Street triple electrical gremlins
Discussion
Not my bike but a mates.
He was having issues with the bike not starting. Initially we replaced the reg/rec and battery based on what the AA bloke, a bloke from a local garage and my past experience.
This didn’t fix the problem so we found that the generator wasn’t putting out enough volts. We replaced it with a new electrex one as the original was burnt out and another new battery.
This seemed to fix the issue for a few weeks but more issues again with the bike not starting unless bumped. After being ridden the battery was getting very hot. The battery was putting out 12.7 volts with the engine off and 13.1 volts with it running. We spoke to the local battery place where it came from and they said that it sounds like a fault with the battery if it’s not undercharging so have replaced it today.
The new battery is putting out 14.4 volts when the engine is idling rather than with a few revs so it looks like the bike is overcharging.
This is where I’m confused, we’ve replaced the battery, Reg/rec and generator so as far as I’m aware it should be fine in theory.
Is it possible the old burnt out generator could have knackered the new reg/rec? If it’s not that then anyone any ideas on how to stop it overcharging? Is there anything else we should be looking at?
ETA we’ve also plugged it into tuneecu and that’s not showing any fault codes stored either.
He was having issues with the bike not starting. Initially we replaced the reg/rec and battery based on what the AA bloke, a bloke from a local garage and my past experience.
This didn’t fix the problem so we found that the generator wasn’t putting out enough volts. We replaced it with a new electrex one as the original was burnt out and another new battery.
This seemed to fix the issue for a few weeks but more issues again with the bike not starting unless bumped. After being ridden the battery was getting very hot. The battery was putting out 12.7 volts with the engine off and 13.1 volts with it running. We spoke to the local battery place where it came from and they said that it sounds like a fault with the battery if it’s not undercharging so have replaced it today.
The new battery is putting out 14.4 volts when the engine is idling rather than with a few revs so it looks like the bike is overcharging.
This is where I’m confused, we’ve replaced the battery, Reg/rec and generator so as far as I’m aware it should be fine in theory.
Is it possible the old burnt out generator could have knackered the new reg/rec? If it’s not that then anyone any ideas on how to stop it overcharging? Is there anything else we should be looking at?
ETA we’ve also plugged it into tuneecu and that’s not showing any fault codes stored either.
Edited by SAS Tom on Wednesday 8th August 22:01
SAS Tom said:
Not my bike but a mates.
He was having issues with the bike not starting. Initially we replaced the reg/rec and battery based on what the AA bloke, a bloke from a local garage and my past experience.
This didn’t fix the problem so we found that the generator wasn’t putting out enough volts. We replaced it with a new electrex one as the original was burnt out and another new battery.
This seemed to fix the issue for a few weeks but more issues again with the bike not starting unless bumped. After being ridden the battery was getting very hot. The battery was putting out 12.7 volts with the engine off and 13.1 volts with it running. We spoke to the local battery place where it came from and they said that it sounds like a fault with the battery if it’s not undercharging so have replaced it today.
The new battery is putting out 14.4 volts when the engine is idling rather than with a few revs so it looks like the bike is overcharging.
This is where I’m confused, we’ve replaced the battery, Reg/rec and generator so as far as I’m aware it should be fine in theory.
Is it possible the old burnt out generator could have knackered the new reg/rec? If it’s not that then anyone any ideas on how to stop it overcharging? Is there anything else we should be looking at?
ETA we’ve also plugged it into tuneecu and that’s not showing any fault codes stored either.
What year is it Tom?He was having issues with the bike not starting. Initially we replaced the reg/rec and battery based on what the AA bloke, a bloke from a local garage and my past experience.
This didn’t fix the problem so we found that the generator wasn’t putting out enough volts. We replaced it with a new electrex one as the original was burnt out and another new battery.
This seemed to fix the issue for a few weeks but more issues again with the bike not starting unless bumped. After being ridden the battery was getting very hot. The battery was putting out 12.7 volts with the engine off and 13.1 volts with it running. We spoke to the local battery place where it came from and they said that it sounds like a fault with the battery if it’s not undercharging so have replaced it today.
The new battery is putting out 14.4 volts when the engine is idling rather than with a few revs so it looks like the bike is overcharging.
This is where I’m confused, we’ve replaced the battery, Reg/rec and generator so as far as I’m aware it should be fine in theory.
Is it possible the old burnt out generator could have knackered the new reg/rec? If it’s not that then anyone any ideas on how to stop it overcharging? Is there anything else we should be looking at?
ETA we’ve also plugged it into tuneecu and that’s not showing any fault codes stored either.
Edited by SAS Tom on Wednesday 8th August 22:01
Had similar issues with the Wife's Speed Triple (2004) and I traced it down to high resistance in the wiring loom which is well documented on a few Triumph forums. I basically bypassed the OE charging loom for the reg/rec and re-wired it directly to the battery with good quality wire.
To be fair I haven’t got a multimeter at the moment so we’re measuring it using my charger which only goes that high, I would expect it’s more but will check with a multimeter at the weekend.
Normally though I would expect it to be around 13v at idle with it rising with the revs up to 14.5v.
Normally though I would expect it to be around 13v at idle with it rising with the revs up to 14.5v.
SAS Tom said:
Normally though I would expect it to be around 13v at idle with it rising with the revs up to 14.5v.
Sorry Tom but I'm struggling with what the actual problem is. Is it that you believe the voltage is too high with no other symptoms?Is "normally" before or after you changed all the charging system?
I wouldn't say 14.4v was necesarily overcharging but it certainly is high. How does it compare to the workshop manual spec? Don't forget to check across the rev range.
If it's under 14.5v is stable across the range, with no other symptoms, I'd consider it job done to be honest. Otherwise what Mr2Mike said. He seems to know his onions.
sounds to me (not an expert, but a little knowledge of batteries) that the old battery had an internal short or similar which was pulling loads of current (hence the heat) and pulling the voltage down.
I really wouldn't be worried about the 14.4v at idle, but as I said above I wouldn't want to see it going much higher with revs. Only other question is if its a fancy fully sealed battery (AGM or Gel), I don't think they like these higher float voltages when they are already close to fully charged.
I really wouldn't be worried about the 14.4v at idle, but as I said above I wouldn't want to see it going much higher with revs. Only other question is if its a fancy fully sealed battery (AGM or Gel), I don't think they like these higher float voltages when they are already close to fully charged.
Sorry I’ve not given you the full picture as using a battery charger to read the voltage isn’t exactly accurate. When I get a multimeter sorted this weekend I’ll come back with what it’s putting out but I’m confident it’s overcharging.
The battery is getting very hot whilst the bike is running.
The battery is getting very hot whilst the bike is running.
Just to update this, I got a multimeter on the bike and it is producing 18v at idle at the moment.
I’ve been following the chart in the second post which has helped. There was a bad connection between the regulator and battery traced to the plug on the bike being rammed full of grease. We’ve cleaned it out and that has improved matters dropping the voltage to 16.5v and producing the correct voltage at the positive on the regulator as per the chart.
Going through the chart again and it’s been narrowed down to a dodgy ignition switch connection. I ran out of time at that point but the next stage is to clean that plug out as that’s also rammed full of grease and try again.
Making progress but still not where it needs to be. Hopefully it’s just a case of cleaning the plugs out.
I’ve been following the chart in the second post which has helped. There was a bad connection between the regulator and battery traced to the plug on the bike being rammed full of grease. We’ve cleaned it out and that has improved matters dropping the voltage to 16.5v and producing the correct voltage at the positive on the regulator as per the chart.
Going through the chart again and it’s been narrowed down to a dodgy ignition switch connection. I ran out of time at that point but the next stage is to clean that plug out as that’s also rammed full of grease and try again.
Making progress but still not where it needs to be. Hopefully it’s just a case of cleaning the plugs out.
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