Regulator pooched and maybe the battery too

T

timtune

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My new battery barely made it back from the trip it seems. Turned the key today and nothing. 6.6V at the battery. The FRIGGING new battery.

Slipped in the Wing battery. Turn key, lights up and fires up. Checking the battery I see lots of 16.5-16.9V with spikes into 17 and 18V. (I'm always willing to discount things a bit due to a cheap multimeter but not this much).

Any chance that battery would respond to a charge?

Silver Lining? Could have puked in the states just as easy as my garage. Really close call.
 
timtune said:
My new battery barely made it back from the trip it seems. Turned the key today and nothing. 6.6V at the battery. The FRIGGING new battery.

Slipped in the Wing battery. Turn key, lights up and fires up. Checking the battery I see lots of 16.5-16.9V with spikes into 17 and 18V. (I'm always willing to discount things a bit due to a cheap multimeter but not this much).

Any chance that battery would respond to a charge?

Silver Lining? Could have puked in the states just as easy as my garage. Really close call.
Click to expand...

Where did you get the battery and could they test it? Could hooking the battery up to a modern charger damage the charger? I have an ancient charger that easily handles short circuits. Some newer ones have diagnostics.
 
timtune said:
My new battery barely made it back from the trip it seems. Turned the key today and nothing. 6.6V at the battery. The FRIGGING new battery.

Slipped in the Wing battery. Turn key, lights up and fires up. Checking the battery I see lots of 16.5-16.9V with spikes into 17 and 18V. (I'm always willing to discount things a bit due to a cheap multimeter but not this much).

Any chance that battery would respond to a charge?

Silver Lining? Could have puked in the states just as easy as my garage. Really close call.
Click to expand...
Regulator isn’t clamping voltage. Bad regulator most likely, can also be bad grounds. Less likely is a bad stator.

That new battery could be cooked if you ran it for hours at that voltage. Usually the electrolyte boils off first, then plates get damaged.
 
nobbie48 said:
Where did you get the battery and could they test it? Could hooking the battery up to a modern charger damage the charger? I have an ancient charger that easily handles short circuits. Some newer ones have diagnostics.
Click to expand...
Not sure. KapscoMoto maybe. I'll throw it on the charger.....
 
Walmart.ca has the voltage regulator for 35$. Is this just one step up from Temu??
 
timtune said:
Walmart.ca has the voltage regulator for 35$. Is this just one step up from Temu??
Click to expand...
I would check an alternator starter rebuilders and ask, i've had one go on my 82 suzuki and found one of the local alt rebuilders had it in stock. i know weird right
 
RC-31 said:
Bad regulator usually takes out the battery, but not always. Follow this pdf flowchart.
Click to expand...
Following the chart I cleaned various connections and Bingo it doesn't over charge. Thanks! @RC-31

It doesn't spike up high BUT at idle it was 14.2 and @ 5,000 it dropped to 13.9. That doesn't seem right at all. Anyone else think that should be the opposite.

Didn't actually follow the chart to check ohms on the alt wires as I stopped after cleaning the wires and the VR appeared to work. Might go through all the checks and see if anything turns.
 
timtune said:
Walmart.ca has the voltage regulator for 35$. Is this just one step up from Temu??
Click to expand...
$20 I’m Amazon. I’ve had good luck with cheap Amazon regulators, never had one fail.

The secret is find in a mounting location that gets plenty of airflow - heal kills regulators. I think older KLRs have refs mounted behind the rad, move it into free air.
 
Mad Mike said:
$20 I’m Amazon. I’ve had good luck with cheap Amazon regulators, never had one fail.

The secret is find in a mounting location that gets plenty of airflow - heal kills regulators. I think older KLRs have refs mounted behind the rad, move it into free air.
Click to expand...
Haha. The temu one I saw was $18. For now I think most of my issue was corrosion.
 
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