CB200 Charging issue

pj_elia

New Member
Hey guys, its been a long while since I've been on the forum. Just been driving my 1975 CB200 around town the last few years. I seem to have a charging issue. I put in a brand new battery near full charge. I get about 12.27V at idle and it goes up to only 12.8V at around 6K. I'm a novice at this electrical stuff but I tested the rectifier and it tested good. I'm not sure how to test the stator. I've read to measure resistance between the 3 pairs of leads and to ground along with measuring AC voltage from the stator but I'm not sure where to access the leads. Also, would a bad voltage regulator cause this. Maybe I'll disconnect the regulator and test voltage again..Any ideas?

Thanks,

PJ
 
I've been thinking about this some more. If I disconnect the rectifier, 2 wires must be coming from the stator. The other 2 must go to the regulator. I'll check it out tonight and test voltage from the stator.
 
You can measure AC voltage between the yellow and pink wires at the rectifier plug.

If that looks good, you probably have regulator issues.
 
Sonreir,

I measured at the rectifier and I got 12vac and it went up only to 16vac. I also found the connection for the stator. I measured the common wire to all the others and didn't measure any continuity. I measured resistance from all the wires to ground also, and only the common registered.
 
There should be NO continuity between any of the stator wires and ground. Sounds like your stator is toast.
 
I didn't get a chance to pull the stator so i did a few quick tests before work today. I measured Voltage at the stator plug. This plug has 3 dark colored wires with woven isulation and one green/red stripe wire which must be the common. That wire is grounded according to my meter. All the other wires don't measure any continuity to ground or the common wire. When running, and measuring from the green/red wire to each of the 3 dark wires, 2 of the 3 measure up to a little over 20v while the 3rd gives me only a volt or 2. I assume one phase is shorted out on the stator. Any recommendations on this? Rewind, replace, repair, upgrade....?? I will be pulling the stator out tonight.

Thanks,

Paul
 
The green/red wire is the neutral wire and should have a connection to ground when the bike is in neutral. It's the other three wires which are the stator wires.

Anyway... your stator is a single phase, but broken up into two parallel circuits. The pink wire represents one side of the windings. The yellow and white, together, are the other side. You should have continuity between the yellow, white, and pink wires. While running, the highest AC voltage reading should be between the pink and yellow wires, with about half of that if you measure between pink and white.
 
Sonreir,

I measured resistance between the pink and yellow and pink and yellow/white wires and got .9ohms between each set. While running, I get 16.3v on the pink and yellow/white combo and get 16.8v on the pink and yellow combo. None of those 3 have continuity to ground. Everything seems normal except that I should be getting more voltage on one side of the stator, correct?
 
So I pulled the stator and measured the resistance between the pairs and got 2.0, 1.7, and .6 ohms. Those numbers are different than the 1.1 and .5 ohms listed in the Clymer's manual. I was on the fence about sending out the stator for rewinding so I go a stator from a CL200 and measured the resistance on that one. It measured the exact same resistances as my original stator. This has me believing that my stator may not be at fault. Not sure what to do at this point. Put the stator back in and go back to testing wiring or voltage regulator? Spend $225 and get a rewound stator, and new Recitifier/regulator?
 
I can send you an R/R if you want. Send me the cash if it works out or send it back if it doesn't.
 
Well, I buttoned things back up. I took the opportunity to strip the paint and polish the engine covers while I had the stator out along with replacing the cover bolts with some SS ones. The replacement CL200 Stator performed exactly the same as the original stator as measured by voltage at the battery. I then tried disconnecting the regulator and it didn't change the measurements at the battery. I then checked dc voltage at the rectifier plug and it goes from 12.36v with the key off to 12.95V at high revs. At the battery I get to around 12.82v at high revs. The only thing I can think of is that I have either 2 equally poor stators, which I doubt, or that maybe the yellow/white circuit going through the headlight switch may have an issue, or the rectifier is affecting it. Interestingly, I measured 6.1V at the regulator connection when running. Not sure what I should be reading there but I was expecting more than that.

Thanks,

Paul
 
The black wire plugged into the regulator should be very near (but slightly less) than what you're reading across the terminals of the battery.
 
Sounds about right.

Might need to start testing the wires.

From the stator to the handlebars, measure resistance on the yellow and the white wires. With the headlight switch turned on, then measure between the yellow and yellow/white wires. Next, measure from the stator to the rectifier on the pink and the yellow wires.
 
My bike did not come with a headlight switch. The yellow/white wires are jumped to each other in the headlight bucket. Measurements from the stator to the rectifier:
  • Pink to Pink was .3ohms
  • from yellow to yellow was .3 ohms
  • from white to yellow was .4 ohms

I believe the measurements from the yellow/white wires in the headlight to the rectifier was .3ohms and to the stators wires were 2.1 ohms. I might have mixed those up because I did them late last night and didn't take notes. The others I'm certain.
 
Still worth measuring the resistance of those wires, if you're able. Current still travels from the stator, through those wires.
 
Sonreir,

Thanks for walking me through this. I measured the wires in the headlight bucket that would go through the switch. They are yellow with a white stripe and they have a factory jumper between them. With them disconnected, I get .3 oneone side and 2.1 ohms on the other. connected, I get .3 ohms. Which make sense to me. The one side would measure resistance through the stator. The other would be through the wiring to the rectifier..... I think.
 
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