QuestionQUESTION: Hi there,
I know your profile doesn't mention expertise in this bike, but I think my problem is simple enough that you likely know the answer.
My Triumph Tiger has some weird electrical problems. Basically it drives fine, with the headlight off. But if i have the headlight on (night time driving) it will kill the battery (and burn the zener diode) after about an hour of driving.
Basically I noticed this problem because for the past two months, I only ever drove at night super briefly, like 10 minutes at a time. Then would drive a lot during the day. I measure the battery every now and then because the zener diode has blown before and thus the battery wouldnt charge, i replaced the diode three months ago and no problems.
Last night I drove about 1 hour and noticed my lights flickering, the turn signals blinking super super slowly and erracticaly. I measure the voltage and it was at like 8.6 volts! I left the bike in the garage over night. Measured it this morning and the battery magically recharged to 11 volts. I drove to works, and now its back up around 12.
The diode though was VERY HOT, and one of the four contacts its all burnt now. Im going to replace it tonight.
So the question is. Why is this diode burning by having the headlights on ? is it a faulty battery, or wrong bulb in the lamp or what?
Thanks so much, Dan
ANSWER: Daniel,I have worked on a few and they do have some odd quirks. Unfortunately the electrical system can have one problem and it starts taking out other components. The battery could have a bad cell in it and fully charged it should be around 12.4 volts but can vary on you. The headlight bulb could be to drawing to much wattage to run causing a drain. The two most likely culprits could be the voltage regulator allowing the charging syatem to surge and fry diodes then not keep the battery up. You may have to check voltage on battery with bike shut off. Then check with bike running then rev bike up to about 2500 to 3000 rpm and check voltage. Also check it with the lights on and revved to about 3000 rpm and hold it there. You should read about 13.6 to 13.8 volts and no more and no less. If you have a ohm and volt meter combo shut the bike off and find the 3 stator wires coming out of the generator area on the engine,they should be the same color.Find the connector and unplug it test each wire and see if one of the windings on the stator is shorted out to ground. If you can narrow down the problem so that if you have to buy a part its what you need because electrical parts cant be returned.
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QUESTION: Hmm i dont have an Ohm meter. I can get my hands on one, but how do I know whether one of the wires is shorted out to ground? (never done that before).
also, the battery when "fully charged" is only at like 11.66volts.
if i drive in the daytime, lights off, itll stay at that and not drain and i can drive it forever. Only when the headlamp is on, will drain the bike super fast.
one time, I left the headlamp switch on overnight. With the bike off the lamp wasnt actually on, but the tail light was, this drained the battery almost all the way. I had to charge the battery with a charger, and its never been above 11.66 again. Could that have damaged the battery? would that cause all this trouble?
D
AnswerDaniel,Its very possible the battery is giving you grief. If the lights and the ignition system run on 12 volts and the battery has only 11.66 volts it may vary well tax the system. Borrow a volt meter and still try to check the charging systems output. The ohm meter can be used to find resistance or continuity. There are usually 3 wires all the same color that come from the stator that go into the harness to the voltage regulator. Some are all white some are yellow ect.. Set the ohm meter to read continuity. Find the connector before the voltage reg and put the positive lead on one of the wire terminals and put the other on the frame of the bike. If one of the bikes wires is shorted there may be some continuity to ground. If the winding is good there may not be any flow of electricity to the ground. This one way of testing. Also load test the battery to see if it has a bad cell in it. Some batteries only have a 90 day warranty but may last a year give or take.
