Hitchcocks Forum

Good Morning All,
I seem to have an electrical gremlin
My Clipper can go for weeks with no problems at all the suddenly she will discharge the battery within a few miles??
The battery is less than a year old
The wiring loom is brand new
The rectifier is brand new
And as far as I can see all wiring is connected correctly
So I am starting to run out of ideas as electrics are still a bit of a lack art to me lol

Cheers

Rob

Could you be a bit clearer? Are you saying it rides ok for a while then discharges? if so, what has changed? Lights on or off? One thing that might do it is if the brake light sticks on, you might not notice this when riding, especially if when you dismount the suspension goes back to normal and takes the load off the switch. This is possible, it's happened to me when I adjusted the switch too tight when static!

REgards, Mark

Mark,
The bike starts and will run fine,shows a good charge on the ammeter then suddenly it will start to miss fire,then stop (battery discharged) this happens weather the lights are used or not?? A quick charge of the battery and it's fine for another few weeks?

Cheers

Rob

I can only suggest that it is an intermittent short circuit somewhere. These are tough to find but places where the wiring can get trapped or chafed (eg headstock,) are places to start. What electrical system do you have? Regulator? Rectifier? Modern components or originals? It's hard enough to diagnose these kind of problems when the bike is in front of you let alone getting the info in dribs and drabs so give as much detail as possible please!

REgards, Mark

Ok
Wiring harness is brand new
The battery is less than a year old
A solid state rectifier is fitted
All other components are original
The lighting and ignition switches are the plugin type
When running the ammeter is showing a charge
The bike did not run before these changes were made therefore I do not know the state of the electrical system before I bought the bike

Cheers

Rob

I am suspicious that the battery shows a charge and is discharging. Are you sure that the ammeter is wired the right way round? Is the bike positive or negative earth originally and what is it wired as now? When you say solid state rectifier is it an original Lucas item or a modern heat sinked unit? Which is why I stressed modern or original components!

REgards, Mark

Hi,
I suspect that your battery is not being kept fully charged from the motorcycle. Just because the ampmeter shows a charge does not mean that the battery is fully charging. Batteries lie within 3 states – Discharge, Float, and Charge and this is monitored by voltage not current (amps). What you need to do is put a voltmeter across the battery and see what the voltage reading is when at 2500 rpm. For a 6v system it should be around 6.6 ~ 6.8v. Anything less than 6.5v means that your battery will never fully charge and is in the Float state. This means that it will slowly discharge. It may be caused by a faulty charging system or a discharge into some electrical device that is holding the voltage down. I suspect the former. If it is a 6v system does it use the 2 wire or 3 wire alternator? Perhaps the split 3 wire charging system (used for charging control) is not connected correctly. Regards.

Gents Thanks very much for the replays

Mark M
You were spot on in saying it could have been the rear brake light ,miss adjusted and the cause of the slow drain on the battery, all sorted now and bak to how it should be

Thanks Again

Rob

Cheers Rob, enjoy the ride!

REgards, Mark