Curvy Charging Nightmare!

Hi Guys,

I'll explain the story regarding my SV650 Curvy to give you a better idea of my issue.

So I purchased the bike about a year ago from a reliable friend who had taken care of this SV for years. Only 22,000 Miles on her now.

Anyway my SV had a MOSFET Reg/Rec from a CBR1000. And a few weeks ago, I lost power to my bike mid journey. Managed to get it bump started.

That night, I took the bike to my highly experienced friend to check it out. We found that all wiring coming from the Reg/Rec had melted and burnt out really quite bad.

I am slightly concerned that this has happened since I installed my brand new oxford heated grips. They draw under 4 amps, are wired directly to the battery with a relay, so surely this should cause no problems? Headlights are both 55W and rarely run them at high beam. and the rest of my lights are all high quality LED's.

We proceeded to test voltage output from the alternator/stator which put out a good 80 Volts across all three of the yellow alternator output wires at 5,000RPM. So the alternator is just fine.

Next, we checked the Reg/Rec itself. My friend tested it, and said it's looking likely that it is the Reg/Rec. We tested the charging voltage of the battery, which was around 13.2-13.5V at 5,000RPM.

So I purchased another Brand new Reg/Rec. Forgotten the Brand but when researched, It was highly rated on most forums.

We renewed the wiring and installed the new Reg/Rec and is now reading a charge voltage of 14.2-14.5V at 5,000 RPM. Doesn't go above this at any RPM.


However, Here's the bit that worries me. Before my first Reg/Rec went, I noticed my grips were intermittently going into power saving mode (Detects low battery voltage) for a few weeks before the wires melted at the Reg/Rec.

Since installing the new Reg/Rec, Battery has been charging perfectly and consistently as I have been closely monitoring it. But now, two weeks of use on the new Reg/Rec. I am noticing my grips are starting to power save again. This of course is now worrying me as this was what happened before my first reg/rec failure and I just spent £80 on a new Reg/Rec.

Now, I'm not saying this is a sure issue. But Obviously I would rather catch the problem before I get another wire melt, or another damaged Reg/Rec.

Any advise to help prevent another problem would be appreciated, and thank you for your time to read this, I just thought more detail is best.

If you need any more info, let me know.

Kind Regards,

Jordan.

[maviczap]

Follow the links (in grey) at the bottom of Geodudes signature. His is the first post here

http://forums.sv650.org/showthread.php?t=220357

According to the Reg/Rec test in this guys video. my first reg/rec is fine. and so is the one currently installed :S

[Biker Biggles]

The common denominator seems to be the grips.I suggest you turn them off and get them thoroughly checked.

Ran some more tests on the bike this evening...

Found that the battery lead was corroded and was struggling to get continuity through most of the connector plate. only some areas had continuity. I'm assuming this increases resistance in the circuit?

Tested the output directly from the R/R itself and voltage was a constant 14.5v. so it definitely isn't the R/R.

However, testing the output at the battery terminals gave me a voltage of 12.5-13.5v.

Turned the bike off, battery dropped to about 12.1v over the next 30 seconds or so.

So I am getting undercharge issues. Is it likely that the corroded positive connection is causing undercharging?

[johnnyrod]

I would hazard a guess that if the grips can't draw enough from the battery then they're placing a great load on the r/r. Corroded connections can be confusing as they can be intermittent, and because yo only need a small clean area to work, this small area can also easily be grotted over or reinstated quite easily/quickly. So yes a good chance you've found the root cause.

Okay. Cleaned connections. R/R supplies enough power to charge battery without grips on. As soon as I turn grips on, battery voltage drops to around 13v and seems to slowly decrease until around 12v. The grips power save comes on when they detect low battery voltage, and the voltage starts climbing again. So it is apparent that the grips are drawing too much power. But they are only 38W Max! Does this mean I cannot expect to ever run my heated grips? Is there a solution to this? I'm really running out of ideas

Check your earths.
Holy trinity :-
Frame - battery
Battery - engine
Engine - frame

Get more than about 5-6 ohms resistance, there's your issue.
I would expect your battery, reg/rec and alternator to cope comfortably with more than 38w

[Ruffy]

Originally Posted by isutty5

Okay. Cleaned connections. R/R supplies enough power to charge battery without grips on. As soon as I turn grips on, battery voltage drops to around 13v and seems to slowly decrease until around 12v. The grips power save comes on when they detect low battery voltage, and the voltage starts climbing again. So it is apparent that the grips are drawing too much power. But they are only 38W Max! Does this mean I cannot expect to ever run my heated grips? Is there a solution to this? I'm really running out of ideas

A quick and dirty workaround is to bypass the loom by adding a new wire for the charging circuit between the reg/rec +ve output (red wire as standard) and the starter relay (again red wire, but not the thick one that goes to the battery - It's preferable to connect to the relay output terminal rather than the battery otherwise you also bypass the main fuse). Larger cross section is better but 1.5 to 2.5mm2 csa wire should be OK. For extra reassurance add a similar loom bypass for the reg/rec black wire output to the battery negative terminal, a good frame earth, or both.

This will eliminate issues in the ageing loom that seem to be adding too much extra resistance causing the volt drop that's affecting your grips: There are crimp connections buried in the loom wrap that have a habit of corroding over time and are nigh on impossible to sort without pretty major "open loom surgery"!

Originally Posted by atassiedevil

Check your earths.
Holy trinity :-
Frame - battery
Battery - engine
Engine - frame

Get more than about 5-6 ohms resistance, there's your issue.
I would expect your battery, reg/rec and alternator to cope comfortably with more than 38w

Not sure where to look for all the earths? The only earth I know how to inspect is the negative battery connector.

As for bypassing the loom. I suppose this would be the last resort after checking earths.

Again... Thanks for your help guys