Thanks Guys. I'll have to read all this a few times, especially your post twomany. Kind of flew over my head.
The relay idea is a good one. I've searched through a lot of threads on this, and I don't recall seeing anything on that. It's interesting, and seems like it would be cheap and easy really.
Following Leos reply, I have zero drop on the red wire through the fuse up to the switch, and now after cleaning the switch it has only about .015v drop, which I thought was pretty solid for a 37 year old switch. I cleaned up the contacts well, but they are grooved. Even though it's not on this path, I also took apart and cleaned the kill switch as it had a drop, and that one is almost perfect now, reads a drop of .001. Thing is, I didn't really trace and clean connections on the brown wire back to the reg plug. Looking at my diagram, it kind of seemed like a straight run, but I know it has the rest of my .2v drop, so a cumulative drop of .185v. I thought that was actually pretty acceptable, so I stopped. I guess though, if I clean most of that up, I should theoretically be right at 14.5v charging, so it's probably worth it.
My battery is an AGM type, and its the first of this type I've had. I would hate to kill it prematurely, but by the same token, I don't think my slightly high voltage readings will destroy it in quick order, especially how I plan to use this bike. Mostly a backroad sunday rider, shorter hops, no sustained high speeds.
All my tests running are with loghts on, as I have no switch to turn them off. I tested with the low beam on only. I meant to see how the high beam would effect the voltage, but keep forgetting. If the high beam drops it .2v, hell I'll point the lioght down a little more and run with the high on. I don't ride at night anyway. I also have a sealed beam auto headlight up front, but that's been on there for a long time. I probably should look at what it draws.
Voltmeter is on my short list of needs, just haven't found one I liked yet. Brushes and a few other doodads from MikesXS are on my extra short list.
Thanks again.
The relay idea is a good one. I've searched through a lot of threads on this, and I don't recall seeing anything on that. It's interesting, and seems like it would be cheap and easy really.
Following Leos reply, I have zero drop on the red wire through the fuse up to the switch, and now after cleaning the switch it has only about .015v drop, which I thought was pretty solid for a 37 year old switch. I cleaned up the contacts well, but they are grooved. Even though it's not on this path, I also took apart and cleaned the kill switch as it had a drop, and that one is almost perfect now, reads a drop of .001. Thing is, I didn't really trace and clean connections on the brown wire back to the reg plug. Looking at my diagram, it kind of seemed like a straight run, but I know it has the rest of my .2v drop, so a cumulative drop of .185v. I thought that was actually pretty acceptable, so I stopped. I guess though, if I clean most of that up, I should theoretically be right at 14.5v charging, so it's probably worth it.
My battery is an AGM type, and its the first of this type I've had. I would hate to kill it prematurely, but by the same token, I don't think my slightly high voltage readings will destroy it in quick order, especially how I plan to use this bike. Mostly a backroad sunday rider, shorter hops, no sustained high speeds.
All my tests running are with loghts on, as I have no switch to turn them off. I tested with the low beam on only. I meant to see how the high beam would effect the voltage, but keep forgetting. If the high beam drops it .2v, hell I'll point the lioght down a little more and run with the high on. I don't ride at night anyway. I also have a sealed beam auto headlight up front, but that's been on there for a long time. I probably should look at what it draws.
Voltmeter is on my short list of needs, just haven't found one I liked yet. Brushes and a few other doodads from MikesXS are on my extra short list.
Thanks again.
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