Posts: 112
Threads: 8
Likes Received: 1 in 1 posts
Likes Given: 0
Joined: Nov 2013
Has anyone had problems with their charging system yet?
Went out this morning to go to work and my bike was cranking really slowly. Had to open the throttle to get it to spin fast enough to fire. I ride just over 60 miles a day to work and school and didn't go anywhere this weekend.
I rode about 30 minutes (about 26 miles mostly highway and some stop and go) got to the gas station turned it off and filed up the tank and it fired right up and rode two blocks to work. Went to Lowe's an hour later and it started right up. Going to do a current draw test and see how much it's drawing while it's off and check the changing system too. I have no accessories on the bike so nothing should be drawing that much power while off.
Posts: 1,229
Threads: 68
Likes Received: 0 in 0 posts
Likes Given: 0
Joined: Apr 2013
(04-14-2014, 03:12 AM)dlhmatt_imp Wrote: Has anyone had problems with their charging system yet?
Went out this morning to go to work and my bike was cranking really slowly. Had to open the throttle to get it to spin fast enough to fire. I ride just over 60 miles a day to work and school and didn't go anywhere this weekend.
I rode about 30 minutes (about 26 miles mostly highway and some stop and go) got to the gas station turned it off and filed up the tank and it fired right up and rode two blocks to work. Went to Lowe's an hour later and it started right up. Going to do a current draw test and see how much it's drawing while it's off and check the changing system too. I have no accessories on the bike so nothing should be drawing that much power while off.
I have had no issue's, bike was not on a tender all winter and spun fast every time I warmed it up. Give it a full over-nite charge and put a load tester on the battery. Charging system should be at about 14.5 at 3000 rpm's.
Posts: 23,432
Threads: 697
Likes Received: 512 in 234 posts
Likes Given: 676
Joined: Apr 2025
I had no issues with mine Matt, but keep my bikes on tenders when not being ridden
Posts: 112
Threads: 8
Likes Received: 1 in 1 posts
Likes Given: 0
Joined: Nov 2013
14.13Vdc at 3k rpm and 0.13 mA dc draw while off. Anyone around a service manual that can look up the spec for that. Warm Florida and me riding it everyday, it should never need to be on a tender.
Posts: 1,385
Threads: 42
Likes Received: 0 in 0 posts
Likes Given: 0
Joined: May 2013
Pull the seat and the tool box underneath so you can see the battery posts. Put your multi-meter set for DC ($10 for one at H/F or Radio Shack) on the battery with the bike turned off. You should see a bit over 12VDc. Start the bike and measure again. You should see over 13VDc.
If you see under-voltage with the bike off, usually the battery is bad or failing. If you see under-voltage with the bike running, usually there's a problem with the charging system.
These are very general guidelines and there's a cuss of exceptions, variations, reasons why, etc. etc. etc. But it's a good start to understanding what's up with your bike's electrical operation.
Posts: 112
Threads: 8
Likes Received: 1 in 1 posts
Likes Given: 0
Joined: Nov 2013
Yeah Spaceman you are correct about all that. I just went out there on my lunch brake with the Fluke. It's not that i need help diagnosing as much as I was just wondering if anyone had issues with the charging system. It's always great though when people put the simplified steps up though so it can help someone later. The battery after sitting for two and a half hours was reading 12.86 vdc. I have to pull the battery and throw a load tester on it hopefully tonight.
Posts: 715
Threads: 23
Likes Received: 0 in 0 posts
Likes Given: 0
Joined: Jan 2014
No problems with mine yet, although I had the battery on my Yamaha FZ6 go weak on me the day I was due to exchange.
Enough so that after a few attempts I dragged it back into the garage and fixed up an Optimate.
5 hours later it was like a rampant dog. Maybe just a 'glitch'.
(Forgot to add it had fired up like a charm the day before)
Posts: 65
Threads: 0
Likes Received: 0 in 0 posts
Likes Given: 0
Joined: Feb 2014
you need to take your cables off and clean all connetions and batt. posts
Posts: 1,385
Threads: 42
Likes Received: 0 in 0 posts
Likes Given: 0
Joined: May 2013
(04-14-2014, 03:50 AM)dlhmatt_imp Wrote: Yeah Spaceman you are correct about all that. I just went out there on my lunch brake with the Fluke. It's not that i need help diagnosing as much as I was just wondering if anyone had issues with the charging system. It's always great though when people put the simplified steps up though so it can help someone later. The battery after sitting for two and a half hours was reading 12.86 vdc. I have to pull the battery and throw a load tester on it hopefully tonight.
Fair enough. I haven't seen any posts on this topic so far; but we've got our first batch of CBs coming out of winter storage though. We might see some new posts on dead/weak batteries cropping up in the weeks ahead.
Posts: 3,872
Threads: 186
Likes Received: 0 in 0 posts
Likes Given: 0
Joined: Dec 2013
Have had no issues with the electrical system but I had a 2004 Kawasaki that needed a new battery at less than 2000 miles.
