Afternoon people, it's that's time of year again when I want to get my car up to scratch for the coming spring. I'm ok with the
spanners but I'm no mechanic either and as for electrics,there really not my strong point at all. My question for you is whilst my indyblade is
running being driven normally without any lights or anything else switched on it runs fine but as soon as I need to switch my lights on the voltage
drops and the low voltage light flashes consistently at me on the digi dash and from memory it drops to 11. Something volts. I currently have a Varta
fireblade specific model battery fitted and it's always kept connected up to the optimate charger. I have a digidash and savage switches to power
up and that's it. My thinking is maybe I just need to fit a bigger battery maybe but I don't want to go and spend money on a new battery if
that's not the cause of the problem. Thanks in advance for any advise given.
Regard Gaz
You woould expect voltage to drop when the lights go on. 11v would be low for a CEC though. What happens when you rev up, does the voltage rise and light go off?
sounds like a fault in the charging (alternator) circuit.
Engine speed doesn't make any difference to volt readout its always around 11 volts ish. When I turn my lights on all of the savage switches are illuminated on the dash as well. Maybe the size of battery isn't man enough to cope with the draw of power?
I would have thought the battery is up to the job. Sounds like a wiring fault to me where something is drawing more power than it should. You might be able to isolate what is doing it by disconnecting things to see if you can avoid the problem. It may be fiddly, but without doing it you could never isolate the issue.
How old is the battery
4 yeatrs is tops imho regardless of care
The battery size won't be the issue as once running all electrical power should be coming from the charging system and power going back into the
battery not out of it.
What is the voltage reading when running with lights etc off? Should be between 13.5-14.5v. If not then the charging circuit isn't working
properly. The rectifier is a known weak piont on some 'blades.
quote:
Originally posted by adithorp
The battery size won't be the issue as once running all electrical power should be coming from the charging system and power going back into the battery not out of it.
What is the voltage reading when running with lights etc off? Should be between 13.5-14.5v. If not then the charging circuit isn't working properly. The rectifier is a known weak piont on some 'blades.
My R1 stopped charging last year,first I knew of it was a misfire then it just cut out.no battery light is a pain!
Fitted a nice little digital volt gauge now so it won't go unseen again 
Anyway,it was the multiplug connection between the stator and the loom on mine,had corroded and partially melted the wiring leaving the loom plug.
Not sure if blades suffer with this, but is common on R1's.
Just follow the three wires up from your stator and check the connection to loom.
This might be your issue;
http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/forum/7/viewthread.php?tid=160664
Also maybe worth looking at the regulator as the standard ones are known to fail on the early Fireblades as they normal overheat due to lack of air
flow over them to keep the cool
Worth swapping to one with a built in heat sink readily available on eBay
Cheers
Iain
Thanks for the help everybody really appreciate it. The daily drive is going off to honda tomorrow for a service then I will be in the garage trying out your suggestions to see if a can sort the problem out. Just a quick one on battery age I reckon it's at least 5years old now. Maybe that could be the issue? But I thought the optimate tests the battery for you to see if it's knackered or not?
As others have said check the alternator to regulator connections and any add in connectors if the looms been extended
The reg/rec itself and its pins for any burning.
Battered i say 4 years though you would expect it to be struggling to start the car if the cells were going down enough to dark the voltage down once
running, so if its still starting strong and its voltage his good it may have a bit more life in it
You need to check whather it's charging correctly. Is the voltage 13.5-14.5v when running? If not then the charging system isn't
working correctly. That means either the stator or the regulator or the wiring between is the issue .
If it starts/re-starts OK, then I'll pretty much garrentee it's not a battery issue.
quote:
Originally posted by adithorp
You need to check whather it's charging correctly. Is the voltage 13.5-14.5v when running? If not then the charging system isn't working correctly. That means either the stator or the regulator or the wiring between is the issue .
If it starts/re-starts OK, then I'll pretty much garrentee it's not a battery issue.
I had this problem with mine last year, found the fault to be the stator was burnt out and the reg was fried too.
there is a guide somewhere I found that gives good advice on fault finding with the charging loop.
Also as a quick easy potential fix... check the three connections from the stator, these get very hot and deteriorate.
When I bought a new regulater, I mounted it out the way of anything hot (they need to dissipate the heat they generate to dump the excess charge the
stator gives off), mine ended up in the bottom of the engine bay on the passengerside with a 12v pc style fan cooling it, attached to a block of
aluminium with heat sink paste and also a cooling duct from the front of the side panel. It should be lovely and cool now! 
Heres a few things to check after a quick google...
Stator coil resistances. Use a multimeter to check the resistance between each of the three cables and earth (engine casing will be great). All three
should have NO continuity.
Start the engine and have the 3 wires unplugged. Use your multimeter to measure the voltage (I'm sure its AC you need) Should be around 50Vac (at
idle) between 2 wires, check them all with each other and they should all be the same.
At 5k rpm you should get about 65V ac.
With the reg/rec, test the resistance between the green wire and negetive battery terminal, you should get low resistance.
Then check voltage (dc) from the red wire on the reg/rec to the negetive battery terminal. That should be identical to the voltage across both battery
terminals. (If it isn't then theres a fault in the wiring loom somewhere).
From what I remember when testing mine, I was getting around 13-14v on the battery with the engine sat at 5k rpm, if it is higher then the reg/rec is
broke
So from what you say it sounds like the stator or a problem with the wiring
Heres a link to the thread I made when doing mine
http://locostbuilders.co.uk/forum/59/viewthread.php?tid=191072
Hopefully that makes sense! I'm pretty tired trying to get into nightshift so it probably wont!
Morning
My battery was suffering the same issue. The rectifier was becoming extremely hot and the three stator wires had almost melted. I used my Kawasaki
manual and went through the motions of checking voltages, resistance etc. In the end I replaced the rectifier with a newer superseded part and changed
the stator wiring plus connectors. If you have the time you will find plenty of forums highlighting this issues about battery maintenance, charging
and dodgy rectifiers.
Id recommend previous posts and check all your wiring, voltages etc then try to pinpoint the exact issue. Rectifiers and stators can be quite pricey
so take your time. Good luck
quote:
Originally posted by polomouth
Afternoon people, it's that's time of year again when I want to get my car up to scratch for the coming spring. I'm ok with the spanners but I'm no mechanic either and as for electrics,there really not my strong point at all. My question for you is whilst my indyblade is running being driven normally without any lights or anything else switched on it runs fine but as soon as I need to switch my lights on the voltage drops and the low voltage light flashes consistently at me on the digi dash and from memory it drops to 11. Something volts. I currently have a Varta fireblade specific model battery fitted and it's always kept connected up to the optimate charger. I have a digidash and savage switches to power up and that's it. My thinking is maybe I just need to fit a bigger battery maybe but I don't want to go and spend money on a new battery if that's not the cause of the problem. Thanks in advance for any advise given.
Regard Gaz