Z1OwnersClub GB

After a couple of days of running the old gurl around, she has become more difficult to start on the button, eventually refusing all together. A quick prod of the kicker sees her roar into life. I have recharged the battery and have just spent a few hours testing, with the Kwak worshop manual at my side.

Firstly I stuck the multimeter in series with the battery -ve and the frame/engine ground. Also put another meter across the battery +ve & -ve. With the ingnition off there was approx 12.3volts over the battery. With the ignition of teh coidl end dyna-s seemed to be drawing around 4 amps and the batt voltage was down very slightly. To save frying my faithful RS meter I prodded the kicker to start. Up until 4-5K RPM there was still a current drain. With the head light on it I could not dare rev the bike hard enough the see if there was any point at which the battery would charge as the engine isn't run in yet. The voltage dropped with increases in load eg head light. Increasing the revs made little but measureable increases in voltage, but nowhere near the the 14-15 volts Mr Kwaka tells me to expect at 5K RPM.

I measured the voltage from each of the phases coming from the alternator. Across each phase at 1500RPM I was getting approx 25v off load rising to 50-60volts at 3000RPM. Off load I was getting 20+v DC from the rectifier output increasing rapidly with engine speed. Plugged back in circuit it was back down to barely over 12 volts and no great increase with engine speed.

Unplugging the regulator, as suggested by Mr Kwaka, made no discernable difference to either voltage nor current drawn or charged. I would have thought that if the regulator was the cause of the problem taking it out of circuit should allow the voltage to help itself, but as this isn't the case my feeling is that the rectifier is at fault, breaking down under load. My only real concern with this diagnosis is that I think that the bike was charging OK before the rebuild.

As none of the parts are cheap, and I am particularly dickymint, I'd prefer to try and finger the villain scientifically, before assaulting the overdraft any more.

Anyone got any bright ideas?

Stick a H**** (SH232) or later Kawa (Z1000A3 and above) Combined RR in.

I've had similar problems to this and found that poor connections and badly insulated wires from the field coils played (the yellow ones I think) quite a large part in the reduction of charge. Worth looking into.

Interesting one Russ. I re-wired the cabling from the stator as the wires coming from it had badly cracked insulation. Originally the soldered joints to the stator windings was varnished. I was advised that this wasn't necessary as oil doesn't conduct. On the basis I didn't have any varnish, more especially an oil resistant one I decided not to bother with it, but did smear a bit of RTV around it but not a perfect seal. I wonder if the advice was bum (didn't come off here ) Any comments?
Thanks

Ralph.
What Russ says I agree with and it's worth putting new wires in from the windings to the multiplug connectore behind the LH side panel.
However, I strongly advise you to find wire with stainless/nickel coated steel cores in. Have you noticed that on almost every bike alternator windings you see that the wire cores are never made from copper
If you don't use steel cored wire the copper cores will blacken very quickly and break down, giving you pretty much what you have now... limited current.
Fire protective wires (usually coloured yellow) have very tough sheathing and stainless cores. I suggest you try an electrical factors (house), they should be able to help you.

Good luck, Will

Have same problem on a run today with a KZ1000ST. Battery not charging.
Came home did some checks as per Clymer manual. Everything checked out ok on electrical tests, manual suggest that the stator may have become de-magnetised. Can this be reversed or is a new one in order???

Hello,

I had similar problems with the battery on Horace dieing after a month of inaction - found the battery was B*&gered in the end (which I didn't believe as it was so new).
anyway I found the Dyna-S pulls quite a lot of power when the ignition is switched on but on the way tried the procedure shown below to check every connection:

http://www.aa1car.com/library/voltage_drop_testing.htm

hope that is some help.

H wie

Would try another reg/rect from a working bike if you have one,does sound like rectifier,fully charged batt should be 13.2 volt,genny op seems fine.

very rare for the stator to be the fault . most common things are the rectifier & voltage regulator your alternator output is good i would upgrade to a combined regulator / rectifier

Had a look at wires and connections, most are good but some slight corrosion on a few connectors, bike had being lying up a few years. Will clean these up and recheck, cheers Howie. That fault finding chart will be a great help Keith, thanks.

the charging on my Z1 was marginal recently and it had started to weep at the grommet. I'd already fitted a combine Reg/Rec.

New charging loom and grommet and the difference is amazing. Goes to show how those wires age....

Any updates on this ?

No progress yet... work keeps getting in the way

Mine's running the battery down in about a fortnight if I ride it around but doesn't do it if I leave it alone, so I've downloaded the 4 page fault finding chart. I revved it to 2,500rpm and got 14.25V. At 5,000rpm it read 14V so my charging system is apparently OK.

If the battery was no good, it would go down either way, so looks like I'll be going through all of the wiring to check for corrosion

I do ride with the headlight on (halogen although it looks rather yellow), have DynaS ignition, a superdream combined regulator/rectifier and the George mod.

It does seem to be quite a common problem.

vduk wrote: but did smear a bit of RTV around it

The RTV silicone that stinks of vinegar is the acetoxy type. Don't use that on wiring! The curing system releases acetic acid which will attack most metals including aluminium, mild steel, lead and copper. Not good for vehicles of any type.