Battery warning light

[brassmonkey001]

Mine is glowing at high revs. It doesn't glow otherwise Is my alternator knacked? Or the regulator? I'm thinking it must be overcharging, is this correct?

 

[Rob Farmer]

It'll be undercharging if the lights on. Check the two earth straps from the diode plate to the front engine casing. If they aren't too tight you can get arching when the bike vibrates. It's always worth checking your brushes and measuring the rotor resistance.

Have a look at this. It's the test from the manual to perform when the charge light stays on :-

 

[judge]

Mine is doing that - I'm hoping its brushes cos they're in my pocket and I'm off to the GooRoo's today, shall I print this out so he can do some proper diagnosis

In my case the light comes on at switch on (good), goes out a idle (also good), comes on again at anything from above idle to 6000 rpm (not good), then out again at 6500 rpm (not good but fun trying to maintain that engine speed)

The light has flickered and glowed for short periods and now is pretty much always on in the conditions described above.

Lets hope the gooroos technical support phone line diagnosis was correct

 

[Sean Kelly]

Doh!

Mine now on at tickover and stays on

Fitted my spare rotor to my mate's bike, wonder if I can get it back?

Sean

 

[Wreford Miles]

mine came on after a hard thrash to wales and has played slly buggers ever since... I've heard that have the wrong bulb can cause this as it's a delicate balance between the diodes - or something like that.

As mines running a TT LED display it made sense to me.

It's done a good few thousand mles like at now and the battery seems fine

 

[cookie]

Doh!

Mine now on at tickover and stays on

Fitted my spare rotor to my mate's bike, wonder if I can get it back?

Sean

if the rotor's gone, the light won't come on.

 

[MickDB1]

My electrics behaved as yours - actin up when warm
I recon it was the Diode board. One of the diodes was breaking down with heat eventually melting apart
Fitted a Thunderchild board from USA with ally solid mounts and new regulator
that works with a higher and lower output level than original
I think it was 65 quid inc. posting from California
I have not seen electric chargeing problems since

I have a repaired diode board and regulator if you want to borrow um
HTHY
Mick

 

[turnipbmw]

always worth checking the Motobins 'helpful tips' page for things like this

http://www.motobins.co.uk/services.php

 

[(RIP) Proff]

mine came on after a hard thrash to wales and has played slly buggers ever since... I've heard that have the wrong bulb can cause this as it's a delicate balance between the diodes - or something like that.

As mines running a TT LED display it made sense to me.

It's done a good few thousand mles like at now and the battery seems fine

Exactly
Charge light bulb is 3 watt
all others in the display are 5 watt

same as the old /6's and /7's

 

[judge]

Mine is doing that - I'm hoping its brushes cos they're in my pocket and I'm off to the GooRoo's today, shall I print this out so he can do some proper diagnosis

In my case the light comes on at switch on (good), goes out a idle (also good), comes on again at anything from above idle to 6000 rpm (not good), then out again at 6500 rpm (not good but fun trying to maintain that engine speed)

The light has flickered and glowed for short periods and now is pretty much always on in the conditions described above.

Lets hope the gooroos technical support phone line diagnosis was correct

Update:

Brushes changed, one was well worn (nice and smooth) and had 'turned' the other wasn't even making contact and therefore only half as worn as the other.

But it wasn't them, light was still coming on bright through the revs. Voltage checked and the bike was charging fine despite light.

Regulator swapped, no change so swapped back again.

Diode board swapped and bingo, light off and stayed off, charging good, alls well..... for now

Just the carbs to sort and we might, just might be there (other than the buzzing Autocom, the headlight mount having shaken loose and the number plate swapped - and then the MOT)

 

[Sean Kelly]

Hmm....

Went into the garage at the weekend armed with Fluke to checkout why the alternator light was staying on... and it's now charging fine...

I hate intermittent faults. Could heat be affecting the diode board? Or could sticking brushes cause this? It does sound similar to Judge's problem...

Cheers

Sean

 

[cookie]

it's often the diode board in these circumstances.


you could take it out and have a look for overheated areas/bad joints. but if i'd gone to all that trouble, i'd be tempted to just put a new one in.

 

[brassmonkey001]

I've not noticed it doing it since. I only spotted it as I was riding at night.
I'd like to get hold of an uprated alternator kit at some point anyway, and as Cookie says - I might as well replace the diode board as check it out.
I'll continue to monitor it for now.

 

[Sean Kelly]

Well... diode board metered out ok but the rotor was open circuit. A recon rotor arrived from Motorworks this morning, so hopefully will all be sorted shortly....

I forgot that the diodde board would be rubber mounted after I swapped the original '93 80GS bottom end for the 100RT one. Looks like fitting solid mounts is a bit of a pain?

Cheers

Sean

 

[Sean Kelly]

Yep, recon rotor replaced and charging fine - for now at least. But the headlamp mounts have bust. Again.

Sean