeter to check battery voltage with the engine running. the voltage should increase with RPM up to 14-15 volts as the rpms increase to about 5000. If there is no increase, then there are other checks required to determine what is wrong.

rocksandhammers · Post by **rocksandhammers** » Tue Jul 10, 2018 6:29 pm

Thanks for the quick reply. I was just out in the garage rereading that section of the manual and I completely missed the first section saying I needed to test the voltage across the battery first. I've got a friend coming over in the morning that's going to help me hook up the voltage meter while I'm revving. I'll post some an update with what I find out.

navigator · Post by **navigator** » Tue Jul 10, 2018 6:36 pm

You can pull the left side cover and check the battery voltage at the starter solenoid.
It's easier than trying to get to the battery, near the hot exhaust.

WintrSol · Post by **WintrSol** » Tue Jul 10, 2018 8:02 pm

navigator wrote:You can pull the left side cover and check the battery voltage at the starter solenoid.
It's easier than trying to get to the battery, near the hot exhaust.

Or, there are two accessory terminals on the fuse box, one battery (+), the other battery (-). Either spot is good.

rocksandhammers · Post by **rocksandhammers** » Wed Jul 11, 2018 9:02 am

WintrSol wrote:
navigator wrote:You can pull the left side cover and check the battery voltage at the starter solenoid.
It's easier than trying to get to the battery, near the hot exhaust.
Or, there are two accessory terminals on the fuse box, one battery (+), the other battery (-). Either spot is good.

Thanks for this. Definitely made things a lot easier.

So I ran the tests according to the manual. When revved up to 5k rpms the battery was only reading about 12.5 v. Tested the AC no load performance after that per the manual and I got about 90. Finally I did the continuity check and got a 1 but I may have done that check incorrectly. I believe I had the voltage meter on the correct settings for each one.

I tested the battery after turning the bike off each time and it never lost any charge. I think it's fine but not sure.

WintrSol · Post by **WintrSol** » Wed Jul 11, 2018 12:58 pm

Some digital Volt meters respond poorly to the pulsed DC coming from the rectifier, which creates a small ACV at the battery, as the load drops the Voltage between pulses. This effect is worse when the battery is near full charge, as the pulses become shorter. Note that the meter in the manual is an older analog type.

rocksandhammers · Post by **rocksandhammers** » Wed Jul 11, 2018 2:42 pm

So I got home this afternoon and decided to test things out by riding around a little. Rode around the block for 15 miles (which got damn boring quick), got it up over 50 mph, kept the high beams on the whole time. Came home and the battery still read 12.8 V so I think the charging system is fine thankfully. Sucks having to pay for a new battery but thankfully it seems that was the only issue. Well, that and I guess I need to find a new place to park. Thank you everyone for the help.

WintrSol · Post by **WintrSol** » Wed Jul 11, 2018 5:51 pm

Make sure you always turn the key CCW to shut it off; turning the other way kills the engine, but leaves the tail and license plate lamps on, which will kill your new battery in hours.

Herb · Post by **Herb** » Wed Jul 11, 2018 11:10 pm

WintrSol wrote:Some digital Volt meters respond poorly to the pulsed DC coming from the rectifier, which creates a small ACV at the battery, as the load drops the Voltage between pulses. This effect is worse when the battery is near full charge, as the pulses become shorter. Note that the meter in the manual is an older analog type.

I don't like the digital meters for this kind of testing and the Suzuki manual actually calls for an analog meter.

I had an old RD350 Yamaha with a dc generator that used a auto style dc regulator. I had a low charge, battery would go dead when running with the headlight on, and was trying to adjust it up using a digital meter. Couldn't get the reading to change. But the battery started to boil. Pulled the hot lead off the wire and the damn voltage stayed at about 11.5 VDC. The digital meter was reading by induction and not working correctly. Put an analog meter on it and my output voltage was just over 18vdc.

I have a little analog meter from wally world that only cost 7.95 and everytime I compare it to the digital, AC/DC/ohms, they are right at the same.

rocksandhammers · Post by **rocksandhammers** » Thu Jul 12, 2018 8:42 am

WintrSol wrote:Make sure you always turn the key CCW to shut it off; turning the other way kills the engine, but leaves the tail and license plate lamps on, which will kill your new battery in hours.

Haha. Oh I know. Made that mistake the a couple of years ago. Unfortunately I do believe it was someone tampering with my ride.

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Help Testing if Stator is Functioning

Help Testing if Stator is Functioning

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