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Post by cruiser66 on Feb 3, 2009 15:15:34 GMT -5
If the battery is from 2002, then it definitely should be replaced. I have been lucky to get 3 or 4 years with a well maintained battery. I wouldn't even trust a car battery once it gets to be 7 years old. As stated in previous posts, this will give you a starting point to determine if the scoot's charging system is working OK. Headlights dimming at idle speeds and very low speeds are normal on these scoots since the output of the stator is dependent on engine speed and the stator is the only thing that feeds the headlights. Stator output increases with engine speed.
66
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Post by unknownsoldier on Feb 4, 2009 18:43:58 GMT -5
If your problem persists, when I worked on caterpillar generators, sometimes the "residual magnetism" was lost. Upon starting up and testing for output power, the residual (which should have been about 3-7 VAC) was not there, measuring only about 1VAC. "Flashing" the coil by applying a momentary connection to a battery source restored the residual voltage and then the system would operate properly.
Anyone heard of this before?
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Post by undertheradar on Feb 5, 2009 19:48:00 GMT -5
Okay.....put in a brand new fully charged battery. Voltage at the terminals shows 12.6 at idle. No change though when I rev the motor.
I have two brand new stators and they both give the same result: bike runs fine, but lights start dimming after about 30 minutes. I haven't tried running the new battery for long, since it's raining here. The battery drain doesn't seem to have any negative effect on the performance of the motor like it did when the stator was bad.
I've tried two of the three rectifiers I have, and I get no change.
All wiring checks out.
Anything I could be missing? What about the main fuse that comes off the positive lead of the battery? I did a visual chck and it looked fine, but thats all. Could it be bad without being broken?
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Post by JR on Feb 5, 2009 21:18:36 GMT -5
Yes most definitely, check it with an ohm meter. Have you also checked to make sure the ground lead from the battery is getting a good connections with the frame?
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Post by undertheradar on Feb 5, 2009 21:39:08 GMT -5
Yes most definitely, check it with an ohm meter. Have you also checked to make sure the ground lead from the battery is getting a good connections with the frame? I just checked the fuse with my multimeter and it shows 0....that means it's good, right? Infinity would mean it's bad? All the ground wires are attached to a common spot that was original to the Honda motor. I attached the GY6 grounds there as well. They're nice and tight and haven't moved from when I first tightened the bolt down on them. I'm going to test the rectifier again. I was told I can disconnect the red wire from the cdi that goes to the battery and see if it increases with the revs. If not, then it;s likely the rectifier is bad. Sound right? |
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Post by undertheradar on Feb 6, 2009 13:29:09 GMT -5
www.urbanscootin.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3142That seems to suggest the Metropolitan's computer turns on the headlights by providing a ground once the engine starts running. It seems that the original Met setup is for DC headlights. If so, the GY6 rectifier can't keep up and the the headlight may be dimming after riding a while because of that. If you tested the voltage at the headlight with the engine running, it would read 12-14 volts DC and about 0 volts AC if the lights are DC powered. If so, you would need to connect a wire to the yellow stator wire, run it to the headlight switch, and provide a ground at the headlight. You would have to cut the original wires and splice (connect) the new AC from the stator wire. In other words, bypass the ECM. I looked for a Met wiring diagram, but couldn't find one. Do you have just a bright/dim switch, and no way to turn off the headlights when the engine runs? Yes...I have a connection from the yellow stator wire to the headlight and taillight already......other people that have done this swap on a Ruckus had to do the same thing. Keep in mind that the way I have it set up had the bike running fine for about 1000 miles, and all this didn't start happening till my stator went bad and I broke down. I'll see what grounding the headlight to the frame does and see if that does anything. What's weird is that the headlight comes on fine, and increses in brightness with the increase in revs, but there's no voltage increase at the battery. |
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Post by undertheradar on Feb 6, 2009 13:36:25 GMT -5
Oh, and yes...just a hi/lo switch and no way to turn off the lights completely unless I unplug the harness.
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Post by kz1000st on Feb 6, 2009 13:42:03 GMT -5
I know this is going to sound nutty. But I might, at this point, splice into a wire from the stator that's got power, hook it into a separate voltage regulator/rectifier and run that wire to the battery and see what happens. As long as the scooter is running fine, you have lights and signals there's something else up and I might Rube Goldberg around it. You should have like 12.8V to 13.1V at the battery. Or something like that.
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Post by undertheradar on Feb 6, 2009 19:48:49 GMT -5
Sorry...I know it's kind of confusing.  Fact: The bike starts up, idles and revs just fine. Fact: I haven't been able to ride at all yet because of bad weather, but after letting the scoot idle for about 35 minutes, all seems well. I shut it off and start it up over and over and there doesn't seem to be any drain. Fact: when I connect my multimeter to the battery terminals, and the bike is running, It shows 12.6 or so. If I rev the motor, the voltage does not increase, which is what I've been told is supposed to happen. Fact: When I rev the motor the headlight does brighten like it always did. Fact: I disconnected the fused red wire off the battery (the one that goes to the rectifier) and tested it while the bike was running and it showed 25.6 volts. Make any sense? |
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Post by undertheradar on Feb 7, 2009 18:41:23 GMT -5
Okay...so when I test the wires coming off the rectifier plug, I show 12.4 at idle, and up to 14 when I rev the motor.
Then, When I test the voltage at the battery terminals, it doesn't climb when I use the neg terminal for the ground on my multimeter, but it does climb with the revs when I use the frame as the ground.
So I'm thinking that based on that link to urbanscootin a few posts back, as well as seeing the wiring itself, the factory honda ground wires leave the negative terminal and go through the ecu, and then on to the frame. I'm assuming something must be wrong with the ecu. Should I just run a separate ground wire from terminal to the frame? Will this even solve my problem?
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Post by undertheradar on Feb 8, 2009 14:58:48 GMT -5
Welll, if I disconnect the ground wire which is actually two wires joined at each end with a ring terminal) from both the battery terminal as well as the frame (they are all grounded to a common spot) and test it, it still shows 0 ohms. I don't know if there is any way to test each of the two lines seperately, since they are joined at each end. I also ran a jumper straight from the neg post o the frame and it didn't do anything. It does look like those grounds go through the ecu before going back to the frame, which makes me think again that something with the ecu is causing it. That thing is just way too complicated for the simplicity needed for the GY6 to run. Here's what I've decided to do: ditch the ecu. I was really only using it for my electric fuel pump anyways, so I ordered a mikuni vacuum pump to replace it. Basically just need to run new wires for the the controls/lights/etc and it should be good to go. This is the way most of my Ruckus buddies do it anyways. Thanks for all the help guys....I'll update later his week when I get things done. |
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