Cheers Bergini - thanks for the comments - still need to go a little simpler.....see I work off common sense but thats not always relevant with electrics???
HAHAHAHA good i was scared i dumbed it down to the point of being offensive :lol: at least thats out of the way..
So my multi meter is set up correctly. Also I always check it on a live car battery I have in the shed.
that will work, if its showing twelve volts you are on the correct voltage reading and the leads are in the correct spots, your bike battery (when goood) should read 12v too, when the engine running and the meter set up the -same way with the + & - leads attached to the battery then you should see the 13.2-14.8DCV i was talking about, if not thecharge isnot making it to the battery or leaving the stator (at the battery the power has already gone through the voltage regulator/rectifier so it has been converter to DC by this point)
In my head I need to get back to the source - start at the beginning which is the stator / Generator and then check forward from there.
yes if the above test is not reading 13.2-14.8volts then go to the stator and work forward
The yellow leads 2no. appear to run all the non ignition systems & the blue is the earth.
Ned says this is ACV not DCV at this point.
everybody else is surely correct on this one, i just so happened to test it on the DC voltage setting and was getting 6ish dc volts consistantly, i work and cars and there is no a/c voltage on mondern cars, my meter is dc only, (i think),lol i am going to recheck when i get to the shop later today. and if it has a AC setting ill do some retesting....scroll upto Kris650berg's response he tells you the readings you should see 20-30ACV or something on the yellows i beleive he said and i think that is in the owner doc too
Stator:
1/ I have a resistance on the yellow to blue with bike not running of 1.2 ohmm. Is that ok?
Yes thats good too, kris650berg answered that one too, i havent done it in a while to remember but i am sure he is correct
2/ If I put the meter on a yellow stator wire & the meter black to ground....set to ACV?? what should that read to prove the stator is ok & sending out a charge.
correct, that would be the proper way to make the test 20-30ACV, use the bikes battery ground it is the best source even if the battery is dead, to find other good ground sources, simply put your gound lead anywhere, on a bolt, a bare metel sectionof frame, the engine, etc and the put the other lead on the battery positve and if it shows battery voltage then you know that that spot has ground and is an acceptable spot to take voltage readings from, on a bike it is just as easy to use the battery negative for a ground source.
Battery:
1/ I need to check the DCV on the battery terminals when the bike is running. This should read 13 V ish ??
If it doesn't, surely all that proves is that there is a problem between the stator & the battery wiring & this may not have any relevance as the battery is out of the loop as far as lights etc are concerned when bike is running...think I might be mistaken here but other posts say just unwire the battery & starter altogether.
Yes but if the battery is showing the 13volts, then you know that the stator is outputting and the charge is making it through the recitifer and to the battery, if it is then you likely have a wiring problem like a rub through or corrosion that is limiting power specificallly on the lighting system portion of the circuit
Wiring:
So to check each wire - set the meter to 200 ohm and unplug one end of the wire if poss. If the wire is good it should read 0.7 ish ??? (thats what the meter reads if I touch the probes direct to each other).
correct, you have to unplug each end of the wire circuit your testing and place one lead to each end it should be a small ohm resistance reading like .8-1.2, use whatever ohm setting on the meter is the smallest, if the 200 ohm setting is the smallest use that
If its broken it would show the default 1 as when the meter is on but not attached to anything??
all meters are a little different but yes if one is the default then it would show one for an open circuit, some show n/a,1, ol, etc, mine shows OL or "out of limits" meaning so much resistance that the meter cannot detect any resistence, an open circuit is infinitivly resistant if that makes sense
If it's worn or arcing to earth it should be ?????
if its worn through the coating it could get corroded, in that scenario it would show higher resistance or ONE because the corosion will add resistance to the circuit and/or completely stop power from flowing.
if its worn through and arching to earth thats another scenario altogether and a little more complcated, here goes nothing: when you do the ohm test of the wire you place one probe on each end of the wire, it should read low resistance .7-1.2ohms. if there is a short to ground, generally, it will still read good resistance, the short to ground usually doesnt affect the resistance of the circuit, so when testing that circuit and still using the ohm setting you can take one of the leads off one one end of the wire or other and touch it to ground and it should read ONE or OL, meaning that that circuit is not touching ground at any point, if you get a restance reading to ground than it is rubbing on the frame or shorted to ground and causing a power loss on that circuit. if a ground wire is shorted to ground it usually isnt going to cause a problem.
for an example: a wire you may want to test like this would be the main headlight power wire, find both ends of it and set the meter to ohms and put a lead on each end, it should read 0.0-1.2 ohms, then take one lead off and put it on the battery negative and it should get a ONE or OL reading indicating that the circuit is not being grounded if it is then you have found a short to ground.
the same principle goes for a wire to wire short: lets say you have one blue wire and one red wire, when testing ohms one the blue and red wire indiviually you should get 0.0-1.2ohms if you connect on lead to the red and one to the blue then it should read OL or ONE, if it shows resistance then there is a short between the two wires. (sometimes when checking for a short to ground or wire to wire short i flip the meter setting up through the ranges just to be sure that they all still read ONE or OL, sometimes a short could only show on a higher resistance setting if it is a minor short or early start of a rub though)
Oh God, it's a lovely sunny day - I should be out there in the rough not stuck in the shed....
