Help the black art of electrickery

[teedee]

Hi guys, i've got a XL600 which seems to have a charging problem. The battery shows 12.95 volts when the bike is not running but when i start the engine it drops down to 12.50 volts the headlight goes brighter with the engine running but anything over 3k revs and the lights start to flash but just before this happens the volts go up to 13, i've tried another regulator but it makes no difference. Any ideas?

Teedee

[micksylver]

With regards to the flashing headlamp once engine is running, I'd be looking for a loose connection somewhere, starting near the battery and main earth to frame. Good hunting!

Otherwise battery volts seems reasonable to me.

If reg/rec is iffy usual symptom is high volts (more than 14.5) at the battery when engine is run to a few thousand revs - which then boils the battery.

[416cc]

Do the lights only light when the engine is running? If this is the case, the lights are working from the AC winding & not from the battery.

Generally the brake lights, horn & indicators are DC fed, head & tail-lights AC fed. The AC output might only be enough to feed the main lights & not enough for anything else.

Don't forget that the battery is part of the load on the charging system, so if there's a problem with charging, it may well be the battery that is faulty.

[teedee]

Hi guys,

Thanks for your ideas. The battery is new gel type. When the headlight starts flashing so do all the other lights, tail light, clock light, brake light etc. I thought i would be looking at around 13.5volts with the engine running? Thinking about it now it does sound like it could be a bad connection somewhere in the loom because correct me if i'm wrong but if the stator or regulator where not working i wouldn't have any charge at all or too much? and the lights do work off the battery.

[catteeclan]

I'm guessing it's the same as my xl600. Check the voltage from the stator. Should be an even voltage between aby of the three wires. If that's ok check your earths through-out the bike.
I had the red wire from the votage reg look ok but was corroded before it entered the mutiplug. I found it by accident, pulled the plug and the wire fell apart with a load of green powder.

[416cc]

I have located a Clymer manual for the Honda XR/XL500-650 singles #M339.
Within the manual there's a circuit diagram for the XL600R which shows a charging system with a battery & a rectifier/regulator unit...as well as an AC regulator which feeds the lights.

[teedee]

Hi,
I've seen that circuit diagram but there's no extra wiring in my loom to to take another rectifier/ regulator unit. The loom does not look like any things been added or removed so i'm puzzled by that diagram.

[teedee]

Guys,

Thanks for your help, it is a bad connection as i stripped the stator and reg off this morning to check the wiring, put it all back together and i now have 14v at 3k revs and the lights no longer flash. i'm going to strip the harness off and re solder all the joints as i'm not sure which connection it is. Thanks for your help and support