After being pretty good at keeping the battery for my ‘96 Superlight charged up whilst not being used i tried starting it a few weeks ago and it was really reluctant to turn over. I tried 3 chargers and none would come off stand-by to actually start charging it. So, new battery purchased and this instantly resolved the issue. Except that after a few short runs in the garage I noticed the charge light came on with the ignition and then wouldn’t go off. Q dismantling the front of the bike to check wiring etc but nothing discovered plus now this new battery wouldn’t charge. New reg/rec purchased from Stein Dinse - they seem to list more than 1 for my bike and I bought the one that cost around €60. Wiring seems straightforward as each of the new ones corresponds to the existing loom but rhe charge light now doesn’t come on at all. Voltage across the battery is around 12.5V with ignition off, drops to closer to 12.2 with ignition on and this does not alter with the bike running, at idle or revved. Puzzled now.
Sadly pointing towards alternator now, but not definitive yet but you need to confirm by testing voltage directly by attaching a meter to the alternator (yellow) wires with bike running. You can also do a static/engine not running insulation breakdown test by checking for continuity/resistance between yellow wires and earth. https://www.ducatiforum.co.uk/threads/1997-748-2-wire-alternator-output.17730/ https://www.ducatiforum.co.uk/threa...ifier-went-up-in-smoke-literally.79623/page-2
Quick test before it’s too late and the neighbours complain … Connected multimeter up to alternator wires : unfortunately my rev counter isn’t functioning at the mo’ but with the reg/rec disconnected completely the output climbed along with the revs, gentle revving saw it produce up to around 50v which I think is not immediately indicative of the alternator being duff?
sounds good, producing how much at tickover? - specs available elsewhere on here, if not, will find them tomorrow/Monday. Try the insulation test also. (no need to run engine).
