NOT CHARGING????

[invincibleone]

Hello all-
 Well my new R65LS let me down for the first time today. After about an hour of evening riding I noticed the headlamp was kinda dim. Within a few miles power was noticeably down. When I stopped to take a look the bike stopped & the battery was totally drained. I was with a friend who road his bike back & came back in my pickup. I am going to look at it tomorrow and see what is going on. Any pointers? I just realized (a little too late) the "Gen" lamp is in-op so I will be repairing that aswell. The bike is a few miles shy of 15,000 so it is very low.
Any help is much appreciated-
Fissel the Missile

[montmil]

Suspect your toasted Gen bulb is the culprit. There is a backup circuit with a simple in-line resistor that can be installed to prevent an awol filament from draining the battery.

There's a thread somewhere on this site. Try search or others will likely chime in. Rick at Mottorad also offers a neat pre-made bit for a really low price. That's what I installed.

Monte

[Bengt_Phorqs]

Rick Jones at Motorrad Elektrik is definitely the go to guy for airhead electrics.  Monte is on to something with his comment.  You probably have a fault in the charging system and that bulb can cause lots of grief.  Give Rick a call.  He's a great guy to talk to.  www.motoelekt.com

[montmil]

Guess you could just change the bulb. [smiley=ROTFLMAO.gif]

The resistor back-up circuit is still a recommendation to avoid flat batts.

Monte

[beemer]

Guess you could just change the bulb. [smiley=ROTFLMAO.gif]

The resistor back-up circuit is still a recommendation to avoid flat batts.

Monte

Where is that risistor inserted in the line?i noticed in the link above that it is a 330ohm,thanks,Julian.

[Bob_Roller]

I've got the resistor installation directions from Motorrad Elektrik, and it's a bit vague .

But here goes, remove fuel tank, on the left side of the engine, there is a white connector with two wires, one light blue, and one black .

You want to connect the resistor to the light blue wire, and the other end of the resistor to a green wire in the wiring harness .

It mentions, that you need to connect one end to a switched unfused wire, basically a wire that has 12 volts to it anytime the key is in the on position .

The resistor that I got from ME, had about 4 inches of wire attached to each end of the resistor, so obviously, there is a suitable wire close by .

Like I said, a bit vague on the installation instructions .

[montmil]

Where is that risistor inserted in the line?i noticed in the link above that it is a 330ohm,thanks,Julian.

Yeah, what Bob says. I recall that I used the green/always hot/unswitched wire that was in the aux equipment plug aft of the relays. A DVOM will help you find one.

Building your own battery saver is cake. Here's how the Jones Job is constructed...

The resistor is available at any Shack store. Shorten the solid leads off of the resistor, then solder on flexible wire extensions as required. 16 gauge is plenty.

Slip the resistor assembly into a length of shrink tubing approx 3" long. Into this package, insert a trimmed length of zip tie with the lock clipped off. The zip tie stiffens the assembly and keeps it safe. Heat 'n shrink.

Connect the ends as Bob's note sez.     Monte  

[Bob_Roller]

If by chance, you get stranded with a burned out light bulb for the GEN light, any of the light bulbs in either the tachometer, speedometer, or the turn directional indicator lights on the 'dash board' will work .

The bulbs are 3 watt, 12 volt 'wedge' type bulbs, SAE spec 194/168 no metal base on the bulb, the leads are folded over on the base of the glass .

Don't use an LED type bulb, the charging system will act like the bulb is burned out .  

[beemer]

I most likely have the bits in my elecrical box,will look into this soon,thanks,Julian.

[montmil]

Guess you could just change the bulb. [smiley=ROTFLMAO.gif]

The resistor back-up circuit is still a recommendation to avoid flat batts.

Monte

Where is that risistor inserted in the line?i noticed in the link above that it is a 330ohm,thanks,Julian.

If memory serves, the 330 ohm resistor should be rated at 1 watt or below. Here's Snowbums take on the mod...

http://bmwmotorcycletech.info/genlampresistor.htm

Monte

[nhmaf]

Yes, DO use a 1 WATT resistor (either 330 Ohm or 470 Ohm) especially if you do heatshrink over it as it will be unable to dissipate heat very well in that state.   1 Watt resistors will handle the up to .6W power dissipation over a reasonable period of time, even in this insulated manner.   IF you use a 1/2 Watt resistor, it will probably die within a few months and you may not notice the faint burning smell as it goes AWOL.  Then, your "back up plan" is no longer in existence!

Still pay attention to your charge/GEN light as it will help you to diagnose problems, but at least if the bulb does burn out you will (hopefully) still have a working charging system  - if it is just the bulb that quit.

[montmil]

Thanks, Mike.  In Snowbum's tech article, he does chat about installing the GEN circuit resistor upgrade being added to a circuit board within the instrument cluster area. The heat issue was quite important. The Motorrad Elektrik package can be easily secured to the main frame backbone away from the confined area of the instruments. A little cooling air may move under the tank but the smaller wattage resistor is still the best install.

Monte

[invincibleone]

Well I took the dash panel apart and will be purchasing all new warning lamp & headlamp bulbs. It appears it may have just been the bulb? Part of me is happy that it looks like it is going to be really inexpensive to repair; but another part of me is deeply troubled by the fact that an item as simple & unreliable as a bulb (which by definition has a finite life) is of such great importance to my bikes charging system. Plus though getting to the bulbs on the LS is far from impossible, it is much more difficult than I would want to have to deal with roadside. So I will most likely install the resistor.
Thanks to all-
Fissel

[Justin B.]

There is nothing wrong with using the "bulb" this way as when you turn on the key the light should be illuminated and if it isn't you uknow you have some troubleshooting to do.  A lot of European vehicles with Bosch charging systems, and even those with electrics inspired by the "Prince of Darkness", use a bulb in the rotor excitation circuit.  

I went through the same thing with a 1969 MGBGT.  The generator light had been dimly glowing for quite some time but the battery always remained charged so, being lazy, I ignored the problem.  One day the gen light was not on anymore so I was happy and thought it had "fixed" itself.  Three days later I got out of school at about 22:30, went out, and "CLICK"!!!  Barbi had to jump me off about 4 times to get it home.  We'd stop, hook up cables and let charge for a few minutes, start, drive 5 miles, repeat...

[suecanada]

Just for your information, the EnduraLast alternator kit charging system which I installed to upgrade from 280 watts to 400 watts uses a permanent magnet rotor and needs no excitation current.  The instructions say that "unlike the original charging system, the condition of the warning lamp [bulb] has no effect on the operation of the [also brushless] EnDuraLast charging system."

There are a couple of attributes about the Enduralast that I liked....the voltage regulator and diode board upfront have been replaced by a rectifier that is mounted back near the battery box in cool outside air flow. So far so good, powerlet liner and aux. lights being fed OK!!