Charging / Over charging Issue

Hey Guys,

On my 69' commando, after a long ride, the battery died on me. Luckily right in front of my garage. When digging in, i found that the connection between the stator and the solid state rectifier (Sparx 3) was in bad shape. I cleaned it up and i started getting a positive charge from the Sparx 3.

Went for a ride today and the ammeter started bouncing all over the place, then stopped registering and bang. Blown fuse, Electrical smell. Had a spare fuse and the bike ran great but was no longer charging.

Tests -
- I am receiving a charge from the Sparx 3 unit. Especially over 2k RPS.
- Battery is new and fully charged
- Ammeter functions and registers both drag and charge on the battery.
- All grounds and connections are solid

Boyer, Sparx 3, Shorai Battery. Zenior Diode and Rectifier removed. I still have the Blue Capacitor hooked up. This is a new issue. Hadn't had any issues with charging and I don't recall changing anything over the last yea that would effect this.

Any ideas?

Had a similar issue last year. Thirty miles into a ride and the charge warning light came on (850 mk3) turned around and headed for home. six miles further on the engine cut out and wouldn't start. Battery red hot and deformed. Recovered back home and on investigation found that the sparx 3 phase rectifier had failed and had fed ac volts at quite some amperage into the system which cooked the battery and killed the electronic ignition unit. £250 later and I was back on the road.
regards
Peter

Sparx reg/rec's are known to be weak. My sparx stator/rotor were in good shape, so I simply replaced the box with a boyer 3 phase regulator. Rather large and clunky, but does the job. Also ditched the warning light/assimilator combo and installed one of these in the headlamp. More accurate representation of charge state, and perfect fit.

jsouthard said:

Hey Guys,

On my 69' commando, after a long ride, the battery died on me. Luckily right in front of my garage. When digging in, i found that the connection between the stator and the solid state rectifier (Sparx 3) was in bad shape. I cleaned it up and i started getting a positive charge from the Sparx 3.

Went for a ride today and the ammeter started bouncing all over the place, then stopped registering and bang. Blown fuse, Electrical smell. Had a spare fuse and the bike ran great but was no longer charging.

Tests -
- I am receiving a charge from the Sparx 3 unit. Especially over 2k RPS.
- Battery is new and fully charged
- Ammeter functions and registers both drag and charge on the battery.
- All grounds and connections are solid

Boyer, Sparx 3, Shorai Battery. Zenior Diode and Rectifier removed. I still have the Blue Capacitor hooked up. This is a new issue. Hadn't had any issues with charging and I don't recall changing anything over the last yea that would effect this.

Any ideas?

Click to expand...

Take a look at my tests, you could have a situation where the regulator wasn't nice to the alternator voltage-regulators-t22113.html

Jean

Hi Jean, strange , but yesterday I had found that, as I was looking for a replacement reg/rec, initially my search was after any Shindengen sh , then I found that the Mosfet Shindengen FH 012 are more thought after , then I found this link , and this morning (over the pond),you post this issue , which is of much interest for me as I had trouble with Lithium bat, three phase alt, and pod rec/reg, but as I am not an electronic engineer................I will follow this thread with interest!

http://hildstrom.com/projects/buellregulator/

Hi Jean, strange , but yesterday I had found that, as I was looking for a replacement reg/rec, initially my search was after any Shindengen sh , then I found that the Mosfet Shindengen FH 012 are more thought after , then I found this link , and this morning (over the pond),you post this issue , which is of much interest for me as I had trouble with Lithium bat, three phase alt, and pod rec/reg, but as I am not an electronic engineer................I will follow this thread with interest!

http://hildstrom.com/projects/buellregulator/

I made a post on the below link about standard regulators and Lithium batteries that may give a clue (my thoughts) as to why Lithium batteries and Norton regulators may not be a match made in heaven

voltage-regulators-t22113.html


Cheers
Peter R

jsouthard said:

Hey Guys,

On my 69' commando, after a long ride, the battery died on me. Luckily right in front of my garage. When digging in, i found that the connection between the stator and the solid state rectifier (Sparx 3) was in bad shape.

Click to expand...

Sadly a more common problem than you realise.
About 90% of alternator faults can be traced to connections becoming dirty/ corroded. :shock:

If you run the engine whilst it is in this state, the alternator continues to pump out electricity that goes nowhere but ends up going back on itself.
I clean my alternator –rectifier connecters at least twice a year with electrical contact cleaner, both before and after winter and check battery charge each time.

Bernhard said:

jsouthard said:

Hey Guys,

On my 69' commando, after a long ride, the battery died on me. Luckily right in front of my garage. When digging in, i found that the connection between the stator and the solid state rectifier (Sparx 3) was in bad shape.

Click to expand...

Sadly a more common problem than you realise.
About 90% of alternator faults can be traced to connections becoming dirty/ corroded. :shock:

If you run the engine whilst it is in this state, the alternator continues to pump out electricity that goes nowhere but ends up going back on itself.
I clean my alternator –rectifier connecters at least twice a year with electrical contact cleaner, both before and after winter and check battery charge each time.

Click to expand...

Exactly the alternator put out the maximum designed current all the time irrespective of what the load is. So any connectors will be subjected to this constant current and any resistance in the connectors be it from corrosion or poor connections will cause heat and melting.
Lights on lights off battery charging or fully charged the current drawn will always be the same. If it is not going into the load it will be going into the zener or shunt regulator.

Yes good idea to regularly check and clean these connectors.

PS if the connectors go open circuit the alternator will not destroy itself as the power produced will be low Power = volts x current and while the voltage will rise the current will drop and if it is open circuit the current will be zero. Do the maths at zero amps and any voltage you like and see what the power you recon is generated.

Cheers
Peter R

More Li iron battery problems:
Put one on son's '74 for the Asheville rally (he won youngest rider on his bike BTW - 19 y.o. a loves the brand). No one would have noticed but we weren't there for Friday's close - due to a fantastic trip to Deals Gap and riding Tail of the Dragon (I'll post the GoPro of the Hawk that flew into me about 2 miles into the ride - sadly it likely died...).

Anyway, Kevin's bike died headed home on the Chowahala (sp?) - of course it's exactly 1.5 miles from the TN border meaning it was at least an hour to ANYTHING. Fortunately it was easy to figure and I tried to use an improvised charger with extra wire to connect my '75's battery but no luck so 3 hours later I was back with replacement, Gus started first kick and we were back at campground by 8 pm.

This charging issue is certainly a problem. I have a Shorai on mine and it kicks butt but son's (contacts are clean by the way), didn't keep charged with lights running. I put lead acid version in and think that's the way to go for him but would be curious what Matt's seeing at CNW and anyone else.

What REALLY sucked is the TN State Policeman that gave Kevin a ticket about 1 mile after Tail of the Dragon for no headlight - despite running the pilot light (to conserve battery). I had to listen to some stuffy arrogant cop lecture him about headlights being mandatory and tell me he didn't understand pilot lights but he knew headlamps...

Anyway, glad we're all back. That was a bucket list ride for my son and I to the point I may consider the treck to NCal next summer...

Kevin
Arbrnrngr
'75 CMDO (original owner)
'74 Gus
'71 - basket case until I decide what to do
2004 Yammie FJR 1300
2005 Honda crf 450
1979 Yammie IT 250