Need help on bike problem

[Kahunas]

I am sorry if this is the wrong area but i figured that more would see it here i know i generally stay above the page

so i was putting my 1990 kawasaki vulcan in for consignment and the dealer said my batt. was dead ...which i knew ...and he said that the ground wire was broken so they fixed that free of charge ...was cool i know anyway he calls me and tells me that the bike was actually draining the batt. like the stator was running in reverse is this possible or does this guy not know what he is talking about ...he wanted me to let him fix it and sell it for a profit on my bike so i took it home for fear of losing money

the bike is in mint cond. 16000 miles and when i took it to push mountain last year i had a voltmeter on it and it said i had good charge 13.0 to 14.0 that was the range i remember and also a couple of times me an dad had to push start it
what do you think ?
thanks for the help my bro wants to ride and i dont want to give him a lemonlease:

 

[memorex]

Bad rectifier.?

 

[delbert]

take one lead off the battery and put an ameter between lead and battery that will tell you if you have a drain , if so by unplugging rectifier / stator etc one at a time you will see when the meter drops back what componant is at fault , hope
this makes sense
good luck

 

[ROCKSTEADY]

My buddy had the same problem before and it was his Rectifier

 

[Kahunas]

take one lead off the battery and put an ameter between lead and battery that will tell you if you have a drain , if so by unplugging rectifier / stator etc one at a time you will see when the meter drops back what componant is at fault , hope
this makes sense
good luck

would you be talking about positive wire and then say if its at 13 and i disconnect rectifier if it drops lower than 13 the rectifier would be the problem
and if i disconnect the stator it would surely drop right because there wouldnt be any power to the batt.

 

[Kahunas]

i think i understand after thinking about it see if im right
bike running lets say positive wire disc. voltmeter between batt and post. wire running say 13.2 volts if i disconnect rectifier should drop if not then i may have prob. with rectifier
replug rect. unplug stator if it drops it should be good
is this right or if it doesnt drop basicly the bike is running on batt alone right
it sounds good anyway

well i will go test again and come back with some reall numbers so there wont be any second guessing thanks for the replys

 

[Kahunas]

OK with bike running volt meter between both poles on batt 12.73
bike running pulled positive bike stopped running
bike running pulled neg. bike still ran voltmeter between batt and neg wire to frame it fluctuated 5 to 6 to 7 very fast and down and up very weird
couldnt get reading on positve side bike wouldnt stay running so im guessing its stator

 

[djsin]

a full charge should read about 14.4 volts

 

[BIG GUY]

Hope you get the bike fixed and are able to get it sold. Keep us posted on what you do to get the bike fixed.

 

[Kahunas]

a full charge should read about 14.4 volts

???
well i do know that a full charge should not read 14.0 appreciate the comment but as far as my problem im not sure where to go from here

a 12 volt battery holds about 12.0
as stated on another website *Sulfation of Batteries starts when specific gravity falls below 1.225 or voltage measures less than 12.4 for a 12v battery, or 6.2 for a 6 volt battery. Sulfation hardens on the battery plates reducing and eventually destroying the ability of the battery to generate Volts and Amps.

so if your batt without bike running is at 14.0 volts you must have a few more cells just thought you might want to know

 

[Kahunas]

i did find another problem with her there are two wires coming from the tank looks like the fuel level sensor and i wouldnt have noticed if it were not burnt and the wire was showing ...dont know how it could have done that looking further noticed those two run into the wiring harness so im hoping it stopped there ....i dont want to have to replace the whole wiring harness :tantrum:i need an lol

 

[delbert]

would you be talking about positive wire and then say if its at 13 and i disconnect rectifier if it drops lower than 13 the rectifier would be the problem
and if i disconnect the stator it would surely drop right because there wouldnt be any power to the batt.

sorry , you missunderstood i said ampmeter not volt meter , put between pos batt lead and batt terminal with every thing turned off ( bike not running )
this should give a reading of zero unless you have an alarm or such fitted
if its say showing a reading of 1amp its telling you something is pulling the battery when the bike is shut down , hope this explains better

 

[valkyriemc]

???
well i do know that a full charge should not read 14.0 appreciate the comment but as far as my problem im not sure where to go from here

a 12 volt battery holds about 12.0
as stated on another website *Sulfation of Batteries starts when specific gravity falls below 1.225 or voltage measures less than 12.4 for a 12v battery, or 6.2 for a 6 volt battery. Sulfation hardens on the battery plates reducing and eventually destroying the ability of the battery to generate Volts and Amps.

so if your batt without bike running is at 14.0 volts you must have a few more cells just thought you might want to know

See attached link, look under "Termial Voltage" re bat voltage vs. state of charge.

Car battery - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[MarkZ28]

Really shouldnt run an engine with the battery unhooked, it will cause the alternator to go full feild causing a spike in the voltage and also causing the alternator to burn out. You can also remove fuses one at a time with the voltmeter/ammeter in series with the battery and cable(with bike not running, key turned off) and see if there is a drop in electrical drain when a fuse is removed. If the fuse removal does drop the load down there is a short or malfunction in that circuit which means you get to trace wiring which can be fun, lol. May be a diode going bad to.

 

[Kahunas]

ok i appreciate it fellas now the only question now is do i need to buy an amp meter or is this multi meter ....which i have no clue how to work besides getting continuity tests ...have a ampmeter built in heres a pic of it bought at walmart

 

[Kahunas]

ok so i have tested the system for a draw and maybe you can tell me if i did it right
i used the switch in two pos. one in 20v and nother in 200v red probe on pos. batt neg pole on pos cable they were disconnected of course bike off not running it showed a draw somwhere like 1.4 or something so as i was checking hopefully i did it right anyway i dis. stator no effect disconnect rectifier no effect dis. all fuses on junction box no effect
dis wires going to junction box bingo 0.00 there were two sets big 6 wire and the smaller i only recognise the bigger because little set had no effect

continuing on i notice that the batt. sulfuric acid had leaked all over 1. junction box 2. batt. box 3. rectifier plug ...further inspection found no damage to wire to the rectifier
im going to show pics ...also the wires that come from the junction box go up to the steering column right well im thinking there is a problem with junction and maybe harness since the wires for fuel gauge are burnt showing exposed wire .
this sucks i was hoping to find bad stator or rectifier ....:headache:

 

[Kahunas]

See attached link, look under "Termial Voltage" re bat voltage vs. state of charge.

Car battery - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

im sorry i should have explained befor that i understand that with bike running it should show 13.4 to 14.4 somewhere like that ....anyway the bike does show a charge of 14. but doesnt charge the batt so i have a draw somewhere i dont know why it wouldnt charge the batt tho kinda strange..... im no pro mechanic by any means so im not trying to argue any statement made by anyone the mechanic told me it was like the charge was in reverse ????? is that possible ??
which is why i decided to take the bike maybe bad decision but i wanted to make sure before they charge me more than the bikes worth lol

thank you for pointing me to that good read..