Battery dead occasionally

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Jungo

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Guys:

The Enterprise was unable to crank 2 times this week, and 4 times during the last month. Every time that I got this problem, I just pushed the bike and fired up the engine. Then she works fine until I got the problem again. This morning Scotty connected the digital voltmeter to the battery and showed us 12.20V. Cool. I fired up the Enterprise and in a matter of seconds the meter reading was 13.5V @ 1000RPM. I just left the bike warming up, went to the kitchen, my wife was mad because the mess the kids left last night, and when I go outside the Enterprise was warmed up and ready to rumble, but the meter was reading 15.05V @ 1100RPM!!!!! :headscratch: I connected and spare voltmeter and got the same reading. Scotty tell me "Capt. Jungo we have a voltage regulator failure" , I replied: "I know, but can an over voltage drain a battery?" I presume that if we got less than 11.7V in our charging system, next time we try to fire up the Enterprise will not crank up. But in this case, we got over 14V and some times the battery can't crank the engine. Probably sometimes the voltage drops and I didn't noticed, because the Enterprise voltmeter is out of service. I bought a new one from Harbor Fried Chicken, but didn't install yet.

Any thoughts?
 
A hot battery (above 14.5 volts) will have reduced cranking capabilities. Once it cools down it will recover its cranking capacity unless the battery is ruined by plate failure or lack of electrolyte as Joe stated. This similar condition can occur from excessive cranking as well, often allowing the battery to rest for an hour or so will restore its cranking capacity.

As with all charge circuit issues we need to determine what is the weak link, stator,rotor,rectifier/regulator or battery. :read:
 
How about the wiring connections jungo?
Stator wires, regulator wires, battery and ground connections, all of them clean and not burnt looking?

A shorting battery can cause all sorts of strange things to happen, loose grounds too.
I'd take the battery and have it tested also.
 
When I had the same issue on my '81, it turned out that the battery was low on water and the connector to the regulator was dirty. The first thing I did was replace the engine! (Well.......I was swapping out the engine anyway....but I though I would throw that in there for good measure! :hihihi: )

This issue did arise after the engine swap also (same regulator and wiring). I cleaned the connector and replaced the battery (with an AGM) and have not had any issue since. :clapping:
 
Update:

In the past days I was spending my time cleaning connections, plugs, grounding posts, battery terminals ,and other things related to the charging circuit. Question: Since the battery was exposed to an over voltage for long time, Is recommendable to check the fluid on a sealed battery? There's a label on top of the battery saying the risks of trying to open the cells cap.

This is my battery:

Any thoughts? :thanks:
 
Naw...you cannot open them to check. (There is a reason they are sealed!) If you overcharged it numerous times, it may have weakened the cells from being able to hold a charge. You can have the battery load tested to confirm that.
 
[url=https://www.classicgoldwings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=83631#p83631:119ejn5x said:
mcgovern61 » Mon Jun 03, 2013 9:44 pm[/url]":119ejn5x]Naw...you cannot open them to check. (There is a reason they are sealed!) If you overcharged it numerous times, it may have weakened the cells from being able to hold a charge. You can have the battery load tested to confirm that.

Roger, 10-4. :eek:k:
 
To conclude my case, I finally replaced the voltage regulator. I bought a new one on Fleabay for $ 69 (1 year warranty). This does not contain the black wire, so there is no way to monitor the voltage. Clearly this person is selling a copy of the original regulator with a homemade circuit which does not monitor the battery voltage. At least it maintains a stable voltage when is at idle, and reaches 14.5 volts max (steady as a rock) when it reaches or passes of 3000RPM. I installed the regulator almost a week ago and the battery is cranking to perfection when I start the Dilithium Crystal reactor.

Thanks for all your tips and advises.

Jungo
PS.
The seller states on the auction: "The RaceTech Electric R290 voltage regulator rectifier is a high quality part designed to be a direct plug & play installation in Honda Goldwing models. All of our voltage regulators are CAD designed using the latest software, and built to exacting specifications. We use cutting edge manufacturing processes to ensure a perfect-fitting regulator every time.

We use the highest quality diodes in our rectifiers, rated at 60Amps (double the constant current they withstand in normal use). Our regulation control control circuits use very accurate tolerance resistors for precise voltage regulation, and fast switching Silicon Control Rectifiers (SCR's) for quick shunting of excess current."
 
Jungo the back wire is a trigger wire and most later model rectifier/regulator circuits don't contain it. The best upgrade for these charge circuits is a cbr600 05-07 Mofset regulator which you can normally pick up second hand from the wreckers/breakers.
 
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