Archive for the ‘mikesxs’ tag
Wiring
For most of the summer, I haven’t been able to ride my motorcycle because of electrical problems. The bike starts up fine, when it’s being jumped, or the battery is at full charge, but I can only charge the battery by hooking it up to an external charger.
The reason for this is because, for whatever reason, the charging system isn’t working. I decided to replace the rectifier, and seeing that mikesxs.net had a solid-state rectifier/regulator, I replaced the regulator at the same time. I also installed a new wiring harness. I took the bike out in the driveway, hooked it up by jumper cable to my truck battery, and started it up. I removed the jumper cables and…
No joy. It died as soon as the connection was broken. I looked over the wiring guide to the rectifier regulator, and noticed that I was supposed to ground out a wire that doesn’t connect to the new unit. It’s the ground wire for the alternator rotor. So I grounded it and…
I ran out of time to work on the damn thing. It got dark, and I had to head to work anyway.
So, that’s the story so far. I’m really hoping that hooking up that ground wire worked. And if it doesn’t, I really hope that replacing the brushes on the alternator is sufficent to get it working again, because if it isn’t, I’m looking at spending US$149.99 on a new rotor, and US$199.99 on a new stator for the alternator. That won’t be any fun at all.
At least I have an idea of what’s wrong. That’s something, right?