2000 MM acting weird.

[YamaDuck]

Does anyone suspect what is going on with my MM. Yesterday I had been riding all day and the bike was doing fine. Then on the way home I noticed the turn signals blinking fast. I have LED blinkers. Then going by a friends house I tried to honk the horn and nothing. I pulled into the driveway suspecting a dead battery and got off and checked. Driving lights getting dim. Checked brake lights and they worked fine. Checked blinkers and they all worked but were weak and flashing fast. Checked horn and it blew but blew weak. Battery is always on a battery tender when it is in the basement. Battery is a little over a year old. Took battery out and it is not swollen. Bike has 57,000 miles on it. I will take the battery and have it checked. Could it be the stater and if so how do I tell and doesn't someone make a higher output stater? Could it be the regulator and if so how do I test it? Is it acting like an electrical short?

 

Ant suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Harry

 

P.S. Just had the battery checked and the battery is good.

Edited June 1, 2014 by YamaDuck
New info

[djh3]

I would start with easy cheap stuff. Ground connection at bike frame (actually one is top right by horn) Connection at starter solenoid behind left passenger floorboard. M61a1mech just had a RR go south on him but it was "stuck" open. Does sort of point that way though.

[YamaDuck]

I will go check that now and let you know. Thanks.

[Rick Haywood]

May be the rectifyer regulator that happened to mine and it did weird things like that. Stzrt the bike and unhook the battery if it keeps running the stator is fine

[YamaDuck]

I found the ground wire over the horn. I took the left passenger floorboard off and the plastic cover but I can not find a ground wire. The ground wire over the horn is fine. All I found by the left passenger floorboard was two large wires attached to a black plastic thing with two 30 amp fuses and I checked those fuses and they are fine.

 

Hi Rick I hope you have been fine. I will do that now and let everyone know.

 

I noticed my coolant reservoir is completely empty. I was on a charity ride yesterday and it took us an hour and thirty seven minutes to go 38 miles. I did not hear the cooling fan come on because I was listening to my music through my headset. I did the same thing on the way home. If the cooling fan had come on and stayed on during the ride and on the trip home could that have run down the battery?

[YamaDuck]

Follow up: I charged the battery and put it back in the motorcycle. I started the motorcycle and disconnected the positive cable. The motorcycle continued to run. With the battery fully charged the turn signals and everything worked normal. So it might be the regulator or possibly the cooling fan ran down the battery. Although I did not hear the cooling fan run but that may have been because of the music and my headset. I do know that when I got home and turned off the motorcycle and tried to crank it the cooling fan came on for a split second which I thought at the time was odd but now know why since my coolant reservoir is completely empty.

 

So I can fill the reservoir and see if this happens again and if it does I will search to see if there is a way of testing the regulator.

[djh3]

The large wires you found on the left side were the positive to the starter solenoid. You may want to remove the gas tank and open the radiator cap (with bike cold) and see if there is water in the neck area. If by chance the cooling system pushed the water out there may be a void or bubble in the system and if memory serves rite it would have a hard time drawing coolant in.

[YamaDuck]

The large wires you found on the left side were the positive to the starter solenoid. You may want to remove the gas tank and open the radiator cap (with bike cold) and see if there is water in the neck area. If by chance the cooling system pushed the water out there may be a void or bubble in the system and if memory serves rite it would have a hard time drawing coolant in.

 

Thanks I will do that.

[YamaDuck]

I checked the output on the regulator with an analog volt meter. It reads 13.4 to 13.5 when I rev it. Sounds good to me but I don't know my head from a hole in the ground. I guess it could be an intermittent problem or a short. I guess I will just have to see if it does it again.

[Flyinfool]

Here is the whole ste by step process for testing a no charge condition.

http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?t=81297

[YamaDuck]

Wow thanks Jeff. That is great. I had no idea we had such a process recorded. This will help a lot!

[Rick Haywood]

Good luck Harry and it was great talking to you. Call anytime and for that matter if you aRe up this way stop by you always have a place at our house

[YamaDuck]

Thanks Rick it was great talking to you again and likewise you always have a place to stay on your way to Fl. to see your daughter. Just let me know. I am going to get me an extra regulator just to have on hand. The run from $35 to $65. I need to do a little research to see which one is the best quality. Since I have two Ventures even if it is not the regulator now I am sure I will need it at some point and I will not have to wait a week to get it. Take care buddy,

Harry

[YamaDuck]

Well this is getting crazy. I have two Ventures so I tested them against each other. My MM (the one that the battery discharged) I checked with a voltmeter. I turned off all the electrical equipment I could. I had the headlight on low beam and the taillight bulb. All the other bulbs are LED. Radio off, CB off. Disconnected the positive post after cranking. 13.74 volts. Rev'd it up and it went to 14.04 volts. I then connected everything back. I turned on the driving lights, I put the headlight on high beam, I turned the radio on and the CB. 13.74 volts and when I rev'd it 13.75 volts. I don't see any problems but it is cold and I have not tested it hot.

 

Now for my 01 Venture which is not giving me any problems. All lights on this bike are LED. I turned off the radio, the CB, and the driving lights. I cranked it up and disconnected the positive cable. It kept running. I checked the voltage, 13.26 volts. As I rev'd it the voltage dropped to 11 volts yet the battery stays charged when I am riding it. I have taken a load off by switching to LED's and I always put it on a battery tender so I may have just been lucky on it but I think I need a new regulator on my green 01.

[Freebird]

Just to cover my bases, I would switch the batteries first and do those tests again.

[YamaDuck]

That is a good idea that I did not think of. Thanks I will do that this evening or tomorrow as I am watching my 4 month old granddaughter until this evening.

[djh3]

Just for $hits and grins after you test it with the battery swapped, how hard is it to swap RR. Se if same thing follows across. I guess it is a possibility that the RR on the troublesome bike got "stuck". just an idea

[YamaDuck]

Just for $hits and grins after you test it with the battery swapped, how hard is it to swap RR. Se if same thing follows across. I guess it is a possibility that the RR on the troublesome bike got "stuck". just an idea

I'm sure it would not be too difficult. I hope. I have never changed one out before but I hear it is not too difficult. I might as well do that tomorrow also.

[Neil86]

Where are you testing voltage on the '01?

[YamaDuck]

I am testing the voltage coming back to the battery from the regulator. I crank the 01 then disconnect the positive cable (The flat piece of metal with the bolt hole) I put the black wire from the voltmeter on the negative terminal and I put the red lead from the voltmeter on the flat plate while keeping the plate from touching the positive terminal.

[RandyR]

does the bike with LED's have any special adapter or flasher for the LED's vs regular filament bulbs? that might be a place to look.

[YamaDuck]

No Randy. The turn signals are the only bulbs (besides the instrument blubs) that are not LED's. I have a relay for the air horn and a relay for the LED driving lights but everything else is hardwired into the electrical system. With the exception of my LED flashers that come on when I hit the brakes and they are built into the small flashing lights.

[YamaDuck]

Just to cover my bases, I would switch the batteries first and do those tests again.

 

I just got through changing the batteries and I get almost identical reading. The MM testing the voltage coming back to the positive side of the battery through the cable with the cable disconnected from the positive side of the battery varies between 13.61 and 13.70 volts. As I rev the engine it goes up to 14 volts. Vary similar to the other battery when I had it in the MM.

 

The 01 measuring the same way 13.36 volts and as I rev the engine it goes down to 11 volts. Almost exactly like the results I had with the other battery in it.

 

I have not swapped the regulators yet.

 

I just swapped the regulators. Both bikes read the same as they did with the old regulators.

 

So forget the MM. I think it was just a fluke. My front brakes are getting hard to pull smoothly. I need to grease the leaver. Who knows maybe I was riding home with the brake light stuck on.

 

So the green 01 seems to have a problem. I don't know enough about electrical systems to know what is going on so if some of you have some theories please through them my way. Here it is in a nutshell, I have tried this with two regulators and they both do the same thing. They start out charging anywhere from about 13.16 volts to 13.36 volts then as I rev the engine the volts begin to drop. The higher I rev the lower the voltage drops. I have measured down to 11 volts. I don't know if a short would cause this or not. Maybe one of you know. Anyway I am going to search for answers but if any of you have an idea I would appreciate the help.

 

Harry

Edited June 4, 2014 by YamaDuck
Made some more test.

[djh3]

So if I gather rite your MM is OK. Your 01 is the problem child. And the voltage drops when reved up and it should be charging more actually. If you can work a OHM meter maybe you should OHM out the stator. I'm sort of poking in the dark here, but you changed out the other 2 variables I think.

I googled the problem and ran across a couple of similar write ups. Check the connections at the starter relay and your 30a main fuse and your connector plugs for RR, starter etc to see if melted or something.

[YamaDuck]

So if I gather rite your MM is OK. Your 01 is the problem child. And the voltage drops when reved up and it should be charging more actually. If you can work a OHM meter maybe you should OHM out the stator. I'm sort of poking in the dark here, but you changed out the other 2 variables I think.

I googled the problem and ran across a couple of similar write ups. Check the connections at the starter relay and your 30a main fuse and your connector plugs for RR, starter etc to see if melted or something.

 

I did all that on the MM and everything checked out all right. That is why I think the brake light stuck on and ran down the battery. I can not find anything else that it could have been.

 

I don't know how to OHM out the stater so I am recharging the battery on the 01 now with a slow charge (2amp). I will check every connection I can find today and clean them. I will also clean and check the starter relay and fuses. I have looked at staters but I might as well put in a higher output stater if I need to put a new stater in. I don't know how many amps my stock stater is suppose to put out. I found one stater that puts out 45amps but I don't know if that is stock or a high output stater. I have looked so the stater output amps but I have not found the info yet. There are a couple more articles I need to check here and maybe one of those will have that info.

 

Thanks for the help.