"New" XS650 not holding its charge...

[arielle137]

A few weeks ago, I bought my first bike, an 1983 650XS Heritage Special. She ad been sitting for a few years, so I had carbs worked on and a new battery put it. Went to go pick her up, but turns out the battery had died... So I ordered a new stator, had that changed. No cigar. Ordered a new regulator and had that changed too. Looked good this morning, voltage was at 13.4. Drove 30km home, stalled at a light (I'm new, don't judge!), and had to use the kickstart to get it going again. As badass as that looks, I'd certainly not want to have to really on that, especially when she's cold...

Anyway, I really don't know that much about mechanics yet, although this bike is helping me attain my wish of learning more, so I'm not sure how much help I can be if you ask me any questions, but has anyone had similar issues? I'd really like to have her out again soon, and this is making me a little nervous...

Thanks!

 

[XxDeadpoolxX]

I had the same issues but I ended up changing out the battery. My problem was cold nights were killing the battery. So I just took it in every night and put it on a charger. Well it was more of a monitor that maintained the charge. Or it could be something drawing charge off your battery. Probably just gonna have to start at one end and trace the problem back.

 

[arielle137]

Yeah, I am certainly going to buy a charger-maintainer, but that's just a band-aid solution...

 

[retiredgentleman]

A few weeks ago, I bought my first bike, an 1983 650XS Heritage Special. She ad been sitting for a few years, so I had carbs worked on and a new battery put it. Went to go pick her up, but turns out the battery had died... So I ordered a new stator, had that changed. No cigar. Ordered a new regulator and had that changed too. Looked good this morning, voltage was at 13.4. Drove 30km home, stalled at a light (I'm new, don't judge!), and had to use the kickstart to get it going again. As badass as that looks, I'd certainly not want to have to really on that, especially when she's cold...

Anyway, I really don't know that much about mechanics yet, although this bike is helping me attain my wish of learning more, so I'm not sure how much help I can be if you ask me any questions, but has anyone had similar issues? I'd really like to have her out again soon, and this is making me a little nervous...

Thanks!

Are you saying you bought a new battery at a bike shop, and when you went back to the shop, the battery was dead? How long between the new battery being installed and you found it dead? A new fully charged battery should hold its charge for a long time.

So was the battery re-charged by the shop, or did they give you another new replacement battery?

Was it the bike shop that suggested you buy a new stator and regulator? A competent bike shop should have done some testing before you bought a new stator and regulator. Its get expensive to just buy new parts without proper testing, to find the real source of the problem.

A voltage of 13.4 volts, does not tell you anything about the bike's charging system. If a battery has recently been on a bench charger, it can show 13.4 volts just from the recent charging. Its not surprising that your bike stalled after 30 kms, if the bike's charging system is not working.

Whereever you are having work done on your bike, sounds like they know nothing about the XS650 electrical system. They are selling you hundreds of dollars of parts, which probably are not needed, and the original problem is still not solved.

You should have posted on this site, when you first had problems. We could have likely saved you lots of money.

With these older bikes, you need to learn to do your own work on the bike. If you are always taking your bike to a motorcycle shop (especially incompetent ones), you will be spending a ton of money.

Yes you need to have bench charger, but you also must have a VOM so you can measure voltage on the bike.

 

[deadchef]

like rg said, it's expensive to just throw cash at a problem without prior testing. could have been as simple as new brushes but you don't know. gotta do the work if your gonna play.

wrist slappin aside, check the ohms between rings on your rotor with a voltmeter. had a problem with charging on one of my bikes the other day and the rotor tested bad. replaced and all good now.

oh, and read this thread 1000 times -> http://www.xs650.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10561