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Need help with 12 volt charging system please

Ole farmer

Mar 25, 2013
3
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Mar 25, 2013
Messages
3
Hope this is the place to post this, I have a kawasaki motorcycle I use for a snow bike and it is a fuel injection model, it has a stator and a voltage regular that puts out about 13 volts when running. The system also has a capacitor wired in that you remove and hook up a 12 volt battery for testing components per a service manual. I have installed a fuel injection controller that draws power from the injection circuit and works perfect once running.....here lies my problem. The oxygen sensor that came with the controller draws close to 1 amp on start-up and makes the bike, which is a kick start, a bugger to start. I installed a small battery with a switch in line in place of my capacitor and all was great for 3/4 of the day then the bike died and would not restart untill I removed the battery and replaced it with the capacitor. Now I don't know if I got a bad battery that internally shorted,if my voltage reg. ran the battery dead, or if this system won't charge a battery because of ?dirty power? Hope someone understands what I am asking as if I can run a battery on this bike and have a little extra power I may be able to add hot grips in the future. One more question, ca I run a battery and the capacitor parallel in the system. Thank you for any help. Ole farmer
 

GreenGiant

Feb 9, 2012
842
Joined
Feb 9, 2012
Messages
842
you should be able to run them in parallel without issue, and that might clear up the issues.

The battery was not able to charge properly with the fast current increase and decreases, thats where the capacitor thrives

You may need to step up to a slightly bigger alternator though to run both.
 

Ole farmer

Mar 25, 2013
3
Joined
Mar 25, 2013
Messages
3
The problem is they don't offer a bigger stator. After the ride I checked the battery and it showed about 9.5 volts but would not even light the small indicator light I installed to show when the circuit was on. A small 9 volt battery would light the light but the installed battery would not. Now I don't know if I was the lucky one that got a poor battery or if I cause the battery problem but in testing the battery it had 9 volts and when I put the battery tender on it it would drop to 4.5 volts with the tender and on a second battery that was new would show about 13 volts with the same charger tender hooked to it. As you can see I know just enough to get myself into trouble:) sure would like to figure this out without frying anything in my bike.how do I tell if the stator-voltage regulator will work with a battery???? Thanks
 

Rleo6965

Jan 22, 2012
585
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Jan 22, 2012
Messages
585
Check the dc voltage on the battery to see if it charging with 13V while the engine was running.
 

Ole farmer

Mar 25, 2013
3
Joined
Mar 25, 2013
Messages
3
Ok so I checked the amp draw with a new battery hooked up and it would show -3.4 amps when I turned on the switch. Then after I start the motor the amps show 1-2 amps going back into the battery. This is with the capacitor hooked up parralell in the system. Voltage is a steady 13.5 -13.6 volts at all rpms. Should I leave the capacitor in line Thanks
 

duke37

Jan 9, 2011
5,364
Joined
Jan 9, 2011
Messages
5,364
If I remember correctly a 12V battery should be charged between 13.8 and 14.4V. The lower voltage would indicate that your generator is either set too low or is inadequate to supply the current.
 
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