15.3 volts while revving....is something wrong?

[njcafe84]

Just put in a new standard yuasa battery this morning. I can't tell exactly my rpms when I got the 15.3 volts at the battery but it was with a little throttle.

It will idle in the 13s and slowly creep up from around 14.6 to 15.3v with a little throttle. Is this normal or am I over charging?

 

[16VGTIDave]

Sounds slightly high to me. 14.7 is about as high as you should see. That said, is your meter accurate? Do you have another meter, or could you borrow one for comparison?

 

[njcafe84]

Good idea...I'll borrow my buddies and see what I get

 

[xschris]

14.5v at 5k rpm's is max. Sounds like you need a new voltage regulator.

 

[XSLeo]

It might be the regulator, it could also be a bad connection on the power wire to the reg. This wire is a voltage sensing wire. The regulator uses this voltage reference to determine if the battery needs charging.
With the key on check the battery voltage at the battery terminals, now check the voltage on the brown wire at the regulator. Is it the same as the battery? if not check any connections between the battery and regulator. If you have say a 1.5 voltage drop at the reg then it's gonna think the battery needs charging even if it doesn't. This 1.5 volt drop will cause the charge voltage to be 1.5 volts to high.
Leo

 

[njcafe84]

XsLeo....how can I get to that specific wire? Do I have to take apart my air filters or battery box to get there?

Check again today with another volt meter and got 15.5 volts with a little throttle.

What's the harm of over charging? I'm not very electrically savvy

 

[16VGTIDave]

Over charging the battery and possibly boiling it dry, or worse. Burning out light bulbs, frying any electronics, leaving you stranded at the side of the road...

 

[njcafe84]

11.8v at the battery and 9.8v at the brown wire on the regulator side of the connection plug

What does this mean?

 

[16VGTIDave]

Crusty connections somewhere. My ignition switch was one spot I didn't think to look until it got real bad and started cutting out when riding. You are going to have to do some testing to find the problem spot(s).

 

[njcafe84]

So you're saying that it's not the voltage regulator?

Could it be my fuse box? My fuse box is a rats nest of inline fuses the PO managed to crimp together to keep the bike running

 

[16VGTIDave]

I'm NOT ruling anything out. I'm suggesting that since you have reported a 2V drop from the battery to the voltage regulator plug, that needs to be corrected.

 

[njcafe84]

So I wanted to check with the obvious things first so I took a quick look at my fuses. Now keep in mind I never checked them since I bought the bike because everything on the bike works perfectly fine.

So to my surprise I found 30amp, 15amp, 20amp, and 20amp fuses in the PO home made fuse box. The thing is a disaster.

Also I checked the volts at the battery today and they are 11.7v then I check the volts at the brown wire on the harness side of the connection to the voltage regulator and got 10.4.
That is directly on the terminal because I disconnected it from the voltage regulator.
Could my terrible fuse situation be causing the drop in voltage directly on the harness like that?

Here's a pic of my rats best that I'm gonna fix this weekend with a blade style fuse box

 

[16VGTIDave]

Service and charge your battery while you are getting that mess sorted out. 20A main fuse, 10A for the rest. Once you have the new fuse box installed, check the voltage drops or circuit resistance, and determine if you have corrected the issue.

 

[njcafe84]

ok so not only are all the fuses wrong( the main line only has a 15a fuse in it) but the wire connections are wrong too.

this is what I understand as normal according to the normal(please correct me if I am wrong)

red-red
red/yellow-red/white
brown-brown
brown-red/white

this is what my bike has at the moment
red-red
red/yellow-Brown
red/white-red/white
brown-brown

this thing is a complete mess...

 

[XSLeo]

The wire I referenced is the brown wire at the reg. To check just probe into the connector at the reg.
Leo

 

[njcafe84]

Ok so I redid the fuse box today with a blade style box but now the bike won't start.
The red/white and red/yellow wires don't have any power at all and the headlight isn't on also the starter won't do anything when I press the button. The starter solenoid has power.
Only right side blinkers work now.

Could I have fried something by leaving the battery connected while doing this? Where should I look? Could the headlight be blown and this is the
Problem? I'm at a complete lost.

Again red/white and red/yellow wires have NO power now. Prior to this the bike had power to everything, headlight, blinkers and starter button all worked prior

 

[16VGTIDave]

You are going to have to double and triple check everything you touched. Assume nothing!

Leaving the battery connected while working on electrical is generally a bad idea. More so if you are not confident in what you are doing. Why do you think the service manual always says to disconnect the battery first? Because even trained technicians make mistakes.

 

[njcafe84]

OK I obviously understand leaving the battery connected was a bad Idea

my question was, what do those two wires run through that could have possibly broken and caused them to no longer have power at all. I mean no power directly at the factory line. Not on my new connectors, I already cut those off in order to rule them out.

Im looking for some advice here, someone to point me in a good direction to begin with, not just checking every single electrical connection on the bike, I dont have time for that with a 6 week old son at home so please help me