Bike stalls at stop lights? Carb or electrical?

[section8joe]

I also forgot to mention that I'm using on of those small batteries from 650central and I'm constantly switching between the two that I have. This may be part of my problem although up until a few days ago everything was fine whenever I tested voltage when the bike is running.

 

[sgallaty]

That left brush needs to be resoldered, that is definitely not good, though your charging voltages don't seem to be bad.

When you say 'continuity to ground' - be aware that you need to have a complete circuit for the lights to come on. Testing through the bulb will give you 'continuity.

disconnect the bulb and check for ground where it shouldn't be around the housing.

From your earlier remarks my suspicion was the taillight fixture, but I'm blind here.

...

wait a sec.

you're using a chimpy gel cell, and your rotor brush looks hosed...

I bet at a light with taillight lamp lit and headlights running at idle speeds, you're draining the batt and spark is faltering. I think you have a weak charging setup.

 

[section8joe]

What part do you think is weak? The left brush? Something else?

 

[sgallaty]

This wire is frayed...

 

[section8joe]

I'm going to try and solder that brush wire tonight. I also ordered a set of new brushes. If this doesn't work. What is my next step on Curly's guide? My earlier post state the results of all my tests today.

 

[gggGary]

Fix the brush (check brush lengths too) If that isn't enough I would stick a bigger battery on it somehow and see how it works with that more robust battery.

 

[section8joe]

Well I tried to fix the brush and it's frayed half way down the spring. I don't think I'll be able to fix it. Looks like 1/3 of the wire was still intact. Do you guys think this will solve my problem? I'll let you know this weekend when my new brushes come.

 

[sgallaty]

I didn't like the look of it at the brush tang. If that doesn't fix it, we'll look for something else until we find it.

 

[gggGary]

It sure won't hurt! often electrical gremlins are death by 1,000 cuts a bunch of little things add up till the electrons don't flow. Add in breaking new things as you work and it can be a real pain to get back to Working Electrics.

 

[section8joe]

Swapped out the one brushe today and I'm getting 14.5(at 3000) with the lights off. I'm only getting around 13(at 3000) with the lights on. I even robbed my tractor battery and hooked it up to my bike. Same results with both batteries. I ran the bike with every light possible on today and it didn't stall. I even help the brakes for a few minutes with no problems(using the small battery and the large battery). I was only getting around 10.5 volts though.


I started to do curly's test and I got to step one and I passed. My feeler guage pulled to the generator cover. What step should I do next? Curly's test is unclear. Should I go to #4 and check for voltage at the brown wire at the brushes?

I'm a little hesitant to pull everything apart on my charing system since I soldered everything. I don't want to cut everything apart.

 

[Gordon]

The charging system only put's out 16 amp's max. The head light and tail light take about 8 amp's, so you do not have alot left over for charging the battery and running the bike.

 

[section8joe]

gordon, are you saying I shouldn't be reaching 14.5v at 3000 with the lights on?

 

[Gordon]

Yes Joe, the draw of current (amperage) will bring the voltage down. Some guy's here switched to all LED lamp's to lessen the amount of draw. The only drawback to led's is that because there draw is alot less, thing's like the flasher for the signals will have to be changed, but the cost of an electronic flasher far outweigh's the amount of amps going back to the battery. Retired Gentalman posted up what each component used electrically some time ago, and there wasn't much left for charging the battery. As long as your getting a positive (increase) on the voltage with everything going, (except the starter, of course) over the battery voltage at rest, all should be good.

 

[section8joe]

I'm only running kickstart, headlight and taillight. I thought I should be getting 14.5 at 3000 rpms since Im running limited electric.

 

[Gordon]

The headlight/tail light draw quite a bit, so no.

 

[section8joe]

I did Curly's test today and everything seems ok. I not exactly at the voltage I want to be at and I think that's because of my tiny battery. I ran the bike at idle for a few minutes with the every light on. The voltage dropped to near 6 volts but the bike kept running. Once I revved it up voltage started to rise. I'm hoping everything is ok. All my connections seem strong. Ground seem good too. My taillight glass exploded but that may be a blessing in disguise. Im going to get the LED replacement light. The light I was using was a two light setup, not one dual filament bulb. Hopefully everything is cool now. Thanks for the help and your patience!

 

[sgallaty]

Maybe I am way off here? But it should never be 6 volts. It needs to be over 12 or you're going to have very weird ignition issues.

 

[section8joe]

That was with every light on at idle for like 5 minutes. I just wanted to see if it would stall. The bike kept running and when I gave it some gas voltage started to rise. I'm getting rid of that tiny battery, hopefully it won't get that low with a better battery.

 

[section8joe]

I rode the bike yesterday after thinking I had the problem licked and I was wrong.I was going to check the legs of my stator tonight even though everything seems to be ok wth Curly's test. But I didn't get out of work til 10pm and I don't want to run the bike in the garage this late at night. I was poking around checking grounds and I found that my headlight ground measured 2.5 ohms. I tested a different part of the headlight and the meter kept jumping all over the place. I tried to tape a wire onto the headlight and ground it out on the motor fin and I was still getting the same reading. I then ran I wire directly to the negative terminal on my headlight and I'm only getting .1 ohms now.

Can the high resistance from the ground be causing my bike to not charge when the lights are on?

 

[sgallaty]

Your headlight ground measuring 2.5 ohms sounds to me like the headlight isn't grounded properly. Jumping all over the place sounds like a bad ground. Double check all your bullet connectors.