generator light staying on conundrum

[Kurt in S.A.]

Could be. Rick Jones' book shows two pertinent wires coming through the kill switch. One is a green wire that goes through the fuse in the terminal board and then to the ignition switch...I think that is then routed to the coils in some fashion.

It also shows a blue wire going to the starter relay and then a green/blue wire going to the instrument pod. This appears to be the battery supply to the pod instrument light.

Kurt in S.A.

[barryh]

The link wire I suggested would bypass the kill switch and could point you in the right direction.

Kind of obvious question but when you talk of the resistor being added, it is in parallel with the LED and not in series ?

[sinjun68]

I cracked open the headlight bucket and noticed a couple of wires that have obviously became overheated. The green with blue wire runs to the coil, the blue with green wire runs to the kill switch. I checked for continuity on both wire and it seem there i no break. the wires, where connected in the headlight bucket were resting on a relay there. That relay was melted a bit where the 2 wires were resting. hmmmm

RELAY2.jpg (84.83 KiB) Viewed 2369 times

WIRES2.jpg (68.49 KiB) Viewed 2369 times

[sinjun68]

So I tried the test Barry outlined and connected a bulb (spare directional light and socket) from the battery + to the D+ on the voltage regulator. With the Key Off the light illuminated immediately upon connecting it. Started the bike and it remained on with no voltage climb with revs.

[sinjun68]

reassembled everything back to where it was. Omitting testing wires and jumpers etc. Started bike and it worked for a couple of moments and then gen light came back on and no more charging. checked all wires again, and grounds. Light still stays on and no charging. Bypassed VR and jumped the DF and D+ wires to recheck and charging increased with revs. Really scratching my head here. I even bypassed the the kill switch and that made no difference . grumble grumble.

[Zombie Master]

Wow! I really want to know what is wrong.

[SteveD]

So if it was working ok for a few minutes, then failed, maybe it's a heat related issue? I'm thinking rotor/stator? Have you done the tests when hot?

IMPE when the rotor goes open the light stays off though.

[barryh]

If I'm following this, it always works when you bypass the VR. Is that correct ?

If so then in spite of the fact that the VR is new the fault must be in the VR or in the connections to it.

[sinjun68]

I have a buddy with the same bike. he is going to stop by and I am going to try my new VR on his machine. If it doesn't work on his I either received a bad unit or something in my bike cooked it. hmmm

[sinjun68]

UPDATE!!!
So, I continued poking and coming up with nothing. My brother stopped by and as we chatted about the issue I went through the basic tests again to illustrate to him. This time however I remembered what Barry had mentioned earlier about the rotor test and how at the low revs I was using in the alternator test (by passing/ jumping the VR) a broken wire may not show up in the rotor test. I decided to give her a bit more RPMs and sure enough at about 14.6 volts with the VR jumped the generator light came back on and the voltage fell sharply. I tried this test a couple more times and when I tried firing her up and doing the the test a third time the generator light would not go off when I started the bike and revved it up even with the VR Jumped!!!
I decided to order and then replaced the rotor with the new one and STILL had the same issue!!! I really thought this was gonna solve the issue. Feeling defeated I had a beer and when a friend stopped by I told him of the issue. He said, well did you try the original VR? I said no. what the hell, I'll give it a try... IT WORKED! ALL systems functioning as normal!
I said well I ordered this new VR and have no way of knowing if I was sent a faulty unit or perhaps the rotor fried it as the rotor finally, reached catastrophic failure.
I thought about and and it hit me. The new VR was a model that has an adjustable voltage output. What if it came from the factory set to a lower voltage output that would not produce enough current to extinguish the generator lamp?
I turned the lil screw to increase the voltage and BAM! IT's ALIVE!
The new VR unit is now sending a steady 13.9 volts top range! (still have room to increase the top end voltage as well with the adjustment screw)
So what it came down to was not revving the engine enough after jumping the VR to allow the faulty rotor to manifest its symptoms followed by a new (ADJUSTABLE OUTPUT) VR unit being set a too low a voltage from the factory to allow the proper amount of current through to extinguish the generator light and thus produce enough voltage to send back to the battery.
All is well now and the new rotor and VR are working perfectly.
What a ride!
Thanks to all who chimed in and for your patience.
Ride on folks!
Thanks!
-Chris
WHEW!