Weak charging?

[Ped]

Steve,

I agree with everything Bill wrote, so no need to repeat that. As to 
replacement of the generator: This is pretty straight forward, 
especially when you have the shop manual to consult. Shouldn't take you 
more than a couple of hours at the most. There should be a fair chance 
of finding one at ebay. A couple of years ago I first replaced the 
regulator, later the whole generator, so I know :-)   It turned out that 
none of them were faulty, but that's another story. If you read more 
than 14.8 volts when doing the alternator output test, then don't 
hesitate to write again. It's probably not the regulator, and I have a 
trick that will work. One word of caution, though: Be sure that the 
battery is healthy. If it's not, then replace it. One fault in the 
electrical system can easily generate others if it is not corrected.

Ped
'96 "Black Stealth" GPZ
Denmark


Steven Bixby skrev:
> So, my GPZ has been mostly unused recently and I brought it back to
> life last week while my ST13 is being serviced (by me, over several
> days).
>
> One issue I know I need to get after is to pull the carbs and look
> them over; I am fairly sure that there is some idle-circut clogging
> occurring as it hesitates very badly off-idle.  But that's besides the
> current point.
>
> The other issue that I'm concerned about is that I don't think the
> charging system is getting much done - I suspect the battery isn't
> getting charged.  The bike will run once I get it started but it
> always seems to be weak on the restart and I've put the charger on to
> take care of it a time or three.   I've bumped started it another time
> or three in the past few days too.
>
> So - how does one diagnose this?  I've never tried to check a charging
> system before.   I have some measure of electrical know-how and can
> drive a DVOM fairly well.  I suspect I need to get a shunt in-line so
> I can check the current flow into/out of the battery, but if there's
> some inexpensive diagnostic tools out there already, that'd be great.
>
> If the alternator is headed south - is it difficult to replace?  Are
> there other points of interest besides the alternator that would cause
> poor charging?
>
> BTW, the battery is about 6 months old, so I don't *think* it's the
> problem spot.  Once I put it on the charger for 10 minutes or so it
> usually spins the starter with great gusto, and there's enough voltage
> to drive the spark.
>
>