Steaming battery: diagnosis help needed

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I would be the R/R is just fine. It is not aware of the unfortunate charging situation with your battery, and would only really come into play if the available voltage popped up too high, and had to be regulated down.

Since your idling truck was probably sitting around 13.8V or so, I doubt the regulator on the bike was doing anything.

 
Who ever said the OP jumped the bike from a running truck? Is that what he did?

But, even if he did, the battery is used to being charged at 14.3V. That would not cause the battery to become a balloon.

 
The OP said he started the bike with the truck, and that it was hooked up a while during starting, and presumably for a few minutes while running. He then rode it quite a bit during the next few days.

Here is a possible scenario:

Motorcycle stators produce 100% of their power, all of the time. Whatever the bike doesn't use for its various systems is shunted to the regulator which disposes of the excess as heat. So far so good because the bike has limited power available and the regulator can cope with the balance. Effectively, it is a balanced system that is set up so the bike plu the regulator demand full power, and the stator supplies it.

Enter a truck with an alternator capable of producing 1000W, but only actually producing what is demanded at any one time.

The truck alternator sees the regulator on the bike as a power-demanding beast, and ramps up its output to supply what is asked. This could be several hundred watts of power which the bike doesn't really want, but Mr Alternator cannot know this and diligently fries the regulator on the bike. This is a well-trodden path and the reason bikers are advised NOT to jump start a bike from a running car.

Now we have a running bike with a damaged regulator. The regulator has two jobs to do. It regulates the output to 14.5V or so, and absorbs the excess current. If it cannot do this then it is quite possible the bike is getting unregulated DC voltage much higher than the battery can handle, and for several hours. There are usually several symptoms, one of which is a very hot battery. Others include super-bright, or blown lightbulbs.

Alternator and stator systems are electrically incompatible and when you connect them, both running, the bike suffers.

I'm not saying this is what happened, but the OP indicates that this could very easily have happened and there is an easy test. Hook up the new battery, start the bike and check the voltage.

 
Installed the backup battery. Voltage measured 12.3V. While cranking the lowest reading I saw was 10V. Starter cranked normally and bike started immediately. At idle, voltage at the batt climbed steadily to 18.2V before I got skittish and shut it off. After a shot and a beer (jk) I checked batt voltage: 12.4. Started it again abd she popped right off. Ran RPMs up to 5k and voltage climbed to 18.0 and leveled off. At idle, 11.8. Repeated rev to 5k twice with similar results. Shut off after about 3 min and batt measured 12.7V. BTW it was 80F here today so the cold weather factor on starting difficulties is out of play.

So my guess: batt was a bit low so R/R was topping it off. But is 18v reading out of spec? Is it shot? If not, what the hell happened to that battery? And a semi-related Q: FSM seems to indicate that R/R test is done with all connections to R/R intact. If I don't unplug the leads from the R/R how do I get my probes on them?

 
18V is a new regulator required. That one is toast, and is what boiled your battery.

Good thing you ordered one
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Edit ... You can back-probe the connector to check the regulator. In this instance you don't need to. If there appears to be nothing coming out of the regulator it's reasonable to test it. If 18V is coming out, you have tested it and it is faulty.

 
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What Twigg said. Once that thing saw above 14.7, that indicated your RR is shot. Good news is that your starter is probably fine.

 
Once the regulator is sorted out and you have (another) new battery, I think I would still verify the current draw on the starter. The original battery may have been shot but a faulty starter motor might have been a contributing factor. A simple test with a clamp-on DC ammeter will tell that story very quickly.

 
The backup battery was 1/2 discharged at 12.3V and it still started the bike easily. I think the only things that were bad here were the replacement battery (obviously) and the regulator. Stick a new regulator and battery in it and keep an eye on the battery charge voltage for a while.

 
Definitely the regulator fried that last battery. You should put the backup battery on a low amp absorption charger or battery tender for a while. That battery needs to be brought up to about 13 volts to be fully charged. Once the new regulator is in, you should see around 14.2 VDC with the bike operating.

18 volts is insane. You're lucky you didn't have a fire.

 
gen 1 rr is located on left side of bike mounted on frame. lower would have to be removed and panel around glove box removed to get to it. near radiator fill./

 
New R/R installed tonight, and voltage at the batt ran about 13.9 at idle, 14.5 at 5K rpm. Took her on a short spin on the highway, stopping in a parking lot before and after to check the batt voltage again, and it showed about 13.6 both times.

Would like to check the starter draw...I still think that's at the root of the problem. Don't have a clamp-on ammeter, but might see if the local auto parts store has one for loan.

Many thanks to all who helped with the diagnosis, especially Twigg. I greatly appreciate the collective wisdom here. I've yet to work myself into a corner that the forum can't work me back out of. But there's still time :)

 
FYI - a lot of clamp-on ammeters are AC only. Make sure you find one capable of measuring DC amps. Good luck with it!

 
Are you still having starter symptoms with the latest battery and R/R? You may want to wait and see if you haven't already fixed all of your problems.

 
Are you loosing voltage across the top of the solenoid? Mine went bad at 20,000 miles.

 
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