Kawi2strokes.com Forum

I have the bike in the final stages of re-assembly after many years of sitting in boxes in the shed and had some trouble with the battery not charging. Now I have that problem fixed (I think it was due to either an earthing issue or some bad wiring which i have now replaced) it is overcharging.

At idle (or off) the batt sits at around 12.5V, and if I rev it up to around 3-5K the voltage climbs to around 17V with the headlight on. I have tested the resistance in the regulator as described on mraxls troubleshooting page and it seems ok and all wiring and connections associated with the regulator seem to be in good shape.

Any suggestions on where I should look next?

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'72 H1B

The voltage regulator basically DUMPS the extra juice into the chassis ground... Make absolutely sure of your ground connections and good luck. You can't have too many grounds and they can't be too clean.

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1972 H2, modified and Tracy bodied. 77 Kawi 1000. Lime green. Cafe. Lester wheels.

Zero, I believe the B uses a wound field alternator, and the regulator controls output by controlling the field current. I don't have experience with that regulator to know if it's adjustable. It would be a good idea to check the integrity of all the wiring to the regulator. If it's not seeing the alternator output, it would probably send full current to the field and overcharge the battery.

Mraxl's page on regulator conversion by Looney Cylinders is a good way to go: http://www.kawtriple.com/mraxl/tips/regulator/regrecconversion.htm

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If it surges, that's normal, upshift.

So sorry. Don't want to mislead. There are many variables amongst old Kawasakis that I'm not aware of...

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1972 H2, modified and Tracy bodied. 77 Kawi 1000. Lime green. Cafe. Lester wheels.

The regulator "sees" system voltage from the brown wire. It also provides power to the rotor for the field strength from this same brown wire. Given you have an over voltage it appears this wire is being fed power just fine.

The Reg is a points type so the actual points may be stuck/shorted. Open the cap and have a look. It can be adjusted by bending the spring mount to apply more or less pressure on the points. The lessor the pressure applied, the lower the resulting system voltage. (the electromagnet overcomes the spring tension upon voltage rise and opens the points slightly to limit the field strength).

A test you can do is with engine running above 2000 rpm spread the reg. points with a piece of plastic and see if the system voltage falls. If it does the regulator may have an internal wiring issue.

J