Triumph Trophy 1200.... The battery is drained of power, so much that while I am riding it at hwy speed the bike shuts down. I have a trickle charger on the battery making sure it is fully charged before riding. My first try was replacing the battery, thinking the 3 year old battery would not hold a charge. I put a new fully charged battery in yesterday, and within 1 hour the bike shut down.

Maybe .... depends on your level of cleverness ...



Let me tell you about rectifiers ... then I will pass the ball to you .. you can run with it or you can drop it.



Alternators are NOT self exciting (you must put power in to get power out). Alternators make AC. Generators ARE self exciting, they make their own power to make power. They make DC. DC can go right into the battery ... if AC shows up at a battery ... it is of no value and may be of some danger. Your motorcycle has a alternator.



A rectifier accepts the output of a alternator and 'converts' it to rectified AC (it now looks like DC on a scope). The rectifier does this by clipping one-half of every AC cycle and sends it to ground allowing the other one-half to pass through to the battery.



If you had a flash light battery, a flash light lamp, two paper clips and your rectifier, you can test it as follows. First, make sure the light will light with the battery. (use the paper clips to make the connection). Next, with the rectifier unplugged from the circuit see if you can get the light to light through the leads on the rectifier ... if it lights ... great ... now, reverse the leads ... if the light still lights ... BAD, if it stays off ... GOOD. Power should pass in only one direction. You are 'creating' somethng that looks like "AC" to the rectifier by reversing the polarity (when you reverse the leads).



If your test results are not conclusive, you can have your rectifier tested at your motorcycle shop to be sure.



I hope this helps you resolve your problem.... ride safe.



Thanks for your interest in FixYa.com - thanks for the 4 thumbs up ... I need all of those I can get to get my average up. Maybe .... depends on your level of cleverness ...

Let me tell you about rectifiers ... then I will pass the ball to you .. you can run with it or you can drop it.

Alternators are NOT self exciting (you must put power in to get power out). Alternators make AC. Generators ARE self exciting, they make their own power to make power. They make DC. DC can go right into the battery ... if AC shows up at a battery ... it is of no value and may be of some danger. Your motorcycle has a alternator.

A rectifier accepts the output of a alternator and 'converts' it to rectified AC (it now looks like DC on a scope). The rectifier does this by clipping one-half of every AC cycle and sends it to ground allowing the other one-half to pass through to the battery.

If you had a flash light battery, a flash light lamp, two paper clips and your rectifier, you can test it as follows. First, make sure the light will light with the battery. (use the paper clips to make the connection). Next, with the rectifier unplugged from the circuit see if you can get the light to light through the leads on the rectifier ... if it lights ... great ... now, reverse the leads ... if the light still lights ... BAD, if it stays off ... GOOD. Power should pass in only one direction. You are 'creating' somethng that looks like "AC" to the rectifier by reversing the polarity (when you reverse the leads).

If your test results are not conclusive, you can have your rectifier tested at your motorcycle shop to be sure.

I hope this helps you resolve your problem.... ride safe.

Thanks for your interest in FixYa.com - thanks for the 4 thumbs up ... I need all of those I can get to get my average up.