Triumphrat

jpwdesigns · 09-15-2009, 05:06 PM

Ok. Heres the deal. 2003 tiger. 40,000 hard miles. Couple of months ago she stopped charging entirely.

Diagnosed a bad RR. Replaced RR and was back to charging over 13v at 3000+ rpms so looked good.

Then after a month or two the battery went weak on me. Checked the charging system and found that I was not getting enough juice to charge the battery.

With the battery fully charged (12.9v with bike off) it was at 12.2v with engine idling and at 4000+ rpm it was only at about 12.5v which is basically a slow drain on the battery. Then I did the wiring harness bypass as described elsewhere in the forum to try to get some more power to the batter but it made no difference.

Currently I have to keep the fuse pulled for the head lights to keep the bike charging normally. With fuse pulled I get about 13v at idle and close to 14v at 4000 rpm, which is what it should be with the headlights.

So my question is why the weak charge? Is it a sign that the stator is bad or RR again, or Both this time? Could it be something else? I didn't change anything between the RR replacement and now except I had a head light burn out and replaced. (the old headlights were both 90/100w. Now I have one 90/100w and one 55/60w)

miker · 09-16-2009, 12:52 AM

Just a suspicion, but in past bikes I've had the 90/100 watt H4 lamps will cause excessive heat, thereby damaging the wiring to the headlight.

Not saying this is the cause, but I'd be looking at the loom in the headlight area for heat stress.

You can get cooler lamps at the original wattage that give better light than 90/100.

My old Speed Triple lost her headlights on a dark and stormy night because the plugs that connect to the back of the lamps melted with heat from the 90/100 lamps. I've never used them since.

Mick

iansoady · 09-16-2009, 12:21 PM

It is unfortunately quite common that if one part of the charging system fails it can cause other parts to go down as well. So I would suspect the stator.

If you're really unlucky the stator may have been damaged by the original problem and now affected your new reg-rec.......

jpwdesigns · 09-16-2009, 03:23 PM

Ok so I guess I'll check the headlight wires and if nothing there then It looks like i'll have to change both the RR and the Stator.

How difficult is it to replace the stator? Is it in a self contained area of the engine or will copious amounts of engine oil pour out when i pop the case off the side of the engine?

crowtherstephen · 09-17-2009, 07:27 AM

Have you checked the Battery?? i replaced my battery after a similar problem about a year ago - alls good for 1 month then in France the bloody thing gave up on me again - fine when riding, stopped to admire a beer and some local French totty - and i look the fool when i get nothing from the bike!!

Batteries can go wrong, I would check that first.

Good luck

jpwdesigns · 09-17-2009, 12:10 PM

The Battery "seems" to be ok. It takes a charge etc...

In order to test the headlight issue miker pointed out I turned on the PIAA lights to see what would happen with the volt meter on the battery and it behaved exactly like when the headlights are on. So this leads me to believe that the headlight wires/connection is not the problem.

The battery is less than a year old but it did get some pretty heavy discharges during the first RR failure a while back so I suppose the battery could be suffering.

My question is this, what could cause a system to charge ok except under load? Even what should be considered normal load. Do stator/RRs act like that when going bad or could it be the battery lacking grunt?

I may try pulling the battery off my Yamaha FZ1 and trying it on the Tiger to rule out the battery.

robbie · 09-17-2009, 08:27 PM

do a search here on alternator or charging, there is a good thread that has a check list and tests to check out the alt and RR

also tigertriple.com has lots of charging issues

i could be that you have lost a phase or two in the alt so it will give volts but 1/3 amps

AVM · 09-20-2009, 12:37 AM

Have you tested the stator? Here is a good flow chart for testing the stator and r/r. Just don't buy any parts from them. If it turns out you do need a new stator I recommend Rick's Motor Electric.

http://www.electrosport.com/technica...ng-diagram.pdf

http://www.ricksmotorsportelectrics.com/

tyger · 09-22-2009, 01:42 PM

I discovered a post where many smart riders will bypass the stock wiring for the output of the R/R and go straight to the batter with a thicker fused link.
If you notice the stock wiring is about 18 gauge. When mine started having this problem I traced it down to this issue and in fact the fuse in the fuse block was already melting from heat of the resistance in the wires and fuse.
I found a 10 gauge fused link and have it going straight to battery, problem solved.

ghostrider.y2k · 10-29-2009, 01:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tyger

I discovered a post where many smart riders will bypass the stock wiring for the output of the R/R and go straight to the batter with a thicker fused link.
If you notice the stock wiring is about 18 gauge. When mine started having this problem I traced it down to this issue and in fact the fuse in the fuse block was already melting from heat of the resistance in the wires and fuse.
I found a 10 gauge fused link and have it going straight to battery, problem solved.

i did dis modification to my 05 and i got great results.
simple to do and i gain 1.4 volts.i run 2X55w driving lights and heated gear for two now with no problems.

ride safe,y2k