Triumphrat

zam70 · 09-21-2007

I have owned a few bikes in the past and ALL - VTX, VFR, FJR, KTM have had what I consider a weak charging system...
The Triumphs are no different.

A short personal history: I spent 15 years of my life designing and building high amperage electrical systems for automotive applications. I learned that in order for a charging system to work & charge properly you not only need a good voltage generator & storage source - the connecting system has to be solid, clean and generally over sized...

So

I bought an 04 Daytona last weekend...upon arriving home, I gave the bike a good going over.
Fluids, air pressure, battery etc...
One of my checks is to alway test the charging system...so I took the seat off (HEY, that's where the owners manual is...) and broke out the trusty fluke meter.
Tested tha battery, and it read fine (12.6ish)
Fired up the bike and voltage is riding in the 13.3-.5ish area...Humph...low...
I grabbed the output wires of the regulator to test the voltage there and WHOA - they're fairly toasty...that's not good (hot wires are a dead on sign of either a bad ground or undersized wires.)

Upon further investigation, I found the same thing I found in the other bikes -the output wires from the regulator were ok size but once plugged into the actual bike wiring, it shrunk ALOT and ran the long way to the battery...

So here's the scoop (or the bad)
Triumph and other bike manufacturers down size the wiring in the bike to save on cost, size, weight or what ever thinking it should be OK but, In the real world, it isn't...
Not only is the wire gauge to small, but, although the regulator is 10 inches from the battery, the actual wires that charge the actual battery leave the regulator and go into the main harness that runs forward on the bike and aventually hooks to the starter where the main starter wire is connected and ran back to the battery.
SO - instead of a 10 inch run of proper gauge wire, they use a wire that is to small and way to long especially for its size and purpose (charging the battery).

The Good:
It's and easy fix...I had it done in under 5 minutes (I did have everything on hand)

*WARNING*WARNING*WARNING*WARNING*
Proceed with the following modification at your own risk

All you have to do is get a couple of piese of 12 gauge wire about 10 inches long - one black, one red (if you chose...you can use what ever color you want), some ring terminal connectors and a fuse holder

on the bike side of the regulator plug (a white plug), you will see (on an 04 Daytona at least) 4 wires - 2 brown, 2 black.
The brown wires are the voltage output
The black is the ground.
UNHOOK THE BATTERY

*right behind the plug (on the bike side of the wiring, not the regulator side), cut back the insulation on all 4 wires...clear your self about 1/2" area so you just have bare wire.
*take a small flat screw driver, and open up an eye in each wire (so you have a hole right through middle of the wire...this is a "button hook" connection)
*take the red wire, strip back about an inch of it and then insert it through one brown wire, then the other...then wrap it around both wires and sinch everything up tight (yes, you are connecting/wrapping the wires together). *keep tightly wrapping the wire around until it's all wrapped into one tight connection....if you chose a solder connection, go right ahead.
Now wrap the connection tight with a good dose of electrical tape.

*Now do the same with the larger black wire and the black wires in the plug.

*connect your fuse holder with fuse to the red wire and connect to the + positive terminal as you hook up the battery. (if you get a wired fuse holder with enough wire, you can directly connect the fuse holder to the reg wires and than to the batt - they are availble at car stereo shops)

*install your ring connector to the black wire and hook it up to the - (negative terminal) batt terminal as you connect the battery.

PROLOGUE>>>>>>>>
After doing this mod, I fired the bike up and there it is...14.6 +/- volts as it should be...a nice healthy charging system...wires stay cool, lights don't dim, bike runs better (better voltage) and more responsive....

When I posted this on VFRD, there was quite a discussion that ensued...if you would like to read through that thread:
http://www.vfrdiscussion.com/forum/i...howtopic=29975

But I can say the every bike this has been done to has shown a dramatic improvement.

This mod is safe, easy and cheap.
The only reason OEM doesn't do this is expense and it would complicate assembly.

Good luck.

walt · 09-21-2007

Zam70, what an excellent article! With winter coming on(at least in the US) and with it the increased use of heated grips, vests, and other gear, your timing could not be better. With your included link this makes a mod that is not only inexpensive but increases the reliability of a person's bike.

Although I have done some electrical mods to my Bonnie, I have not yet tackled the wires from the regulator to the battery - or to the alternator, if necessary.

Stuart_O · 09-22-2007

I have an 03 Sprint which is set up for long distance riding - GPS, aux fuel cell, etc. I've also installed a digital voltmeter so I can keep an eye on the electrical status (I'm an engineer - GIVE ME DATA). When I turn on my pair of 35W driving lights, even at 4000+ RPM, the volts drop from a max of 13.7 down to 12.5 - 12.9. With my Gerbing heated jacket its even worse. If I stop for a light I could be in 11V range - ***?

I am into elegant wiring solutions and this suggestion sounds like the best couple of hours I could ever spend. I'd really like to see 14V on that meter!

Stuart in PGH

zam70 · 09-22-2007

your voltage should be at 14+ with no extra items on.

If you are dropping to 11, you are seriously over taxing your system and could lead to some Regulator & stator failure.

I bet your wires are seriously hot, make sure to inspect the plugs for burnt areas.

Do the mod, if you need further clarification, feel free to contact me or if you check out the VFRD thread, there's some great info there too.

uzidzit · 09-22-2007

Thanks for the tip, worked well on my Bonnie.

One thing I noticed that on the linked post you added a frame ground as well,
I just wanted to mention not to do this on a sv650 or v-strom. It causes some corrosion problems in the frame, (composite aluminum and steel reaction) there are no frame grounds on suzuki composite frame bikes, all negs run to the batt.

zam70 · 09-22-2007

when I metered the gound on my 04 Daytona, all was well so I did not upgrade it at that time.

The more I read about the ground fix on the Daytonas, the more I think I might though.

AVM · 09-23-2007

Just finished this mod on my 03 Tiger. I gained a full volt! Thank you..

dword · 09-25-2007

I added lights to my 06 Tiger, wired them directly to the battery, ok not directly but after a fuse and a switch.. but my point.. how are you checking your voltage while driving? Taking the seat off and using a Fluke or Amprobe to test current and volts just don't seem like a safe thing to be doing. or at least to us less talented folks.. personally I'd love to have a volt gauge on my bike but alas where would you put it? Do you feel testing it on the stand with all the lights going is close enough? And I notice comments about the ground wire to the frame.. I thought I read somewhere that you can't ground to the frame on a Tiger.. everything must have its own ground wire.. I think its due to the aluminum compond in the frame

zam70 · 09-25-2007

Any improvment will be linear.
If you gain voltage at idle, you'll gain it while riding...

I have heard people talk about, but have never actually seen any problems with grounding aluminum...over a very long period of time (many many years) I can see a potential problem but not over the short period of time that our bikes will exist.
I think it is more of a problem in theory

There's an awful lot of aluminum engines being grounded with out problems...

AVM · 09-26-2007

I installed a Datel voltmeter on my bike. I have extra lights, heated grips, heated vest and a few other goodies and I like to keep an eye on things.

http://www.digitalmeter.com/cgi-bin/...=configspc.txt

Another idea is to put a plug on the end of a set of test leads and run a cheap multimeter from the accessory socket.