Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech Charging system mod

as shown in the tech vault, "electrical" page 2 - posted by moe
"Weak charging system? - the solution"

I don't have the computer chops to link directly to moe's post, but it's pretty easy to find.

Finally got around to this task as a new battery was in hand. Results - 14.5 volts at idle, just after start up. Me likey. The best I used to do was low 13s.

I'm a very happy boy. If I had to do it again on an 05 Speedmaster, I'd pull the swing arm and do it on a bench. I favored splicing into the wires just out of the regulator / rectifier so as top avoid the plug and socket just downstream.

A little off topic - Bought a Walmart store brand battery for $57 the other day. In very fine print on a bar code sticker was the date Walmart put it on the shelf, which helped tell me which were freshest on the shelf without pulling the box open. The battery itself was one month old. The battery is an AGM with the acid added by the end user. On the box - "Made by Johnson Controls." In fine print on the enclosed directions - "a division of YUASA batteries." Life is good.

I am service mgr for Wal Mart and the car batteries are Exide while , as stated, cycle batteries are Yuasa.

There are reportedly three battery makers left in the US.

http://www.exide.com/
http://www.dekabatteries.com/
http://www.johnsoncontrols.com/publish/us/en.html

Apparently they compete very aggressively. For instance, Sears Diehards have been made by both Exide & Johnson, depending upon the date in question. During 2010, Walmart was using Johnson Controls exclusively.

GS YUASA has a plant of their own in Japan, yet the battery I bought mentioned GS YUASA was a division of Johnson Controls - perhaps that meant for the one brand? Everex I think it's called?

Hard to keep up with who owns who anymore.

Funny that we get batteries from Johnson Controls but they are made by Exide.

I just had my Exide 12-BS replaced under warranty (Not even 2 yrs old).

On the box it said "Made in China". Maybe the motorcycle batteries are made offshore?

I think the motorcycle batteries are Yuasa, I would have to double check that one though.

It is worth the time to also check the connector from the alternator under the seat beneath the plastic cover near the air filter opening. More than a few of us have had that connector fail (mine had gotten hot and melted one wire out of the plug-- fixed it by cutting both ends of the connector off and soldering, shrink wrapping and taping the wires up) and if you've done the charging system mod, enough current will get to the battery to run everything, but not the full available output from the alternator. The electrical gurus here can explain.