The other day sydney had a torrential downpour. I happened to be at my girlfriends place in inner-city redfern, one of the older areas of sydney. It would seem that the drainage system wasnt up to the task so the whole street flooded. The water even made it up and into the house. I would estimate that the water was about 1 foot deep at highest, not high enough to make it up to the exaust, so to my surprise the bike started no problem. I went for a 45min ride no probs, then when i tried starting her it cranked a few times then died. So i did a running/hill start and got going. I had to do this once more at my gfs place before i came home, then up the road from where i live she was idling and i turned the indicator on and she died. luckily i got it jump started (on a major road) and legged it home. I was doing some reading on here and it sounds like the regulator could be the issue i charged the 1 1/2yr old battery back up and she started first go. however she was only reading 12v @ the terminals regardless of revs What do you guys think? could water have got in some where?
You wanna bet you've water in the tank? Great for cooling, not so much for fuel... <!-- s:alcoholic: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_all_coholic.gif" alt=":alcoholic:" title="Alcoholic" /><!-- s:alcoholic: -->
Id say its the regulator as a first guess. the torrential downpour could have damaged the unit or played with the contacts. remove it, clean the connections and try again. at least thats what i'd do. best of luck
Pull the cover off the alternator to make sure it has no water in it. I am sure it has a breather hole and could leak if in deep water. Unplug the regulator and test the 3 wires coming FROM the alternator ( all the same colour ) with a multimeter on an AC voltage range, you should measure 50 - 70 volts when engine running at reasonable revs. If so its OK and the rectifier/regulator is faulty.
Thanks for your help guys. Learnt a little today! Took the cover off the alternator, everything looked okay, no water Unplugged the Reg/Rec and was able to get ~70V Max, when revved however when i tested the Reg/Rec, I was only able to get a max of 12.8V Is that enough to charge the battery and run the electrical system? I suspect that it has been on the way out for a while, because after giving the battery a trickle charge, the cold start was much better, like new actually. I spose I will order a new one now then.
Definitely replace the Rectifier/regulator as you need to get up to 14 volts DC to charge the battery properly. Your alternator is fine.
