Battery draining woe's

[cresad]

Hi again

This flaming Chinese 125 clone ( hongyan ) is just one thing after another , this time the battery keeps draining itself. I ride to and from work when it's dark 6 am & 6 pm and after a couple of days there isn't enough juice in the battery to start the engine using the electric start , then headlight the starts to dim.

I've done a continuity test with no drain , but when I did a voltage test I got some weird results. Normal running at 2500 rpms it shows 14.75 - 14.8 v indicators , horn , sidelights , have no difference but the headlight has it drop to about 12.35 .

I've changed the headlight unit as the old one was rusted and broken and I put a osram night breaker or Philips extreme H4 60/55 bulb in it ( can't remember which as I had both around ) and I don't know if that's what is the cause but if it's not anyone got any idea's as it's a pain in the backside having to charge it every couple of days.

Thanks , Adam

[BigGeeking]

Have a look at my post
hope it helps

https://www.bikechatforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=308433
____________________
Bendy "Flip front. I can filter down the M4 while shoving a Twix in my face."
honda CG 125 2001 SOLD-- current Bandit 400--SOLD. current SV650s 2000
MOD 1 ON 20/7/2011**passed** MOD 2 ON 17/10/2011***passed***,,

[smallfrowne]

What's the voltage at higher revs (with headlight on), say at 4 or 5k rpm? Sounds fine without the headlight on though.

Have you tested the voltage using the standard bulb? Although they probably won't fit the headlight if it's now using H4 fitment hmmm. The normal bulb is probably around 35W not 55W. Sadly the wee stator might not be able to juice up the uprated bulb Back to candle light for you!

Something else you could try though if it can't handle the 60/55W bulb and the 22/5W tail lamp: you could try using a lower powered LED tail lamp.
So instead of 60W + 22W = 82W you'd have
60W + 3W (a rough guess) = 63W which is more like the standard of 35W + 22W = 57W.

Might give the stator more of a chance to achieve a semi-reasonable charging voltage, these little stators don't have much capacity over what they needed at design time.

Never tried it myself though, no idea if LED tail bulbs are even any good, but maybe worth a go.

First things first and all that I'd start by testing it with the old bulb and seeing if it charges ok, then doing some further checks on the rectifier as per the other thread if it does not.

Bikes r fun!
____________________
'90 VFR750; '89 NC30; '95 DR650; '89 CD250U; ~'82 CG125; ~C90

[Vincent]

The bulb could indeed be too much ........but what make is the battery and how old is it? Cheap ones can be useless ..and no battery lasts forever.
Going by the build quality of the bikes, I can't imagine most Chinese/Taiwanese/Korean bikes being fitted with the best quality batteries from new.
____________________
Space Is Deep

[Beehive Bedlam]

Batteries don't like the winter it sounds fucked bin it and buy a mottobat.

[monkeybiker]

I think I would just stick a new battery in and go from there. You can get one for £20-30.

[DRZ4Hunned]

Me too, 10.7v standing charge, winter eh
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DRZ400-SM
FZS600

[MCN]

[cresad]

Hi all

The battery is fairly new , last one died from the bike being left standing around. The bulb fitment is standard fit in this light ( it's the same bulb as my Granada ) , the light is a rectangular job replaced just before the last mot as the last one had had it.
I'll have another go with higher revs , and a standard bulb and see what happens.

Thanks , Adam

[Vincent]

Make a note of what the headlight is doing too.....wether getting brighter with revs etc...
____________________
Space Is Deep

[Ariel Badger]

Bulb is pulling too much juice. What was the origional rated at and what is this one rated?
____________________
Bikers make great organ donors, get 115 on your licence today.

[Vincent]

[Ariel Badger]

The difference does not sound huge but these bikes are built to a budget so alternator output will be just what is required to save a few pence on copper wire. Go back to standard and let us know the results.
____________________
Bikers make great organ donors, get 115 on your licence today.

[WD Forte]

I'll have 50p each way on the blub too.
a 55/60W headlamp bulb on a bike with a stator that probably only puts out 70W ish is asking for trouble.
____________________
bikers smell of wee

[cresad]

Right update

Changed the bulb for a 35v one and it's still doing the same. With the meter attached to the battery I turned the indicators , horn and then the lights on to see what would happen ( with standard bulb ) and blew the fuse , changed that and got electrical smoke come up around the tank.
Found the indicator relay has had it , then tested the stator found I had a reading of 1.0 ohms. Although I can now only get a reading of about 12.35v from the battery no matter what else I do.
Am I definitely looking at the regulator/rectifier ? as well as a new indicator relay ? Or do I just replace and see what happens ?

Thanks , Adam

[smallfrowne]

Ah bugger, not so simple then. How did you check the stator, ohms between the output leads? Been a while since I tested a stator - can't remember what a good value should be sorry.

I'd be tempted to check to see if the AC voltage was the same between the windings, I've had a few burn out before where one of the windings was toast and at an obviously different voltage to the others. If the voltage is similar across the outputs it should be ok though and it will probably be the rectifier.

I found this flow chart, https://www.electrosport.com/media/pdf/fault-finding-diagram.pdf which might be of a bit of use to aid in fault finding. But might not relate exactly to your bike.
____________________
'90 VFR750; '89 NC30; '95 DR650; '89 CD250U; ~'82 CG125; ~C90

[cresad]

Hi
Yes , tested on ohms on the 2 wires , I've got a manual that covers most Chinese bikes and that says it should be between 0.5 - 1.0

Adam

[WD Forte]

Cresad
Reading very low resistances need a bit more care as the leads themselves ( like everything )have resistance albeit low.
Before doing a low resistance check on stators,
set the meter on its lowest resistance range, short the meter leads together and note the reading.
Do this a few times to get the average

Around 1 ohm is quite common for many leads
so you have to subtract this from the reading you get on the coils for the actual resistance.
Around 1 ohm is usually pretty good for stator coils as long as the resistance between the coils and engine case/ground is very high
in the megaohms range
Very low to Very high OK?
anything in between suggests an iffy stator
____________________
bikers smell of wee

[cresad]

Ok I'll pull the casing off again and have a go closer to the stator itself , I take it you mean where the wires attach the coils themselves . I've picked up a new regulator as well so I can try that as well.


Thanks, Adam

[cresad]

Right ,
Checked stator again ( as above ) and got the same reading , fitted new regulator and indicator relay. When running at 3-4 k revs I get a reading at the battery of 14.3-5 which drops to 13.6-8 with the lights on. I'm guessing this is going to be about it without changing everything and as I want to get through the direct access as soon as I can afford it next year I'm not going to spend that sort of money on it.

Thanks ,for all the help guys

Adam