Charging fault?

Hi everyone from a noob to the Org. I'm going to launch straight in with a question in the hope that someone can help!

I have an 01 sv650s which has been fine up until now. I ride it every weekday, doing a 100 mile round trip for my commute. Everything was fine until wednesday morning when it wouldn't start due to a flat battery (typical sounds of failure to turn starter motor sufficiently). I charged the battery back up today and carried out some tests, following the Haynes manual.

Unfortunately I dont have a multimeter but I do have a battery/alternator function tester with led lights that come on at various voltages. I connected the charged battery and it lit up the green 12.6v light with the ignition off. I started the bike and turned on the high beams and the heated grips and the 12.6v light started to flicker, reverting mostly to the yellow 12v light. I revved the engine to 5k and the yellow 13.2v light came on but no more (the next green light, 14.5 did not illuminate). Switching the lights and grips off and letting it idle resulted in yellow 13.2v.

Does this sound like anything is wrong? I think there must be a fault somewhere as I definitely do enough mileage to keep the battery charged up. Would there be a battery problem or reg/rec?

Thanks in advance and apologies for lack of knowledge!

[Sid Squid]

There's lots on here about charging systems and charging faults - do a search and you'll find much to read, by many authors, myself included.

The common problem with the SV650 charging system is the regulator rectifier, but before condemning that part be aware that there are charging faults other than that.

13.2 V is low; this isnt a common symptom of a reg/rec fault on SV's. however like SS saiys you cant completly rule it out.

Perhaps an alternator test is in order, to make sure there is enough charging occuring?

Just completed soring mine out, with out a multimeter its hard to get an accurate picture but I would hazzard a guess. Ger yourself down to a breakers and borrow a Reg/-Rec and see if it sorts it. I put a SRAD600 reg/rec and it works fine so a reg/rec with matching wires would sufice.

Thanks for all the input so far. I got myself a multimeter and carried out a few tests:

bike off - 12.7v
ignition on, dip beam on - 12.0v
idle - 13.8v
idle with grips & main beam - 12.3v
5krpm - 13.2v
5krpm with grips & main beam - 12.8

My (inexpert) opinon would be that there is nothing actually wrong, just that the voltage output is insufficient to maintain the battery, especially now I'm using my grips and lights more. I have been reading about the mod where you wire the reg/rec output straight to the battery. This is not beyond my limited capability and I think I might give it a go. Would anyone agree?

[Biker Biggles]

I think you have a current drain and my money would be on the grips.

Looks like you've got a charging problem. 5k revs should be up around 14.5 Volts...Reg/Rec faults seem to be a common problem.

P.S. Unless the grips are a new addition, they wouldn't top of my list of "What could be the problem".

Just done a leakage test, reading 00.2 on the multimeter set to 200u. I think this is ok, unless anyone can suggest otherwise. Checked the main fuse, which was very clean and free from corrosion.

Just in case anyone is interested, I have now managed to fix the problem. I checked the unregulated output, which was more than fine so I then unplugged every connection I could see, cleaned inside with emery paper and WD40, packed with grease and reconnected. Voltage at 5krpm then went up to about 13.8 with everything switched on. I then carried out the wiring mod where the reg/rec runs straight to the battery and got a consistent 14+v at every point in the rev range.