Odyssey bat check

[rhncue]

My charging system on my 83 went berserk about a month ago. Suddenly my volt meter dropped very low while riding. Got back to my shop and the next day I checked the voltage on each of the white wires while the bike was running and it was very erratic. I ordered a new stator and last weekend I got around to putting it in. When I pulled the old stator out it looked like new so I ran the tests like the manual says. Checked the white wires against each other and they came up with the correct .4 something ohms and the short test showed that the stator was good. I put the bike back together using the old stator and then found that the plug from the reg/rec going to the harness was badly melted. Not the white wires from the stator but the red ones going from the reg/rec to the harness. I put on a new plug from an old harness and I installed another reg/rec that I had. I started the bike and it charged normally. A couple days later The voltage dropped way down again so I turned around and was heading home when suddenly it started charging again. Now last night it started discharging again so today I checked all of the plugs, fuses and such to no avail. Before tearing apart again I would like to make sure the battery is not bad. It is one year old but since it is sealed and no acid, How do you check it? Any other ideas?

 

Dick

[Condor]

Before tearing apart again I would like to make sure the battery is not bad. It is one year old but since it is sealed and no acid, How do you check it? Any other ideas? Dick

 

Put a multi-meter on the posts and it should give you 12.6 - 12.9vdc after sitting over night. If it shows something around 10vdc you have a bad cell. However I don't think this is the case as your onboard gauge kicks on and off like a loose wire. I run one of the newer smart chargers, and it'll diagnos a batteries condition and give you a read out if there's any reason the battery won't take a charge... I've seen them for around $50-$60 bucks at Sam's Club. They even have a starting circut. I bought mine at West Marine at dealer cost which was more than Sam's, but it's private labled and if anything goes wrong with the unit it's replaced acrossed the counter...no questions asked.

[GeorgeS]

The Plug you mentioned that was Damaged. ( From, the Regulator ) Follow the Black wires FROM that Plug. It goes Into the Harness, and then to the Main Grounding Point.

 

--- Its Located, Left of Battery, and about 3 inches forward, UNDER, the Upper Left Fairing. Go in thru the Radio Panel, Its a 14MM bolt on the UPPER Frame Member,

 

??? You Might , have a bad , corroded Ground connection at this point.

 

Even if it checks good with OHM Meter, Get to the Bolt head, and Clean the Several Grounding connections here.

 

This is where ALL the Black wires for the Entire Wireing Harness, get their Main Ground Point.

 

Also, double check your Battery Cable NEG one, where it connects to Right Forward corner of the Engine Case. Pull out the Bolt, and clean, and maby Resolder, the Stud on end of the Heavy Neg. Cable.

[rhncue]

Well, I got it back charging again. It appears that the second reg/rec has a defective regulator. I tried a number of tests from the "Electrix fault finding chart" http://www.electrosport.com/technical-resources/library/diagnosis/fault-finding-guide.php

And finally decided to try the old reg/rec again. The bike charged nicely when I hooked it up so I replaced the the reg/rec with the original. I ended up putting bullet connectors on the three white wires from the stator as I was having to cut and re-solder over and over running test to correct this problem.

 

Dick