PMA, new regulator, grounds solid - voltage too high

[pinned]

I'm hoping somebody can point me in the right direction here. I am running a Pamco ignition, PMA and a Sparx capacitor. I recently had a resistor burn up on a previous Pamco (Pete replaced the unit for me under warranty, though the fault appears to lie elsewhere). When I received the new Pamco, I wired it separately from the rest of my system so that I could test the output of my PMA without frying the Pamco. When I measured the output of the PMA at the capacitor, it varied between 14.2 and 15.5v or so. After verifying that the ground on my regulator was solid, I determined that the regulator was bad. I ordered a new regulator from Hugh and installed it last night, but I am still seeing voltage spikes as high as 15.6v. The regulator is grounded on a motor mount, my frame has no paint or clearcoating on it whatsoever and all of my wiring connections are soldered. I have swapped a known good battery in place of my capacitor for testing and while it appeared to help a bit, I still had voltage spikes around 15.15v or so. When I disconnected the ground / output of my regulator, as suggested by a poster in another thread, and hooked my meter up to these connections, my readings never went over 14.7v .

Any help you can offer will be greatly appreciated, this is making no sense to me based on the bit I know.

 

[Brian902]

Try a ground wire attached to an engine bolt, say one from the alternator side cover, to the frame ground you have.

Just thread one of the bolts in without mounting the side cover and hand tighten.

Then wrap the loose end of a bared wire around it several times to make a ground connection.

Squeeze with vise grips if you want it tight.

Other end under your ground bolt of course.

Re-test voltage.

Wire color does not have to be green.

Just thought of something else. Try a known good battery. Even a car battery connected as a test will do.

And test your meter on a car to see if it reads 14.5 with car running a full charge.
.

 

[Punkskalar]

What voltmeter are you using? And is the battery in good shape? Little things like that matter, people don't think it often though. Go check the output on your car, and see if you get similar readings using the same meter...

It's worth a shot

 

[pinned]

Thanks for the input guys. I am going to try all suggestions tomorrow when I have the time. Hugh - I am using a semi - ghetto (the expensive one from Harbor Freight) "Automotive Meter". I was going to swap out my battery yesterday, but it takes a 9volt, instead of "AA" as I originally thought. I plan to pick up a battery for it today.

Excuse my ignorance, but if I am checking my truck in order to insure the meter works, should I be checking it at the battery itself?

 

[Punkskalar]

Just compare it to your bike, if you are getting similar numbers, then likely the meter isn't terribly accurate. This will at least give you a good known working baseline.

And yes, check at the battery itself.

 

[pinned]

Okay, I tested my truck and got a reading of 13.8v or so. I also ran my ground to the cover near the alternator as Brian suggested, but the meter still hits ~ 15.18v when I rev the bike. FWIW, I do not have a tach and I have been guessing on the RPM (when testing it at idle and 3k RPM). I'm beginning to wonder if maybe I'm just getting a higher reading because I'm revving it too high and need to quit worrying about it and just ride the thing. The other side, though, is that I really don't want to burn up another ignition.

I realize that neither regulator I have used was built specifically for the Pamco (which seems particularly sensitive to high voltage) - but isn't the point of having a regulator to insure that you don't burn stuff up with voltage spikes? If the regulator is allowing voltage above the desired level, what's the point?

Also, am I wrong in my thinking that I shouldn't be relying entirely on something like my headlight to load my electrical system enough that voltage levels are kept in check? This just has me baffled, it seems like it should all be pretty straightforward, and yet it isn't so far.

 

[pamcopete]

pinned,

Were these readings with or without the headlight on? The headlight uses more power than any other component in the bike and it may be that the system needs the light on to use some of the power from the PMA. That's the way it is on my CB350 with a factory PMA. In fact, Honda even put an extra set of contacts in the headlight switch to disable two of the three windings in the PMA if the headlight is off. In other words, without the headlight, the rest of the bike only needs 1/3 of the available power from the PMA.

The PAMCO is not sensitive to Voltage. It is rated for 6 to 18 Volts. If you were running 18 Volts, all the lights on the bike would burn out.

So, if you haven't done so already, try it with the headlight on.

 

[Punkskalar]

The system should regulate with or without the headlight burning. I know you have a mix of PMA stuff (Hugh's and MikesXS) and if you like, pull the entire system, and mail it to us - we'll inspect and test on our machines the entire system - it should be a consistent voltage no matter what - in my opinion.

But again, we'll gladly test it for you - free of charge.

Just wanna see you be happy and on the road.

Hugh

 

[pinned]

I should clarify, Pete, that I didn't mean for that to come off as critical of Pamco at all when I described the system as "sensitive". I was just at a loss for a more technically correct way to phrase my statement.

I put probably 30 miles on the bike this afternoon after I wired my highbeam. I haven't tested it yet to see exactly where the voltage sits with the highbeam on (I hardwired it - I've always ridden with the highbeam on constantly on all of my bikes). On a related note, I did notice the bike took a couple more kicks during my outing - no biggie though.

I appreciate the offer Hugh, I'll probably mess around with it a bit more and see if I can't make some headway before burdening you with testing it. The gesture is much appreciated though.

This is strictly academic as I don't plan to do it, but: could I accomplish the same thing Pete describes on the Honda by placing a toggle switch inline on one (or two) of the yellow lines coming from the PMA?

edit: With the highbeam on, the meter doesn't go over 14.76v

 

[pamcopete]

pinned,

Starting will be more difficult if the headlight is on when you try to start. The idea of turning off one or two of the winding's with a togle switch might work, but not with a capacitor setup as you may not then have enough voltage / current to run the ignition, but that is essentially the way that Honda does it, with the headlight off.