Grounding problem? Or something else?

[spekt-r]

AFAIK a regular electrician cant rewind or rebrush your alternator there are special spaces that do it, locally the place is called electro-rewinds I imagine youll have something similar where you are. I had the one on my Monaro done once, I cant remember how much it cost, less than $100 though if i recall.

[kwaka]

a motor sparkie would be best in my opinion(specially on that works with bikes) as they are more likely to have the equipment and acctually know what to look for?
the reason i asked about the alternator is because mine is internal and to get to it you have to drain the bike of oil before you can pull the cover off to get to it.
i would defenatly check the alternator wiring, plugs and regulator first(yourself)if it's easy and cheap enough before
maybe the regulator is not grounded properly????
if you got the manual even better you can check them yourself?
let us know how you go, and you you have any q's let us know?

[ty]

Alternator is external - left side of engine. regulator is behind the left seat fairing.
All checked out ok today (again) - off sick so decided to have another look.
Headlight's working - no amount of shifting wires around the headlight, alternator or regulator made any difference and a meter across the battery shows good charge.
The headlight connector looked a little corroded on one of the tabs - difficult to clean up but I did the best I could, so I'll see how it goes.
Dave, if I have more trouble later this week I might take you up on your offer - I'll give you a call.
ty

[Rossi]

Ty,
sounds ridiculous but I have had it happen on the ZZR600.......it's shit in the ignition barrel
Get yourself some electrical contact cleaner....NOT WD40 and spray the bejeesus out of the barrel, operate the key a few times and bingo, bob's your uncle fannies your aunt

[corbywan]

To me it sounds as though the alternator and/or regulator is starting to die, sorry
As for the timing of it beginning to fail, well... it could be a coincidence. But as far as my understanding goes is that a car battery and motorcycle battery are different in the amount of power they put out, so it is quite possible damage may have occurred during the attempt at jump starting.
I have been told that if my battery goes flat, not to use a standard car battery charger because it charges at a higher current rate, but to use a charger with a lower current charge, nor to jump start it.
Sorry, if I am not correct, so if I am wrong, please just disregard this post

Good luck and enjoy

[spekt-r]

Ive heard that thing about not jumping off a car battery but ive done it a bunch of times with my old bike and it never damaged it, maybe I was just lucky.

[mrmina]

mate from what u said before u replace any brushes, comms, crap... just check that the alternator is getting a negative line. if no, ground it to the battery or frame.

if it is getting ground, check if its getting a positive charge.

if it getting neither, supply it with both.

if its getting both, look at getting a second had one cos if u havent done brushes or comm its not easy or cheap. Probably easier to get a replacement/preloved/reco alternator than doing it urself and stuffing up.

if u wanna replace alternator parts please let me know and i'll try to instruct u on how to do it.

it could just be the wiring, which is simple if u can use a multimeter.

[mrmina]

mate from what u said before u replace any brushes, comms, crap... just check that the alternator is getting a negative line. if no, ground it to the battery or frame.

if it is getting ground, check if its getting a positive charge.

if it getting neither, supply it with both.

if its getting both, look at getting a second had one cos if u havent done brushes or comm its not easy or cheap. Probably easier to get a replacement/preloved/reco alternator than doing it urself and stuffing up.

if u wanna replace alternator parts please let me know and i'll try to instruct u on how to do it.

it could just be the wiring, which is simple if u can use a multimeter.

[Phil]

RE the ZZR - they can be made to handle well, just ask Phil.
He had an ohlins in his, so they do make them, and had it jacked up a bit with spacers.
Handled real well apparently.
ty

Please Phil, tell me the secrets to your successes .... If I can make a ZZR handle without throwing a bazillion $$$ at it, I may just have the answer to which bike I am going to get - I only have another 113 days to decide !

yep, i had an ohlins rear shock with a longer spring than std, ring steve cramer and ask him about it. its the same setup mr bayliss, mr buckmaster and mr thomas used on their race bikes. on the ohlins site it doesnt mention the part number, dont know whats going on there. mine had the compression adjustment on the remote res. like a 46HRC. I also had spacers in the front forks (mine was a 94 without the adjustable forks ty, marek, mick and collette etc have on theirs). also another thing was the muzzy 4 into 1, saved something like 14 kilos alone in that little mod.

that bike handled like a weapon, tim used to call it mr smoothy.

[ty]

Well, most are pointing to the alternator/regulator, so maybe something has gone wrong there - perhaps I screwed something up jumping it - who knows.
Might try Rossi's barrel idea if I get the chance, but nothing's gonna happen till this weekend.
Thanks all - we'll see what happens this week.
ty

[red_dave]

Ty

If you take your bike down to Battery World in Anzac Rd Tuggerah and get Mark (Manager) to have a quick look. He might be able to spot something you've missed. Tell him Dave from HQ referred you to him... (if he chargers you anything, tell him to get stuffed). From my experience, it's usually a bad earth or the alternator regulator.

As for jump starting bikes off cars... A car battery puts out about twice as much power (CCA's - Cold Cranking Amps) as a bike battery so when the car turns over, the bike is copping a massive power load (even more-so if the air temp is warmer). Needless to say, a few jumps like that will generally affect the bike battery. Also, if a battery has been left to sit for a while, and the voltage drops below 10.8 volts, it begins to sulphate and will shorten the life pretty substantially...

I hope you can sort it out...

[Neka79]

isnt the alternator on a bike called a "stator"...on my blade it hides
inside the left engine cover, when i crashed i hadda buy a new one..$600 i
think from memory..(that was mates rates too)...to have it rewound i was
looking at $200 and the chance it would die again ..

hm i cant remeber wot the parts called, but its a small box under the seat
on most honda's, related to the elecy system...my mates vtr use to have same
symptons.....reason was this part got hot sumtimes , due to his size (he was
a 110kg guy) and in warm- hot weather with his fat ass on it, it would
die..let it cool down, it'd b fine..the part cost him like $180..voltage reg
or sumthin??..had to do with alt 7 shit...wonder if this may b a similar
prob?..wot eva it is tone, it will b the LAST thing u check, so start with
the last thing 1st!!

[Nanna10r]

Dont underestimate Rossi's Hot tip, crap in the Key Barrel Lunched 2 regulator/rectifiers on my 85 gsx550es before I elbowed it to a mate for bugger all.
cheers Brett

[mrmina]

Ty,
sounds ridiculous but I have had it happen on the ZZR600.......it's shit in the ignition barrel
Get yourself some electrical contact cleaner....NOT WD40 and spray the bejeesus out of the barrel, operate the key a few times and bingo, bob's your uncle fannies your aunt

guys just a bid of advice, the jaycar electrical contact cleaner is one of the best and cheapest.

[ty]

There's a JayCar just up the road so I might get some of that this afternoon.
Still had the problem today - worked fine when I started the bike, but when I pulled up 10 mins later for petrol the headlight was out again. Started it 10 mins ago and all ok - so maybe it's temp related too as Neka suggested?
I'll see how the cleaner in the barrel goes - would've thought anything there would affect the whole system not just the headlight though?
As I mentioned also one of the headlight contacts was a little corroded so I'll spray that too and see if that helps. The trouble is that the corroded bit is inside the black plug, so hard to get to. The spray doesn't need any scrubbing does it?
I'll do them one at a time so I know which one it was - so I might do the globe contact first, then try the barrel.
I'll give the Battery world guy a go if I don't get anywhere - thatnks Dave.
ty