Hello from California Diode problem too.

[billygoat]

 Hey everyone,
Billygoat here. I own a 1980 R65 that I completely refurbished. I learned quite a bit and had fun with it. I am 6' 230lbs and am finding the bike is not enough for long trips so I am selling my cherished machine for $1,900 and looking for R100, R90 or R80. The R65 is a great bike for around town however and if I had the room...

 Has anyone replace the diode attached to wire harness? I am having abit of a charging problem. I got a new battery, replaced the rotor housing and done the charging test. The bike starts right up but if I drive a certain over 20 miles or so the battery goes low and the bike wont start. Waite an hour and it starts just fine. I need to pull the clutch in to start, I heard something about this. I replaced the coils the the bosch blue ones. I wonder if they draw more amps than original.

 Any ideas?

thanks, b.g.

 I added a pic of my JB welded driveshaft drain.

[Ed Miller]

Here's an article on charging issues, it should get you pointed the right way:

http://www.cdegroot.com/cgi-bin/mirror/pweb.jps.net/~snowbum/trbleshootALT.htm

Most R75s and R80s don't have any more power than R65s, so if you really want some grunt you may wish to narrow your search down to the even bigger bikes.

Good luck,

[nhmaf]

Do you have a multimeter with which to measure voltage across the battery while
the bike is just idling, and when the RPMs are up around 3500 ?    Does the generator
light exhibit the "normal" behavior of glowing at idle (~1000 RPM) and going out by 2500-3000 RPM ?
When you changed the rotor housing (stator) did you check and clean the brushes/sliprings for the rotor
connections ?

There are some electrical differences between the pre-81 and post-81 bikes, unfortunately - and I
am not too knowledgeable on the pre-81s.   We do have other members here with bikes of that
vintage who will probably be chiming in .

[Justin B.]

Goat, welcome back!  I can't think of a reason why that diode would cause charging problems, I believe it's only purpose is to isolate the neutral and clutch sensing circuits.  On our '80 it is located between the front and rear coil and has a 1/4" spade terminal on each end.  It's a small round cylinder so don't purposely look for something resembling a diode...

Sorry I can't be more specific but it's been a few years since I saw it...