Has anyone else installed this on their 2nd gens?

[1BigDog]

A little history:

As most of you know, I have been trying to track down an electrical charging glitch which rears its ugly head at the worst times. I have replaced the side stand relay (not the sidestand switch), the rectifier/regulator, performed voltage drop tests and all was well. I then installed a "Heads-Up L.E.D. Voltage Monitor from Signal Dynamics Corp, which is micropressor controlled. It flashes red, green or yellow to tell you just what your charging system is doing, 50,000 times per second. This thing is so sensitive that the charging light goes from full green to yellow when any light is applied such as brakes or turn signals. It seems to have the worst draw when I turn on my driving lights, which run through a relay. Tonight we rode to a restaurant where the red light came on and stayed on for several minutes, indicating a failing charge condition. We never shut the bike down and rode home. A few minutes later the bike showed normal charging again, so the problem seems very intermittent. When I got home the bike fired up perfectly several times. it also started right up after 2 hours of sitting.

 

Now to my question(s):

Has anyone here ever installed this gauge on their bike?

Im thinking that this gauge is really super sensitive and the variations that I have experienced are normal. SO, if you have installed this item on your bike, how has it responded? Was the green steady, or did it fluctuate whenever brakes or signals were used? Driving lights? etc?

[RedRider]

I have installed a LED meter (different one, but it does the same thing) and find it will react very quickly to changing current draws.

 

When I am running my electric vest and gloves on half load (heating system pulses on/off), it will go from green to yellow when the heat indicator is on, and back to green when the heat indicator is off.

 

At no time does it ever drop below yellow, even when I have everything on high (lights, electrics, stereo, brakes, etc.)

 

Sounds like you still have a gremlin.

 

RR

[Cutty]

Do you have a digital multi meter you can try while riding?

[1BigDog]

Yep, i have to agree with ya....grrrrrrrrr

[muffinman]

Jeff I will be spending the 6th of Jan working on your scoot if you dont get it fixed before then.

Check the stator output wiring connector to make sure all is well with it.

Maybe the connector is dirty or loose.

I am at the house and will be home all day so if you want give me a call on the house line.

Jeff

[Squidley]

I would agree with Muffin, in that the connection plug from the stator is dirty. Mine went bad on me as I was leaving work 1 day and I had to strip and splice the wires together to make it home. I have since soldered them together and sealed them up.

[1BigDog]

Jeff, by the stator connector im guessing you mean where it connects to the rectifier. That is a plug in, not a bolt on connector. Im going to see if I can find a shop in the area that specializes in this and comes highly recommended first. At this point im getting pretty pissed at this.

 

Either way, you know the lights always on for ya!

[1BigDog]

I would agree with Muffin, in that the connection plug from the stator is dirty. Mine went bad on me as I was leaving work 1 day and I had to strip and splice the wires together to make it home. I have since soldered them together and sealed them up.

 

Hey Squid, can I give ya a call??

[Squidley]

Hey Squid, can I give ya a call??

 

Absolutely...Let me go turn my phone on

[1BigDog]

Spoke to Squid and I located those wires. They were packed with dirty grease. I cleaned the connections up real good with contact cleaner, put some dialectric grease on the connections and put it all back together. It appears that the problem is still there.

 

Now, getting back to the LED gauge: I went back and checked the charging volts with the DMM and it was fine.

13.75 at idle. When I turned on a turn signal or brake light it dropped to 13.70 and the light went to yellow, which is normal. It went to green when the light source was off.

 

Now the biggie: When I hit the driving lights it dropped from 13.75 to 13.48 and the light went to red. Turned off the lights and it immediately went to green and the voltage returned to 13.75. Now im wondering if I have a short in the driving lights.

 

So, my next question is: Is a .27 drop in voltage normal for driving lights? From what I have been reading I believe that anything more than .03-.04 is too much of a drop. It sure is a learning experience.

[flb_78]

I would Venture to say that as long as your above 13.5 volts that it's fine. My driving lights dim slightly when I turn on the turn signals.

[Condor]

A little history:

As most of you know, I have been trying to track down an electrical charging glitch which rears its ugly head

 

This is just a wild guess, but could it be that when you turn on the driving lights and start pulling amps from the battery that the sensor detects a low batt situation, and until the alternator brings the battery back up to full charge voltage the meter stays in the red or yellow as long as your running low rpm??? If the 2gen rectifyer is anything like a 1Gen, the alternator doesn't start putting out until above 2000rpm +, and the yellow will stay on until the motor runs above that range and gets the batt back up to full charge voltage???

[1BigDog]

I was just hashing this out with Muffinman and were thinking along those lines too Condor. What Im going to do is to rewire the whole driving light system, which is 8 years old, replace the switch and relay, and give it a try. It only goes to red when the driving lights are on and there may be a bad wire in there or possibly a ground. Im still thinking that the LED gauge is overly sensitive too. By the time im finished i'll have a new bike practically......sheesh.

 

By the way...thanks for all the help and advice as I wend my way through this mess.....

[flb_78]

When you park the bike, do you use a Battery Tender or another similar style trickle charger? If not, I would have to recommend it.

[sarges46]

Jeff

 

How old is your battery? Weird things happen with a old and failing battery.

[muffinman]

Rick I am pretty sure Jeff jsut replaced the battery a couple of months ago.

I am under the impression that the feed wire for the DL's may be cooked or have high resistance in the connectors.Jeff is going to try a few things I suggested and let me know.

It looks like I will be riding down to Fla the first week of Jan to see if I can get this right for him.

Besides that I hear Zues wants a Muffin snack.

Jeff

[1BigDog]

When you park the bike, do you use a Battery Tender or another similar style trickle charger? If not, I would have to recommend it.

 

Yep, been using a Tender for years.

 

Jeff

 

How old is your battery? Weird things happen with a old and failing battery.

 

Its a new battery. I put a new one in back in July, when that failed the dealer swapped it out since we felt it had a weak call but the new one failed too, which is where this whole mess started....

 

Besides that I hear Zues wants a Muffin snack.

 

 

Jeff

 

Zeus says he will settle for a mini snack too.....

[1BigDog]

It looks like the charging problem may be licked even though im still going to go ahead and rewire the passing light system. In my opening post I mentioned the LED gauge going to full red for a few minutes and I also wondered on the sensitivity of the new gauge. We went out for a ride today and the same thing happened...when the bike got hot the LED went to full red for a minute. We rode on to our destination and along the way, as we were in traffic it went full red a few more times. I stopped, shut the bike down then turned the key back on...yep, the intermittent red was the cooling fan coming on. As soon as it went off the bike went back to full green, same as when the passing lights are on. When this happened in the garage the DMM was still reading over 13V so it was still charging. The bike also fired right up at least 6 times tonight. So, at this point I tend to believe that the gauge is just a wee bit too sensitive. Ill know more after a few days of riding.......

[1BigDog]

I called Signal Dynamics today to discuss the sensitivity of the voltage monitor and they confirmed my suspicions. It will read any drop within .5 volts (or something like that) and the light will definitely show a change. It is much more sensitive than the Kuryakyn gauge. At least now I know that the charging system is finally working properly. That occasional red light was driving me nuts. At least the beast fires right up now! Hopefully I wont have to push start it in front of the Harleys anymore.

 

Im still going to rewire the driving lights and add LED turn and brake lights to reduce draw.

 

Thanks to all who helped me through this issue, including the numerous phone calls, especially Muffinman, Squidly, Thom440, LetHimRide, Sleeperhawk, etc. Squeeze and Gibvel also provided valuable DMM guidance. Hmmmmm, does that now make me an electrical engineer?? (first one to call me sparky, dies)

[Squidley]

Jeff,

Make sure that if you install LED brake lights and turn signals that you have a load equalizer installed with it. The turn signals will flash very fast and shallow as the bikes charging system is designed for the load of the standard bulbs.

...and there you have it....Sparkette (I didn't call you sparky )