Short Trips - Battery

[Rik398]

Here I am again, with some electricla issues.

I decided to buy a new battery and get a propper charger (optimate thing) to rule out the possibility of it being sold a dud battery or my previous charger actually ruining them. So, the idea being that everything had been done right and to the book, and that way if another battery went dead, it was definatley the bike.

Well, apranatley not. Battery has been in for a couple of months now, and has only just died now. Surley if the bike was not charing the battery, it would have died long ago and wouldn't have lasted that long?

Going to get a voltmeter tommorow, but until then is it pssible that short trips have ruined the battery? Uni has finnished so I am just at home revising at the mo (ish) and so the only trips I have done are dropping the other half at work, which is basiclly a 2 mile trip mostly down hill so no high revs or anything like that.

Cheers

[TC]

It could be your rectifier overheating and not charging the battery. For short journeys it might still be charging for short periods

[Tango]

Short journeys like that don't do the battery or engine a lot of good. When you use the starter it takes quite a bit out of the battery.....so it needs a reasonable run to replace the energy it has used in starting. You know from using the charger that it takes several hours to recharge the battery.......so the alternator also needs to be running for some time before it replaces the charge in the battery. If you had a dud battery it would go flat on it's own quite quickly. If you say that it has lasted several weeks doing these short runs since the last recharge I'd say it was pretty much what you would expect.......

[Rik398]

Yeah I was thinking that short trips might have done it no good. I think I shall just charge tommorow and see what happens. Problem is I dont really have the time to be giving it any longer trips at the moment really.

Issue is that I could tell it was starting to struggle the day it went, and during this time the speedo stopped working and so did the rev counter. Would this then suggest that it might be a more serious problem? or is it simply that it did not have enough juice to run the clocks?

cant really do any serious investigation until I get my hands on a voltmeter really.

Cheers again

[Tango]

Is this on the Daytona? I've read somewhere about problems that affect the rev counter and speedo. Might be worth having a look on the Triumph RAT forum for more precise info.....

Just looked this up:

http://www.triumphrat.net/triumph-super ... again.html

[Rik398]

Thanks for the link, It will no doubt help alot in my testing.

Its just annoying... I got a brand new stator less than 6 months ago. Every time I take it to a garage, all they do is take great delight in telling me that the lead that they plug the diagnostics machine in has corroded, they wont go any further without the diagnostics working, and a new wire is £300. So basically, for a garage to look at it, they wont do anything until i have spent £300 for them to use the diagnostics. They wanted this £300 of me once, and it was a dead fuse. Show how much they look at the thing themselves before relying on a comuter.

Anyway, voltmeter tommorow, and have a look when I get some time. First... the torture of studying the most boring stuff in the world so I can pass an exam (or 5 lol) on the wrong course. pfft lol.

cheers. I will let peeps know how it goes. Seems a genuine problem on my bike to be honest.

[Rik398]

quick update.

Had some time today so got the stator out and it is burnt to a crisp again.

Im going down the lines of new stator and new regulator.

Can a dodgey regulator burn out a stator?

and also, this may sound a rather stupid question, but has anyone ever rewound a stator themselves? I mean, to me it just looks like some general copper wire and an epoxy resin kinda thing over the top? Surley if i just wrap it in the same number of turns in the same way then it would work?

cheers

[eastanglianbiker]

might be worth you having a chat with http://www.electrexworld.co.uk/

[Matt Strange]

has anyone ever rewound a stator themselves?

 

 

Yes, on offroad bikes a few times. It's not that difficult, just wind your coil of wire on the dodgy coil(s) until you get the correct resistance for the stator. solder up the connection, jobs a goodun!

 

Can a dodgey regulator burn out a stator?

 

yes, especially if it is shorting to ground.

[Rik398]

Cheers folks.

I got my old stator from that elex place you said. The regulator I can get for 45 quid. While lot including oil change should be just under 200. It would cost 1053 quid at the garage lol.