need electric advice

[Firefighter]

2000 interstate, 39,500 miles. Installed Motosens gauges powered thru accessory wire (white with black trace). Was never happy with volts, usually best reading just under 13 volts. Year later, added 100 watts of driving lights, straight from battery via fuse and relay. After a couple of weeks riding, I notice that when in traffic or slow speeds and when fan turns on my temp. gauge flucates wildly. I checked with a voltmeter and notice my accessory wire is a half a volt or a little more lower than battery voltage, engine on or off ????  I stopped using the accessory wire and now my gauges power comes from the battery, instantly my volt gauge indicates over 13 to 14,, great!!  More riding,, and I find that after slow riding with all lights on and I use my brake the engine stumbles, turn extra lights off engine runs good. Volt gauge indicates 13 volts. At home I find with volt meter that accessory wire and factory fuses read lower than battery? Test to 5000 rpm 13.5 batt. volts Voltage lower at 2000 rpm than at idle. Out of space, any input,, thank you.

[Michvalk]

Keep typing, it'll give it to you. How new is the battery? Have you tested the output of the alternator at the post on the alt? The alternator will not give out full charge at idle speeds(must be above 1500 I think) How much extra power are you drawing? Might check wire connectors for corrosion. Look at the battery terminals both ends. Look at the fuze connections, and any other wire connection you can find. I'm no wiring genius, so your results may vary. But checking to make sure everything is clean and not shorted is the first step. Then it could be a bad alternator.

[Ricky-D]

The ignition module needs a minimum amount of current to work properly.

The stumbling would indicate the current is being robbed by other devices to a point where the ignition module is getting ready to shut down.

Actually knowing whether or not the battery is good and able to keep the supply demanded by your accessories is not as simple as a battery check at the local auto store, there is more to it and a good analysis of the demand is an important study to perform.

Proper wiring, with good grounds and sufficient size is more important as you add demands to the electrical system.

An undersized battery can and will put a strain on the alternator leading to premature burn-out and additional loading will strain the limits on an old system, especially if additional loads have been accumulating over time.

***

[John Schmidt]

You need to add an accessory fuse panel under the right side cover. Have it actuated by a relay that is energized by the accessory wires you first used. I feed mine off a terminal by the main strip fuse, but the relay is powered by the accessory wires. You can get that type of fuse panel at most automotive stores or places like West Marine....usually more at a marine shop though.

[Firefighter]

I have done most everything you guys suggested. I do have a fuse block mounted, every acc. is fused and with relay. The battery is a year old and was the most capacity for the bike. The alternator seems to be in question because it does appear to charge more at idle than at 2000 rpm, after that charges good I think. I am measuring batt. voltage, dont know how to measure alt. output. My other question is why would the acc. wire (white and Black trace) not show batt. voltage? Is my ing. system running at a lower voltage? Thanks

[Firefighter]

Also not very savvy with web sites,,never sure what I am doing!! Thanks again!

[RP#62]

Try reading voltage relative to the negative terminal on the battery, and then again relative to the frame.  If you're seeing any significant difference you may need to clean the ground cable where it attaches to the rear case on the engine.  That's been a known problem area.

-RP

[valky1500]

2000 interstate, 39,500 miles. Installed Motosens gauges powered thru accessory wire (white with black trace). Was never happy with volts, usually best reading just under 13 volts. Year later, added 100 watts of driving lights, straight from battery via fuse and relay. After a couple of weeks riding, I notice that when in traffic or slow speeds and when fan turns on my temp. gauge flucates wildly. I checked with a voltmeter and notice my accessory wire is a half a volt or a little more lower than battery voltage, engine on or off ????  I stopped using the accessory wire and now my gauges power comes from the battery, instantly my volt gauge indicates over 13 to 14,, great!!  More riding,, and I find that after slow riding with all lights on and I use my brake the engine stumbles, turn extra lights off engine runs good. Volt gauge indicates 13 volts. At home I find with volt meter that accessory wire and factory fuses read lower than battery? Test to 5000 rpm 13.5 batt. volts Voltage lower at 2000 rpm than at idle. Out of space, any input,, thank you.

All of those add-ons and light upgrades are most likely causing an overdraw at the battery and the OEM alternator.

Voltage drop is caused when too much of a load is placed on the charging system.     

Using a higher amp alternator that can handle all of your upgrades together fits the bill.    

[valky1500]

2000 interstate, 39,500 miles. Installed Motosens gauges powered thru accessory wire (white with black trace). Was never happy with volts, usually best reading just under 13 volts. Year later, added 100 watts of driving lights, straight from battery via fuse and relay. After a couple of weeks riding, I notice that when in traffic or slow speeds and when fan turns on my temp. gauge flucates wildly. I checked with a voltmeter and notice my accessory wire is a half a volt or a little more lower than battery voltage, engine on or off ????  I stopped using the accessory wire and now my gauges power comes from the battery, instantly my volt gauge indicates over 13 to 14,, great!!  More riding,, and I find that after slow riding with all lights on and I use my brake the engine stumbles, turn extra lights off engine runs good. Volt gauge indicates 13 volts. At home I find with volt meter that accessory wire and factory fuses read lower than battery? Test to 5000 rpm 13.5 batt. volts Voltage lower at 2000 rpm than at idle. Out of space, any input,, thank you.

All of those add-ons and light upgrades are most likely causing an overdraw at the battery and the OEM alternator.     

Using a higher amp alternator that can handle all of your upgrades together fits the bill.     

It is an indicator for an upgrade when the idle voltage is in the low 12s or less. It doesn't start charging even a good battery until about 1500rpm. By the same token, it can't charge enough even when it's supposed to and the battery dies while running.

Using the correct size battery/alternator combination will get you about 14 volts (13.8 ish) at idle and that's with most if not all the accessories on.

The plus of an upgrade would be the higher idle voltage from the different regulator as it gets a correspondingly better charge to the battery. Yes, that's all done by the regulator. When using the proper sized alternator, it's the idle side that matters most and that's not really the total output (amp) levels.


Whether or not the ECU was damaged due to the jump start is sort of a toss-up.
You probably won't know until you check/replace the battery & try to start it up again.

Basically it is a no-no to jump start motorcycle batteries from cars.   

[YoungPUP]

Just Because the Batt is a year old doesn't mean its good.  Had a bad one right out of the box never could get it to take a charge.

[Firefighter]

Hey, never jump started the valk, starts fine. The alt. charges at idle then seems to go dead at approx. 2000 rpm and then charges again at higher rpm. Batt. voltage is good. The acc. wire (white and black chase) will  always be a half volt at least below batt. voltage, when running or not. Seems to me I have a regulator problem and also something else and I wonder if my ing. system is running with low voltage. Dont know how to check that, or alternator output. Thanks

[valky1500]

Hey, never jump started the valk, starts fine. The alt. charges at idle then seems to go dead at approx. 2000 rpm and then charges again at higher rpm. Batt. voltage is good. The acc. wire (white and black chase) will  always be a half volt at least below batt. voltage, when running or not. Seems to me I have a regulator problem and also something else and I wonder if my ing. system is running with low voltage. Dont know how to check that, or alternator output. Thanks

Like I stated above, simply finding out when the voltage drop occurs tells you if it's the alternator, ignition or elsewhere.

By using a DMM, or multimeter as some still call them, take a volt reading of the fully charged battery (after a night with the trickle) and with the engine off. Then take another after it's started up and idling. If the drop occurs after its started up and running it could be either a weak battery and/or the alt that's in need of brushes.

If it starts up fine and occurs only after you turn on the lights and accessories  indicates the very same thing but it also says the voltage drop is coming from a too small of battery/alternator combination.

It's true that the IS (640-720? watts maximum output) is set up to use more lights and accessories than the Standard and Tourer (546 watts maximum output) but as you can see there are limits when adding more and more. Even they are not Gold Wings.

So, it becomes obvious the GW's being designed for that purpose, more than any Honda made, have the strongest battery/alt combo. And it's a winner.

If it was the ignition side causing the problems, like corroded or burned out switches, you would have overloads and fuses popping out all over the place or  the accessories not turning on at all. That doesn't seem to be the case here does it?

Maybe this explains why so many are turning to both the GL-1500 and more so GL-1800 for parts when upgrading their Valkyries charging, ignition and electrics. 

[BF]

So where does one get a higher ouput alternator?

[valky1500]

So where does one get a higher ouput alternator?

That's a 3 pronged question there.

#1. Compared to the Standard, the IS alternator and battery is the first choice for upgrade.

#2. If you need/want to increase even more then some use the Compufire set up. http://www.horseapple.com/compufire-rev.HTM

#3. But ultimately, the GWings (GL-1500/1800) alt/battery combo works best.   

[Gryphon Rider]

So where does one get a higher ouput alternator?

That's a 3 pronged question there.

#1. Compared to the Standard, the IS alternator and battery is the first choice for upgrade.

#2. If you need/want to increase even more then some use the Compufire set up. http://www.horseapple.com/compufire-rev.HTM

#3. But ultimately, the GWings (GL-1500/1800) alt/battery combo works best.   

Once again, valky1500, you are full of it.  The difference between the Std/Tourer alternator and the IS alternator is that the IS alternator has a noise filter.  They use the same battery.

[Firefighter]

Think I found the problem. RP#62 was right. The battery voltage was always higher at the battery than at the factory fuses. I cleaned the batt. ground and at the engine (kind of a problem to get to) and there was no change. I ran a new ground wire from the batt. negative to the frame and I instantly had better voltage. There must be a bad ground from the engine to the frame. Rode with all my acc. on and have 14.2 volts. Over 13 volts at long idle. Time will tell but think its fixed!!!  Thanks to you guys for your input.   Firefighter

[valky1500]

So where does one get a higher ouput alternator?

That's a 3 pronged question there.

#1. Compared to the Standard, the IS alternator and battery is the first choice for upgrade.

#2. If you need/want to increase even more then some use the Compufire set up. http://www.horseapple.com/compufire-rev.HTM

#3. But ultimately, the GWings (GL-1500/1800) alt/battery combo works best.   

Once again, valky1500, you are full of it.  The difference between the Std/Tourer alternator and the IS alternator is that the IS alternator has a noise filter.  They use the same battery.

Well let's back up a moment here.

You seem to be stuck on something that I'm not saying with something that I am.   

1). The IS uses a higher watt alternator than the Standard/Tourer but the same battery...

2). The Compufire is the higher output alternator with matching battery combo and...

3). Even though they are different, the GL1500-1800 are higher output alt/battery combos too.

What's being confused on this subject is the differences between Power and Current and their effects.

It's time well spent when trying to understand what's being read before commenting.     

Maybe next time.     

and thanks for your response.