Moped isn't charging the battery, tried everything By FACE PLANT FOR LIFE (Read 2,385 times)

[FACE PLANT FOR LIFE]

*sigh* I am really getting frustrated here.

I bought a 50cc chinese moped from some guy for $200, and it didn't run, but it does run now.

The last problem with it is that it isn't charging the battery AT ALL. At first we thought it might have been the battery, so we replaced the gel battery it had in it with an equivalent gel battery (should it have been replaced with a starter battery?), and we got some extra juice out of that one.

Unfortunately, that didn't fix it. The battery died a couple days later and we had to put it back on the charger. So next we replaced the regulator/rectifier with one with found on ebay, and that also appeared to make absolutely no difference. We were getting somewhere in the ballpark range of 9v (with the battery disconnected and just touching the red lead with a volt tester) which obviously isn't enough to charge the battery. So anyways, the regulator didn't work either.

So we finally did the most extreme thing and ordered a brand new magneto/alternator/stator. It's put in and things have gone really downhill. I'm now only reading .50/.60 volts from the red lead that goes to the battery I thought maybe I put it on backwards or something, so I flipped it around today, and of course that made absolutely ZERO difference.

The bike still starts fine, but the battery drains like crazy. I can run it without the battery oddly enough, and I can rev for brighter lights (but no turns signals without the battery).

What do I do?! I've run out of options!

[Bashan]

How do you know you have the right regulator/rectifier? There is no universal R/R. What kind of a scooter do you have and can you post some pics? Leave the battery hooked up and simply put the test leads of your multi on the battery while giving the engine some throttle. What is the voltage reading?

[FACE PLANT FOR LIFE]

I do not know for sure if I have the right R/R. I thought they were universal, personally. Here are some pics of the bike and such, all labeled on imgur: imgur.com/a/y8NMI#0

This is the new R/R I purchase: www.ebay.com/itm/121030440720

This is the new alternator/magneto I put on: www.ebay.com/itm/270735865164

Attaching the volt meter with the battery connected gives me the batteries voltage (which is going down continuously). That is somewhere in the range of 12.92 all the way down to dead at 11.85 depending how many times I've started/ran the bike since the battery has been on a charger. Adding throttle has a tendency to make it go up .01 volts or so at high revs but it goes right back down after you let go of the throttle.

Here are how the wires are connected under the bike:

[/b]/blue connected to the yellow/blue wire (Mismatched wires?!)

White/yellow (big white connector) connected to white/yellow

Green/yellow (big red connector) connected to green/yellow
[/ul]

[FACE PLANT FOR LIFE]

Update: I disconnected things like the ignition and all the other wires and I can get 12.2ish volts to the battery.

Edit: the dash board is taking MOST of the power (taking at least 7 volts away from charging the battery
The ignition takes 5 volts from charging the battery
It leaves roughly .50 volts to charge the battery (obviously not enough) with both of those connected

[Kaveman]

do you have an alarm ? If you do I would disable it (from the battery). It will eat up the battery when parked and armed.
willc.

[tvnacman]

amulet , check the voltage from the stator in acv at idle and at about 5000rpm .

John

[Bashan]

Good advice from Will and John. I can't tell where those wires in your pics are. You'll need to pull some plastic so we can do some testing. Do you have a wiring diagram in your manual?

Just so we're on the same page, here's how to check the charging with a multi:

Here's a PDF (made by Will!) that has some testing diagrams. Find the white wire from the stator, disconnect it and run a voltage test from the wire to ground. You should get about 20v AC at some RPMs. Reconnect the white and then do the same for the yellow. You should get about 15v AC. Reconnect the yellow back to the coupler and then test from a bare spot (lodge a probe in the connector) to ground on both the yellow and white. It should be about 12v AC on both wires. Please give me your findings.

You should now test the R/R. Before doing that read this by Alley. Now test the rectifier according to these videos:

A Kymco R/R is very specific for that brand. I'd be really surprised if it worked with another make. Also, as an example of the R/Rs being not universal, if your original R/R had FLP stamped anywhere it would not work on a non-FLP system but appear exactly the same other than the stamp. Right John?

[FACE PLANT FOR LIFE]

Before I go along with those tests, I do have a question. If I unhook the wires from the regulator/stator and then test the AC on it, I get quite a lot of voltage. (20+). The lights also go higher as the engine revs. But here is where I think the problem is. I believe that the original regulator was bad, and the new one is possibly wired incorrectly. Do you have a wiring diagram for what wires go to what on the rectifier? I hope to check and rewire the regulator/rectifier if needed and maybe that would fix my problem, because I'm getting lots of voltage.

Edit: It appears wired correctly. I found a diagram. But it still doesn't work. So it obviously must be the regulator...How do I find the proper one?

[FACE PLANT FOR LIFE]

Also, can somebody identify my old regulator? Maybe I ordered the wrong one after all, who knows.

[Bashan]

As I said in my earlier post I'd be really surprised if a Kymco R/R worked in a regular Chinese scooter. If it was me I'd first call TVnACman aka John at 347-564-1320 and talk to him about the part. He's had a lot of experience with R/Rs and is an electrician for the Big Apple. He did cause the big NE power outage of 2003 while working on the subway system. He stayed down there for three days drinking beer and hiding. But don't let that worry you, he's sobered up by now.....I think so anyway.

When you pull a wire off of the R/R it is no longer regulated. So the white pulled off should give you 20v AC. The yellow pulled off should give you 15v AC. Hook them up to the R/R and they should both be about 12v AC. I went over this in my previous post. That will tell you if the stator is good. Also, if you get 12v AC hooked up, your R/R is probably OK. Then test the red wire by touching the probes to the battery terminals while running some RPMs. If you don't get 13.5v+ DC the R/R is bad or you have the wrong one which since it's a Kymco this is probably the case. When ordering a part I'd talk to someone and have your engine number (front lower left case) and type of bike ready. Call the number or e-mail them, most of the rotating banners at the top of the site sell parts. ID your bike and you'll get the right part.

[FACE PLANT FOR LIFE]

Thank you Bashan. I have tvacman a call and be says that he probably has a regulator for me. He says that my stator works great, if not more than it should (more AC than there should be). He also said that I may need to tone down the voltage with some sort of regulator (curse my short term memory), I don't remember what it was called. Ill check in after I get the new regulator/ rectifier

[tvnacman]

May 30, 2013 18:00:41 GMT -6 FACE PLANT FOR LIFE said:

Thank you Bashan. I have tvacman a call and be says that he probably has a regulator for me. He says that my stator works great, if not more than it should (more AC than there should be). He also said that I may need to tone down the voltage with some sort of regulator (curse my short term memory), I don't remember what it was called. Ill check in after I get the new regulator/ rectifier

The regulator I offered you should do the trick . I responded to your pm . The regulator gave me good head lights and kind of high dc charging voltage . The ballast resistors you can install them on one or both ac feeds from the stator or on the dc line to load down the excess . You set up maybe different than what I was working with . It could just be plug and play .

A few of the regulators I messed around with would give me different problems . Perfect charging and very dim headlights . perfect headlights and no charging . My head spun in the end I went with 11pole 3phase stator and 7pin regulator . That's a whole other ball game but stable .

John

[FACE PLANT FOR LIFE]

Well, I've made progress after all this time, and of course only after spending $148 for a 'professional' to try to fix it and come up with nothing. I remembered a wire that I connected underneath the dash that wasn't connected when I first got the bike. This wire seemed to give power to the dash lights when the ignition was turned on. I disconnected the wire and now I get proper voltage to my battery. I still have a blown regulator (ignition is always on when battery is connected) and am going to get that replaced soon. I sure do hope that was the problem.

Last question though...I noticed that when I read the voltage from the red lead, I'm getting negative voltage (-6.55) instead of positive. Is this going to be another problem??