check your oil level? sniff your stick . 
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Troubles
- Thread starter Robert Reed
- Start date
Robert Reed
XS650 Addict
LOL, that one made me laugh. Level is good but I haven't sniffed it. What should I be looking for in an aroma? LOLcheck your oil level? sniff your stick .
Smells like gas? No, smells like FUEL...
Robert Reed
XS650 Addict
No smell of gas
That is a well sorted scooter Robert Reed.
Robert Reed
XS650 Addict
Thank you sir!
I can't take too much credit for it, it was pretty close to how you see it when I acquired it, I've just been sorting out some things piece by piece since I got it.
Still have some work to do to get her in a better place. Front end is way too soft and the commando boots are starting to crack. Obviously need to get the running issues sorted out as well and a few other small things.
pamcopete
Ride.Enjoy.Life is Simple
It depends on where you have connected the Voltmeter. After all, it is the battery Voltage that is critical, not so much the load Voltage. The difference is the drop across the ignition switch, fuses etc from the battery to the load, or with stock wiring, between the red wire from the battery and the brown wire to the load.
If you have connected the Voltmeter to the brown wire side of the ignition switch, then the battery voltage is at least .5 Volt higher, possibly even 1 Volt higher due to the drop across across the ignition switch, in your case that means that the battery voltage is actually 14.8 + .5 = 15.3 to 14.8 + 1 = 15.8.
The problem is that the regulator is on the brown wire side and thus regulates the brown wire Voltage, not the battery Voltage. The early mechanical regulators, ironically, allowed you to adjust the Voltage at the battery to compensate for the drop across the ignition switch. Some modern solid state regulators have a built in compensation for the ignition switch drop, but most do not.
I have Voltmeters on two of my 5 bikes, the ones I ride most often. In both cases I have connected the regulator directly to the battery through a set of relay contacts so the regulator regulates the battery Voltage. Both of these bikes have a Voltmeter installed. In the case of the '81 XS650, the meter, which draws very little current, is connected directly to the battery and I get a reading of 14.5 when underway. The '81 CB750C has the meter connected to the load side of the ignition switch and it reads 14.2 when underway, so if I add the .5 Volt drop across the ignition switch contacts , that puts the battery voltage at 14.7 .
My motto is "Ride. Enjoy. Life is simple" but that does not apply in the case of batteries and Volt meters.
If you have connected the Voltmeter to the brown wire side of the ignition switch, then the battery voltage is at least .5 Volt higher, possibly even 1 Volt higher due to the drop across across the ignition switch, in your case that means that the battery voltage is actually 14.8 + .5 = 15.3 to 14.8 + 1 = 15.8.
The problem is that the regulator is on the brown wire side and thus regulates the brown wire Voltage, not the battery Voltage. The early mechanical regulators, ironically, allowed you to adjust the Voltage at the battery to compensate for the drop across the ignition switch. Some modern solid state regulators have a built in compensation for the ignition switch drop, but most do not.
I have Voltmeters on two of my 5 bikes, the ones I ride most often. In both cases I have connected the regulator directly to the battery through a set of relay contacts so the regulator regulates the battery Voltage. Both of these bikes have a Voltmeter installed. In the case of the '81 XS650, the meter, which draws very little current, is connected directly to the battery and I get a reading of 14.5 when underway. The '81 CB750C has the meter connected to the load side of the ignition switch and it reads 14.2 when underway, so if I add the .5 Volt drop across the ignition switch contacts , that puts the battery voltage at 14.7 .
My motto is "Ride. Enjoy. Life is simple" but that does not apply in the case of batteries and Volt meters.
Robert Reed
XS650 Addict
Mine is connected directly to the battery, I assumed this would give the most accurate reading.
Pete, you've mentioned your regulator/relay mod before but have you ever written it up somewhere, maybe with a diagram? I'm sure many of us would be interested in this simple mod. I assume you would use the original regulator brown feed or "sensor" wire from the harness to "trip" the relay, and the brown from the regulator would run through the relay to the battery. Turn the key on, the brown harness wire trips the relay, and the brown regulator wire gets connected to the battery.
I'm wondering if it might also be possible to connect your voltmeter up at that brown regulator wire relay connection? Then it would be "switched" and very close to the battery, on a direct line to it, for a better "true" battery voltage reading.
I'm wondering if it might also be possible to connect your voltmeter up at that brown regulator wire relay connection? Then it would be "switched" and very close to the battery, on a direct line to it, for a better "true" battery voltage reading.
That is how my Honda CB750C volt meter is wired, through a relay that is tripped by the ignition switch, so, it is virtually directly connected to the battery. The coils on that bike are wired the same way, through a relay.
Scott
Scott
pamcopete
Ride.Enjoy.Life is Simple
Yes, that is the way it is wired, with an inline fuse for the regulator.
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pamcopete
Ride.Enjoy.Life is Simple
I used to have my ignition arranged that way as well, but the problem is that the relay might drop out when attempting to start with a low battery which causes the battery Voltage to drop, perhaps below the holding Voltage for the relay. Now, I have the ignition coils connected directly to the battery (with an inline fuse) but keep the PAMCO red wire connected to the ignition switch as the PAMCO electronics only draw about .010 Amps (10 ma). Having the coil wired directly to the battery instead of going through the relay contacts effectively uses the PAMCO as another relay because there is no current flow to the coils unless the ignition switch is on and the engine is running.
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pamcopete
Ride.Enjoy.Life is Simple
The red wire that powers the PAMCO is still connected to the ignition switch so the IGBT transistor that provides a ground to the coil will be off unless the transistor is on and it will only be on if the ignition switch is also on and there is a signal from the Hall effect sensor.Whaa??????
