DRz400s - dead battery or generator problem?

[Corporal Punishment]

Collected my new (04) DRz today. The bike had been in storage for a couple of years and needed a booster to start. Before going for it's nap it had had a new battery fitted. Once running all seems fine apart from the instrument cluster flashing on and off. Back in the shed I stuck it on a normal charger for a few hours so the trickle charger could "see" it. After an hour the charge on the battery went from 0.6V to around 7V but when I connected the trickler it still wouldn't start charging. I started the bike from a booster pack to check the charging system. With the engine running at idle I was seeing 7V on the multimeter but gently increasing the revs saw the volts drop to around 5V. I would have thought the opposite would happen or at least nothing if the charging system wasn't working.

Anyone got any ideas what's happening here. Is it just a duff battery or am I shopping for a generator and or reg/rectifier.

Alan.

 

[B4ndit]

How old is the battery? If its two years old and just sat it probably is dead.

I would put money on it being the battery but things don't seem right with the voltage readout.

You should be getting a reading of around 13V across the battery when the bike is running.

I had a similar problem on a Quad recently. After stripping it all down, including having the stator out and rectifier stripped out I was unable to understand any of the readings against what I should have been seeing. Apparently its difficult to check rectifiers. Anyway to cut a long story short it was one of the connector plugs on the rectifier that had got water in and had a bad connection. Cleaned that up and it was all sorted.

In your case I think a new battery would be the best place to start. Fully charged prior to use.

 

[steviefd]

drz400 generator stator

If you get your stator rewound at westcountry windings and your bike won't start afterwards swap the black and white wires that are in your 4pin plug which plugs into your CDI unit. Cost me a fortune investigating this silly incident.

 

[Timpo]

Corp....... buy a Motobatt battery for the bike, it stays charged longer and has a +20%CCA rate over a lead/acid.

Once fitted, then do your generator tests, but as said above it's more likely the battery having been stood flat for such time......

Keep us posted.

T.