Triumphrat

guy71 · 04-07-2006

Hi,
I'm wondering if anyone can assist with this problem. when I have the lights on the battery is only being charged at 12.35 volts at around 2500-3000 rpm. As soon as the light are off I'm getting 13.8-13.9 volts steady at idle. resting voltage for the battery is 12.6 volts. I did a sort of load test on it, cranked the engine over and measured 9.0 volts at the terminals. I have stripped and cleaned all plugs/connectors on the bike. Cleaned the ground point on the engine. No change. Can anyone tell me what is causing this or any other checks that I need to do to narrow it down, cause it's sending me nuts. Any help or advice appreciated.

:hammer:

04-07-2006

If you remove the alternator cover and ground one of the terminals(i thinks its the DF) it will make the charging system max out. So in other words ground the terminal and if the charging system jumps up to 15V or higher (at 3k rpm) that means the alt. is charging properly and the regulator is going bad. If nothing happens then the alt. is not charging properly. Also the lights will have an affect.

I have a 95 speed 3, my lights are always on. At 3k rpm i ground the correct terminal(w/ jumper wire) and the needle on mine pegs at 16V. let me know if this helps or if you need further assistance. its also a good idea to pick up the haynes manual.

p.s. grounding the right terminal will deactivate the regulator so you can check how the alt is charging. :-D

guy71 · 04-10-2006

Hey thanks for the info Mclaren58...I almost feel stupid admitting to this but the battery was the culprit in the end. It was't accepting a charge under load. I had the charging system checked after I put in the new battery and eveything looksto be fine.

04-10-2006

glad i could help. charging system are usually very simple. except vintage brit cars with the weird positive ground...how weird.