Electrical Fault

[Paul Narramore]

I've just been out to my 1991 GS-PD to show the bike to Grizz, pressed the starter only to hear a starter struggling with a pretty flat battery. Now I fitted a fully charge Odyssey battery only a week ago as the existing battery appeared US, so I'm now thinking that there's a fault in the system somewhere.

Now me and electricity go together like oil and water so where do I look for the fault. The Valeo starter motor shreeches badly so that can't help. A friend suggests disconnecting the battery then putting a meter on the positive wire and the other end to earth. I should get a reading of zero ohms. If I do get any sort of reading, there's a leakage to earth. If that is the case, where do I begin to search for the fault?

 

[Rob Farmer]

Your friends suggesting a simple way of checking the wiring system, basically if theres a resistance then there is a load that will cause a drain, if there is a resistance it could be due to a fault on the diode board or even the voltage requlator but it could also be down to a fault somewhere else on the wiring. You will need to isolate the different parts of the circuit by disconnecting the alternator and requlator and pulling the individual fuses to see which part clears the fault...sounds worse than it actually is.

It could just be that the bike isn't charging at all...just get a multimeter and measure the battery voltage with the ignition turned off then start the bike and measure the voltage at tickover and again with the engine reving slightly, hopefully you should see an increase in voltage to around 13.5V to 14V (or somewhere round there), however, if the meter still reads the same as it did with the ignition off then your charging circuits kippered.

If you can't be arsed with the hassle go and see Steptoe, he'll sort you out.

 

[Paul Narramore]

Today I popped over to speak to Ernie at Overland-Solutions - what a nice bloke and what a talker - who suggests I may well have a bad earth somewhere.

The mods he carries out to RTW bikes look massively strongand no doubt very necessary if travelling off road. What was most impressive was the standard of work, quality of welds and final powder coating.