charging system help, problem ive been working on with progress but no cigar

[hurley209]

Battery was dead after sitting like 4 days, I used it and came back and it was dead.
But other than that only died on me with the old battery before the new rectifier. I went riding twisties and ran outta gas so I was hitting the starter ALOT at the end of th night after getting home had 11.94 v

 

[Big R]

And how new is the current battery?

I would swap out all the lights for led and get a 35/35 bulb, but that may not solve the problem at all. Sorry man, I'm not very useful when it comes to electrical stuff.

 

[frogman]

Did you do the yellow wire to the yellow striped white wire jumper in the headlight shell? I know the 450ts had a switch that was built into the headlight switch that turned on the third set of windings in the stator to help charge the battery when the headlight was turned on. The 500ts are pretty much the same aside for the engine. If you run the headlight on all the time and haven't done that I would get too it.

link to what I am referring to. ...viewtopic.php...

If the battery is dead after 4 days, you have a leak somewhere. You should have no current draw on the system at all when it is off. Mine will sit a week and not loose a drop. Can't go longer than a week and not ride it. I dunno how I made it that long. ;D

 

[crazypj]

Found an 82' cb450 reg/rect. for 15$, so do you think I should still get it?

I would, if I didn't already have 3 ;D
Newtronics is a TPI, the coils are still wired into main harness and ground through the box. 3 ohm is what you need for that.
I get rid of the yellow through switch and run it directly into rectifier so battery always gets full charge.
CB500T should be able to run a 60/55 headlight without any problems

 

[hurley209]

Rich: the battery now is good, hasn't died on me. And no worries man, some help is better than no help.

Frogman: I have been considering that mod but didn't know how to do it but I will try it, I have my headlight connected to one of my idiot light powers with a kill switch and it's off during the day, I did this because one day the light just stopped working and I couldn't figure it out so I did the easiest thing. Can this be my problem?
Because when the battery is charged the charging system shows the proper current on the multimeter at idle and revs.

 

[hurley209]

Pj how do I do the yellow switch to the rectifier? And is this something I can try with my current regulator and radioshack rectifier?

Sorry wiring is my worst subject.

 

[crazypj]

Sounds ghetto, not repaired.
There could be a high resistance draw on the original circuit or even a short causing drain.
Which wire did you swap out?
Black with yellow tracer?
That's power into handlebar switch and comes back out on white (low) and Blue (high)
Check orange and light blue with /white tracer, they are running lights and may be powered and leaking to ground (I wired mine into front indicator's as they are 'dual filament' LED 8) )
I've never had a bike with running lights before ;D

 

[hurley209]

Oh I admit it is ghetto lol, not the right way to do it at all lol.
I believe it is tapped into a solid white wire.

 

[hurley209]

Is it ok if I take pictures of the wires and post?
I don't even really umderstand the wiring diagram so all this will be tuff for me.
Thank again! I owe you all big time!

 

[frogman]

Pics are worth a thousand words in my book. ;D

 

[hurley209]

ok, so i dug into my wiring and also opened up my light switch/signal/horn switch, im guessing the horn button wire was shorting/grounding something out because after i tested many wires with the test light, when i tested the horn wire i got a tiny little spark and everything worked again, high and low beam all controled from the switch, looked around some more and everything looks ok. So i really hope that was my problem, im charging my new battery so i can test the voltage being cycled back into the battery, lets hope for the best.
on another note, i think i should do the mod to get full power all the time, how do i do that???

 

[crazypj]

I haven't checked wiring diagram but I'm pretty sure you can connect the wires directly out of alternator to the rectifier AC inputs.
Cap off the yellow/yellow/white.
Basically, from what I remember, the yellow goes from alternator, to right side switch, out of switch back to rectifier so you remove at least 2 connections, switch and about 5~6 ft of wire. (even on bikes where you cant turn lights off, the wiring is still there, just bridged at 'switch' end)
I've never done it with stock wiring, always re-wired bike

 

[hurley209]

So does that mean I wouldn't connect my stator to the harness? Just run the stator directly into my rectifier?

 

[hurley209]

Also I hear something about running with the high beam on for a while at first then after a while switch to low? I assume this is to get full charge when the mod isn't done?

 

[crazypj]

High or low doesn't matter, the yellow is switched at On/Off switch.
Connect alternator direct to rectifier and bypass all the other connectors.
That's why I recommended the CB400 reg/rect, easiest one to wire in and I know it works

 

[hurley209]

Ohhh ok, so the cb400 reg/rect plugs into the stator connection and the regulator wires as usual right? Therefore going directly into my battery an regulator instead of all over the harness and back right?

 

[crazypj]

Yep, pretty much.
You can remove the connectors from block and plug them into original wiring connector block.
If you take a lose look there is a little notch where lock tab locates
There is a special tool to remove connectors but I find they break too easily so I make my own, needs to be about 2mm wide, 1mm thick, 25mm long plus 3"~4" for handle.
Round off sharp edge as you want to depress connector lock not break it off
use 1/16" welding rod or similar (I've used needle de-scaler needles but they have to be ground to size)
Light green with red tracer is neutral so don't mess with it
The other colours just match up
Red to battery + (unfused)
Black to switched live (harness connector black, there are a couple of spares)
Green to ground
Yellow-pink
Yellow-white
Yellow-yellow

 

[hurley209]

Ok sweet. I will post pictures of what I do over the next week or so to make sure it's being done right. Thank you again very very much for the help!
Gonna go check what the bike is charging with the fresh batt. now that the short is fixed. Il post it up in a few.

 

[hurley209]

Well at idle I get 13-13.20dcV and at about 4k rpm I get 12.9-13.10v or a bit more.

 

[hurley209]

K checked again, at idle I get 13.2xV and at 5k rpm I get 13.5xV.
What you think?