1983 VR charging issue

[Yngbld14]

Ok. I checked the charging as per write up on this board and everything checks out. So I start mybbike with a meter on the battery as it's running. It starts of at 13.2 volts and as the bike warms up I see the voltage gradually drop down to 12.4. Turn the bike off and battery is pretty much dead at this point. Bad rectifier? Or stator?

[bongobobny]

I would suspect the Stator first, especially on an '83 if the oil cooling kit was never installed on it! The kit is the large bolt in the center of the Rotor that has a hole in the center and a curved pin that helps splash oil onto the stator for cooling. This was a design flaw on the '83s and early '84s that this kit fixed. Due to improper cooling, the stators were failing prematurely.

 

Anyway, what you need to properly troubleshoot your stator is to find the connector from the stator which is about halfway up the frame. By the way, this connector is a failure point from corrosion on all First Gen Ventures, and many have eliminated this connector and hard soldered the wires. Anyway, disconnect the connector, and with your voltmeter on AC volts, start the bike up and monitor the AC voltage on all 3 combinations of the wires. Label the 3 wires as A, B, and C. At idle, all 3 combinations (A to B, A to C, and B to C) you should see a low AC voltage, probably around 10 volts or so on each combination, and they should all be approximately the same, within a tenth of a volt or so. As you increase the RPM's of the bike, each of those readings should increase their voltage uniformly! You should expect to see closer to 100 volts at say around 5000 rpm to 6000 rpm. You may only see around 70 volts but that should be OK as long as all 3 stay close to each other in value. Also, before you start the bike, you might want to read the DC resistance with the connector disconnected and the bike turned off. All three readings should be very close to each other. You also want to read each wire to ground, you should see infinity ohms, anything less indicates a shorted winding to ground.

 

If your stator checks out OK, a quick check of your charging system is to start the bike, then disconnect the positive lead from the battery. The bike should keep running if everything is right with your charging system.

 

The Rectifier/Regulators on the First Generation Ventures rarely fail! That does not mean that they never fail, it just means it is rare for them to fail. You may want to examine the connector to the R/R as they too can get corroded.

 

I would also take your battery to your local Auto Zone where they will load test it for free!! Just because a battery charges up to a nice 13.2 volts does not necessarily mean the battery is good. A bad cell in the battery will cause it to not be able to deliver the energy it is supposed to under load...

[camos]

Decided Bob had covered this well enough so removed it.

[Yngbld14]

I would suspect the Stator first, especially on an '83 if the oil cooling kit was never installed on it! The kit is the large bolt in the center of the Rotor that has a hole in the center and a curved pin that helps splash oil onto the stator for cooling. This was a design flaw on the '83s and early '84s that this kit fixed. Due to improper cooling, the stators were failing prematurely.

 

Anyway, what you need to properly troubleshoot your stator is to find the connector from the stator which is about halfway up the frame. By the way, this connector is a failure point from corrosion on all First Gen Ventures, and many have eliminated this connector and hard soldered the wires. Anyway, disconnect the connector, and with your voltmeter on AC volts, start the bike up and monitor the AC voltage on all 3 combinations of the wires. Label the 3 wires as A, B, and C. At idle, all 3 combinations (A to B, A to C, and B to C) you should see a low AC voltage, probably around 10 volts or so on each combination, and they should all be approximately the same, within a tenth of a volt or so. As you increase the RPM's of the bike, each of those readings should increase their voltage uniformly! You should expect to see closer to 100 volts at say around 5000 rpm to 6000 rpm. You may only see around 70 volts but that should be OK as long as all 3 stay close to each other in value. Also, before you start the bike, you might want to read the DC resistance with the connector disconnected and the bike turned off. All three readings should be very close to each other. You also want to read each wire to ground, you should see infinity ohms, anything less indicates a shorted winding to ground.

 

If your stator checks out OK, a quick check of your charging system is to start the bike, then disconnect the positive lead from the battery. The bike should keep running if everything is right with your charging system.

 

The Rectifier/Regulators on the First Generation Ventures rarely fail! That does not mean that they never fail, it just means it is rare for them to fail. You may want to examine the connector to the R/R as they too can get corroded.

 

I would also take your battery to your local Auto Zone where they will load test it for free!! Just because a battery charges up to a nice 13.2 volts does not necessarily mean the battery is good. A bad cell in the battery will cause it to not be able to deliver the energy it is supposed to under load...

 

 

I tried it twice. The first when the bike wasn't quite warm. It stayed running. The second after the bike got warm and the bike died. Then it was hard to start and wouldn't.

[Flyinfool]

here is a complete guide to troubleshooting the charging system

http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?81297-Testing-for-a-Battery-not-Charging

[bongobobny]

Young Blood, there is a circumstance that may be coming into play for you right now. If the Stator was overheated and the varnish was weakened, it may still insulate while cold but as it heats up it shorts out!! Try what I suggested when the bike is warmed up...