Member Contributer swimmer Posted March 17, 2010 Member Contributer Share Posted March 17, 2010 Related or not over the weekend I installed a Remus exhaust system on my 6th gen. On one of the following rides I noticed that my voltage was fluctuating- I’ve got a datel meter installed. The voltage has been measuring 14.5-14.53 with no accessories on and high beams off. Now the voltage is reading about 14.25 – 14.4 when steady but is usually reading 14.3 and then also starts bouncing quickly around between 14.4 and 14 volts. If I put the high beams on the voltage will drop about 300mv where as before it would drop maybe 150mv. It seems like something is shorting intermittently. I did have to move some wires around as I messed with removing my rear fender and then also moving the wires around a little that run to my GIVI side case lights. I figured I’d broken a wire and something was shorting so I checked that and did find a possible culprit but after attending to that the problem still persists. I went through the rest of my accessory wiring (datel meter, pro-oiler, grip heaters, powerlet – all run from tightwads fuse block as well as vfrness) and found no problems. I ran without the lights connected to the side cases and no change. I checked the main ground, etc… and find no problems. The motorcycle runs fine otherwise and if it were not for the datel meter I would not know there was an issue. I hooked up a multimeter to the battery and ran the motorcycle to check that the datel meter was fine and although my hand held meter averages over a longer interval so misses some of the noise, the values generally seem to match. Particularly for those with on board meters, have you ever seen this before? A sign of some component starting to fail? Any other thoughts? Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer chris2992 Posted March 17, 2010 Member Contributer Share Posted March 17, 2010 If it were I, I would not worry until i started to see voltages consistently below 14v. Anything above 14v is going to healthily charge the battery. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer swimmer Posted March 17, 2010 Author Member Contributer Share Posted March 17, 2010 If it were I, I would not worry until i started to see voltages consistently below 14v. Anything above 14v is going to healthily charge the battery. The lower avg value is much less of a concern than the fluctuation. It should not be doing that when running steady rpm above idle and also the larger drops in voltage when an accessory or high beams are turned on means to me at least that something is drawing current that shouldn't be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baileyrock Posted March 17, 2010 Share Posted March 17, 2010 Sounds like a loose connector, small short or a faulty R/R. :comp13: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer swimmer Posted March 17, 2010 Author Member Contributer Share Posted March 17, 2010 Sounds like a loose connector, small short or a faulty R/R. :comp13: I tend to think its the connector or small short but as of yet have not found it. Is there a test for the R/R to verify its goodness? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer NVR2L8 Posted March 17, 2010 Member Contributer Share Posted March 17, 2010 I have a Datel too, and mine started doing the same thing about 6 months ago. When first installed it was rock solid for the longest time...like 14.4 once the bike was started...and then out of the blue I noticed it would fluctuate just a little. Mine only varies about two-tenths of a volts though, so to me it's more of an annoyance than anything else. Anyway, you mentioned it was wired to a tightwad's fuse block, but you didn't say how you were running power to the fuse block. I'm assuming the fuse block is being turned on by some sort switched circuit, and that you're running 12V directly from the battery to the fuse block. If so, my guess is what you're seeing is a normal amount of slight voltage fluctuation, due to the nature of the bike's stator/RR electrical system operating under a very light load. Try turning on accessories and see if the Datel starts to level out. I bet it does... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer swimmer Posted March 18, 2010 Author Member Contributer Share Posted March 18, 2010 I ran my brights and grip heaters on my way home from work. The voltage was maybe a little smoother but the fluctuations were not gone. With the above on I was below 14 volts. Previously with brights and grip heaters on high I would be at about 14.25 volts. I'll hook up a better meter at some point and ride with it on and see how that does. It seem to take several minutes of riding before the fluctuations start although the voltages are always lower than last week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer swimmer Posted March 18, 2010 Author Member Contributer Share Posted March 18, 2010 I hooked up a good multimeter to the datel voltmeter terminals while I rode. Both meters show the same fluctuations and low voltages. One minute I am riding and get 14.4 volts steady on both meters and the next minutes I am reading 13.8 volts steady and the next minute the voltage is bouncing around. No fan or anything. I briefly checked the wires running up to the datel meter the other day and everything look fine. Maybe I need to look into that further but I fear its something worse. FWIW the higher steady voltages seem more prevalent in the first few minutes of riding. The everything seems to go down hill. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer swimmer Posted March 20, 2010 Author Member Contributer Share Posted March 20, 2010 Everything is working now. My datel meter wiring was spliced into the positive wire going to my grip heaters (separate ground). Last night I un-did that and ran two new wires from the meter back to the last leg of my fuse block and to ground. I also disconnected my R/R plugs to check the stator etc... Not sure if the original meter wiring went bad and there was a bad connection at the R/R but all is well. A steady 14.48 volts while riding with highs on. The voltage drops when I turn accessories on seems less now so I am leaning towards it being the connector at the R/R but whatever... Noticed my coolant was quite low when I had the fairings off. Didn't notice that when I had the fairings off a month or so ago for an oil change. Hopefully just some air getting out after the t-stat change a few months ago. Have to watch closely for a couple of weeks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baileyrock Posted March 20, 2010 Share Posted March 20, 2010 Success it a good thing, congrtas! :laughing6-hehe: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tightwad Posted March 24, 2010 Share Posted March 24, 2010 Everything is working now. My datel meter wiring was spliced into the positive wire going to my grip heaters (separate ground). Last night I un-did that and ran two new wires from the meter back to the last leg of my fuse block and to ground. I also disconnected my R/R plugs to check the stator etc... Not sure if the original meter wiring went bad and there was a bad connection at the R/R but all is well. A steady 14.48 volts while riding with highs on. The voltage drops when I turn accessories on seems less now so I am leaning towards it being the connector at the R/R but whatever... Noticed my coolant was quite low when I had the fairings off. Didn't notice that when I had the fairings off a month or so ago for an oil change. Hopefully just some air getting out after the t-stat change a few months ago. Have to watch closely for a couple of weeks. Reminds me of my trip to Arkanasa where I freaked out because my meter shot up to 21 volts...Dutch and HS were patient as I discovered the problem was the meter and not the bike. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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