Battery Drain Problem

[Callis60]

So I've had a whole catadtrophe with my bike dying. Got a brand new battery and drained it dead in 20 min of hard riding. Replaced the voltage regulator because I don't have time to diagnose the problem. Thought that fixed it but after about 2 hours of riding the bike died. When I had the new regulator in I hooked up my meter and ran the bike from idle to 2000 rpms and they went up to 14.6 from about 13 at idle which I thought shows the charging system is good. Now I'm lost and have no idea what the problem could be....only thing I could think of is something is draining the battery but don't know what could be doing this. Any help would be greatly appreciated

 

[rchuff]

are your cables tight at the battery? I mean tight.

 

[Callis60]

I'll have to check that but almost positive. When they're lose usually the bike starts skipping and jumping around cause the cables are not tight but I didn't think that would drain the battery

 

[rchuff]

if your stator is going you will drain the battery. you might have ruined the new regulator do to stator going bad. maybe.

 

[user_deleted]

3 seperate distinct issues here and ricky put you on the right track.
1-take the time and trouble shoot the charging system. if you the DC volts you say you do at a particular engine speed then the charging system is fine. remove the front pulley cover and check the #77 connector which is the heart of the charging system attachment points and must be corrosion free and pristine.
2-CLOSELY check your ground cable from neg. batt terminal to frame grounding point. they can crack/break and wreak havoc and be confused with a faulty charging system component.
3-take a multi meter and set to DC AMPS........NOT AC AMPS.......DC AMPS. place it in parallel between the neg. battery terminal and cable end. turn key on....turn run switch to on. now remove each of your 3 relays one at a time. large change in meter reading? that's the drainage. replace that relay

 

[Callis60]

Ok thanks everyone. I will do all of these things and then get back. I did recheck my voltage readings with the bike running and the battery is getting charged so I think it could be a bad ground connection or possibly relay

 

[Callis60]

Ok so when I remove the key switch relay the Amps go from 1.3 down to .9A and when I remove the ignition it goes from about 1.3A down to 1A. I don't know if that's a significant drop or not.

 

[Callis60]

I just checked the stator (resistance) and it passed with flying colors. Would it be possible to fry a brand new voltage regulator because it seems that when I replaces the regulator the bike was charging and running fine but after like 3 hours of riding it crapped out. Doesn't make much sense. I checked the main ground wire and it's in good condition.

 

[user_deleted]

^^^^ if i understand your postings here correctly......your battery is fresh and charging system producing sufficient voltage with bike running and tested. but somewhere between start-up and 3 hours of riding the battery dies from lack of charging. correct? if that's precisely the case it's clearly heat related. remove front pulley cover as i previously mentioned and check the large connector plug. these are very simple charging systems and easy to diagnose problems on. you did NOT "fry" your brand new VR. it either works or does not work. if it's "fried" it's finished. it won't die then self-resurrect.

 

[Callis60]

I'm sorry if I made it unclear. I purchased a new voltage regulator and installed it and after 3 hours of riding it crapped out. I was wrong....I rechecked the charging system only to find the stator was outputting voltage with the bike running and rising with rpms but I was getting no voltage from the voltage regulator. Could they have set me a defective regulator?