Electrical woes, 696

[darthmoto]

Hey all,

Maybe you guys can help me with an electrical problem on my bike..

My '09 696 has 34k on it now, and just the other day it suffered a complete electrical shutdown while cruising home on the freeway at about 30 mph through some fairly heavy traffic. No restart at all.. Ended up pushing my bike 1/4 mile before having to have it towed back home. Maybe 20 minutes before it happened, I got intermittent CEL and when flicking the switch to cycle through the menu I find in the battery menu, a strange code followed by a blinking 11.4v readout.. The CEL then intermittently goes on and off..

Thinking back I'd been riding for a solid 20 minutes on my way home before it quits while running.. If it was a battery issue wouldn't the stator/regulator keep the bike alive and running and only have problems trying to restart after shutting the bike off manually? This saturday morning I took my battery off the tender and took it out again, checked the voltage in the dash readout and see that it's 12.4v. It started up and rode fine. After 10 mins of riding, I flick the switch up to voltage readout again and I'm getting a blinking 11.8v again.. revving to 3k I'm only getting 12.5-12.6v from the readout. So its charging, but not its usual 13.6v that I normally see..

What does this problem sound like, a battery or charging condition? or both? Could it be a rectifier issue?

What steps should I take in an attempt to diagnose it myself before taking it to a shop?

Thanks!

[Raux]

I had similar issue in june

It was the stator.

a shop can diagnose with a multimeter in 5 min

[darthmoto]

Thanks Raux.

ttytt, I was a little worried it might be the stator. Through a search on here, it seems there are a few that have found bad stators on their 09s. Is there a recall for it? If Im not mistaken, the only electrical recall is of a wire that would melt because of location..

I might actually try to diagnose it myself since it appears all I need to do is get readings from battery, regulator and stator, with a multimeter right? Might as well learn.

[Raux]

The stator was the easiest to diagnose.

it was just a check on the wire ot ground with the bike off (don't remember which wire as the guy's in Italy did it as I was on my way to WDW)

it read zero meaning dead stator

[Howie]

Could be a stator, could be a regulator, or just a loose/bad connection somewhere.  Diagnosis by guess can be both extremely expensive and time consuming.

http://www.electrosport.com/technical-resources/known-issues/common-tech-issue?model=2142
http://www.electrosport.com/technical-resources/diagnosis-center/fault-finding-guide

[darthmoto]

Thanks Howie, the fault finding guide is great! I went to the electrosport site before to look at stator pricing, but didn't see the guide. It looks like it helps a ton and I'm going to buy a multimeter.


Just a few things I noted that could have aggravated problem:

-I recently started a new contract job that has me commuting through a ton of traffic, almost one long traffic jam the entire 15 miles and alot of it is filtering through traffic at 15 mph, and alot of stop lights.. The bike got hot very often. (Los Angeles)
-before I took this project, my lowbeam went out. My commute home got dark so I had to use my highbeams. 2 days before my bike quit on me, I installed a new lowbeam, an H7 Silverlight Silvania halogen.

[Kev M]

FWIW, when a charging system UNDER charges it is usually the fault of the stator.

Regulators usually fail allowing overcharging because they fail to control the stator current.

There are of course exceptions, but when you hear hoofs, first think horses, not zebras.

[Howie]

One bad diode = undercharge.  There are two ways to approach a problem.  One is to guess and throw parts at it until it is fixed.  The other is proper diagnosis.

[Kev M]

There are two ways to approach a problem.  One is to guess and throw parts at it until it is fixed.  The other is proper diagnosis.

Agreed, but statistically it's rare for an undercharge failure to be the regulator.

[danaid]

 My 09' 696 did the exact same thing, except at only 3k miles. I replaced the regulator and it solved my problem. The 696 shop manual says to diagnose any charging problems starting with the battery, than regulator/rectifier, finally the stator.
  For me , The battery was still under warranty so I had it replaced, which didn't solve the problem. Finally, I rolled the dice and replaced the regulator since this would be cheaper than taking my bike to the dealer and paying them to diagnose and replacing with their parts.

Good luck!

[darthmoto]

Well, Raux was correct.

It was the stator. I didn't do the diagnosis/repair myself, but I saw aftermath of one of the poles on the stator, not pretty.

After all was repaired (thanks NICK!) the bike gave me 13.6v above 2k

Add one to the list of '09s with lemon stators.

A

[darthmoto]

My 09' 696 did the exact same thing, except at only 3k miles. I replaced the regulator and it solved my problem. The 696 shop manual says to diagnose any charging problems starting with the battery, than regulator/rectifier, finally the stator.
  For me , The battery was still under warranty so I had it replaced, which didn't solve the problem. Finally, I rolled the dice and replaced the regulator since this would be cheaper than taking my bike to the dealer and paying them to diagnose and replacing with their parts.

Good luck!

I had originally planned on doing this too, except starting with the stator rather than the battery. (The battery actually held charge after taking it off the tender for a few days) Had I found the low or no voltage reading from the stator lead, and visually checking that there was nothing obviously wrong with the regulator leads, I would have checked out the stator and "lucked out" with a positive diagnosis. Time was a little bit of essence around this time for me so I'm glad I took my bike to the shop I did.

[brad black]

Agreed, but statistically it's rare for an undercharge failure to be the regulator.

can't disagree with you more.  the overcharging thing i've only seen with 1098 chassis bikes which seem to cook the regs.  aside from that, and also on 1098 like everything else, undercharge is generally the reg.  i've only done a few of stators over 18 years.

[Kev M]

can't disagree with you more.  the overcharging thing i've only seen with 1098 chassis bikes which seem to cook the regs.  aside from that, and also on 1098 like everything else, undercharge is generally the reg.  i've only done a few of stators over 18 years.

Well two thoughts on that.

1. I thought this thread was about the 696, not 1098.

And more importantly

2. I was talking general observance of motor vehicles with charging systems over the years, not just Ducs. And my observations on bikes and boat motors etc with separate stators and regulators (as opposed to alternators with both components integral) is the regulator tends to go in those cases more often than a winding in the stator shorts. I think generally they are just the weaker link, often having a problem shedding heat. But obviously the stator can fail too.