XS650, Pamco, Battery Life, And You

[Uhlaf]

I recently noticed that my idle light does not get brighter when reving the engine nor does the headlight, which are my usual way to check that my battery is AT LEAST charging. Put the multimeter on and low and behold, no charge.

While I'm waiting to sort this out, the XS is my only mode of transport as my girlfriend gets dibs on our car. My question to you gentlemen is how long/far can I drive my XS on a single charge with my every wonderful Pamco ignition. I got off today after my 28km ride to work and back and found my battery has a charge of 12.4 off the bike. I also have a 14ah battery, no signals and an LED tail light which I'm sure helps loads.

 

[retiredgentleman]

I'm guessing your bike consumes maybe 7 amps. So, a 14 amp/hr battery should be good for 2 hours of use. Ride to work each day and charge the battery each night, and no problems.

 

[grizld1]

Right, if the battery is healthy you can go quite a distance on it. If you're going to run total loss it will help to unplug the alternator; after worn brushes, the most likely culprit in a charging system fail is an alternator that's losing resistance and may be on the way to a dead short. It's not helping you anyway, so you might as well eliminate the alternator's current draw and unplug it. If the rotor tests bad you can remove it, send it in as a core exchange for a rewound unit, and run on the battery while you wait for delivery.

 

[fredintoon]

Hi Uhlaf,
your bike has a headlight switch? Mine turns on when it sees a charge, otherwise no headlight.
Extend your no-charge travel range with a lawn tractor battery strapped to your bike someplace.

 

[Uhlaf]

Hey Fred, unfortunately my only options for my headlight are "low" and "High", I tried removing what was labeled "headlight" in my fuse box but it makes my XS unstartable.

Thanks for the tip Grizld, I keep hoping that I'll see some hope and the divine intervention will fix the bike. Oh well, time to negotiate bring the bike in the condo, girlfriend is going to love me.

 

[fredintoon]

Hey Fred, unfortunately my only options for my headlight are "low" and "High", I tried removing what was labeled "headlight" in my fuse box but it makes my XS unstartable. - - -

Hi Uhlaf,
your '81 has the same auto-on headlight as my '84 which means the alternator must be sending some kinda power up the yellow wire or the headlight wouldn't turn on.
Gotta be a clue there? Not the alternator but the regulator/rectifier or even the dreaded white plug meltdown?

 

[retiredgentleman]

Not charging.......................so what battery voltage do you see when you rev up to 3000+ rpm? As usual, start by removing the brushes, measure their length, and replace if down to 0.4 ". While the brushes are out, measure the resistance from one slip ring to the other slip ring.................should be about 5 to 6 ohms.

 

[Uhlaf]

Thanks retired, I know the drill
Brushes are 2 years old with 5k miles on them will double check length and give my rotor rings a good scrub,
voltage drops a tad when reving,
Failed the slap test completely

When things calm down at work I'll take my tools and multimeter down to my parking garage (don't move into a condo if you can help it), I've got a funny feeling the brown wire isn't supplying battery power to the rotor, or my rec/reg isn't turning the ground on. Will report back to document for future trouble shooting.