72 Bonneville Battery Touble

[72oifbobber]

hey my dad just got me this Cherry 72 Bonnie but i'm having trouble with it keeping a charge. I replaced the rectifier with a newer after market deal but still no luck. is there anyway to test the altenator to check if it has any output? if so how much should it push? it starts fine with a fresh charged battery but when the battery is low or dead no luck in getting it started. any help would be much appreciated. oh yah as far as the ignition side of things it still has points in it and starts on the first kick, with a good battery that is. HELP PLEASE!!

[72oifbobber]

http://www.jockeyjournal.com/forum/C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\My Pictures\My Pictures\misc\Triumph\Pic838.jpgheres a look at it

[Maniacles]

The best check for the alternator is to disconnect the 2 wires coming from the stator and check for continuity between them. It'll be fairly low (less than 100 ohms). Then check for continuity to ground. It should be very high (effectively open). The output voltage should be around 80 volts AC disconnected.

If that checks ok then your aftermarket reg/rect is likely hooked up wrong. The biggest problem with these is a bad ground. Keep in mind the battery carrier and the airbox are both rubber mounted. No ground there. Run a seperate wire from the frame to the ground wire you are using from your podtronics or whatever.

[greyone]

You might also want to look for bare wires contacting the frame or something metallic , draining your charge. Pull off your primary and make sure your stator wires aren't mashed or bare.

[fightingzero]

i JUST fixed this problem on my '72 oif... It had me going crazy for a year. The spade/female connectors coming off of the diode bridge and going to their respective connections were bogus. We snipped the ends of the wires at the connectors, then stripped and soldered the wires together (make sure you shrink wrap everything....) and bingo.. fixed... but def. check to make sure that the voltage coming off of the alternator is ok....

[Dr.Frankensickle]

just a reminder,limey iron=positive ground