Exorcising electric demons

[Penadam]

So I purchased a new battery for the CBR tonight as I was pretty sure that the old one was bad. I'm now $100 poorer and a new gel battery richer. Decided to take it out for a spin as a test, and as a test for the new jacket (Scorpion Hat Trick Phantom - will post review in gear section).

Everything was going smoothly, but as I got back near my apartment, noticed that the dash lights looked dimmer than they were before. Performed a restart, and it became quite noticeable. Decided then that I had just spent $100 for a battery I didn't need, because there was something wrong with the charging system.

Being pretty pissed off, grabbed a flashlight and some tools, and started taking the bike apart in the parking lot. Before I gave up for the night, tested the following things:

Bike off battery voltage: ~12.3
Bike off current leakage: within spec, less with R/R removed
Stator resistance: within spec
Bike charging voltage across battery (idle and @5k): <13V
R/R output at idle: ~14
Battery to R/R connection terminal: good connection

Plans for tomorrow:
Stator output (each phase) @ idle and 5k
R/R output at 5k
Clean all connection terminals
R/R diode check (maybe)

Am I missing anything obvious (or non-obvious?) I can only see a few possibilities:
1) There's a bad connection between the battery and R/R output
2) The charging system fails at higher RPMS (didn't have enough hands to hold flashlight, multimeter leads, connection terminal AND rev the bike)
3) I hadn't sufficiently charged the battery and things were wonky because of that (doing an overnight charge on it now)

Any advice would be appreciated. I pretty sure I'm on the right path, but want to wrap this up quickly as the toy ride is this Sunday, and I've registered and brought the toys.

[brennahm]

Sounds like a low charging voltage. What kind of CBR? Late model 1000? Stator.

[Penadam]

03 600 f4i. What gets me is that the R/R output @ idle measured at the connection terminal seems alright, but that doesn't seem to be charging the battery.

[Penadam]

So ran some more tests today. Battery charging voltage is good (14.5) at idle. As the RPMs increase, it drops a little, and then suddenly drops to less than the battery voltage, maybe around 8k. At idle the voltage stays low, but if you restart it, the charging voltage is good again.

Any ideas?

[Bashed]

Isolate the stator and check it. Continuity check and output. Your shooting in the dark till you check all the componants of the charging system. It sounds to me over the internet that your R/R is malfuncting, but this is over the internet and is no substitute for hands on testing.
YMMV

[Penadam]

Stator seems good. Resistance in spec, no phase imbalances, voltage rises with rpm.

[Penadam]

Think I've solved the problem.

The stator or R/R fails under in a current draw situation. This explains why when measuring the voltage across the battery, it won't charge except at idle (very low current production), and why measuring the output of the R/R when it's disconnected from the battery results in a constant voltage output regardless of RPM.

Can't really narrow it down more without rigging up some way to measure the current inline, or getting a current clamp. I've found a used R/R locally for cheap enough, so I'll probably swap that in and see if it solves the problem. I guess it's pretty common they fail on these bikes.

Update:
Didn't end up getting the R/R as the shop didn't know what I was talking about. Turned out to be a guy who worked there selling it using their e-page. I was annoyed enough at having driven down there and wasted my time that I didn't bother with it.

I realized the best way to test the R/R was to use it in a bike with a good charging system. I rigged it up to the VFR, and everything tested fine, so now I'm ordering a new stator. Old one looks fine, isn't burned up and it passed the resistance tests with a multimeter, but I'm guessing it would fail If I tested it with a megohmmeter. The only bright side is that the bike needed an oil change anyhow.

[guessinthe2000]

I would say stator also get cheaper batteries at batteries plus.