Bad r/r or stator?

[01xj]

Can't even believe after 15 years I'm asking a battery question but here we are. Rode my triumph (2008 t100 bonneville) for about 1.5 hours yesterday. Stop one I got off and went into a store. No issues. Get get on, ride about 35-45 minutes mixed open road and some stop and go on a busy road. Stop again. Bike won't restart. I have no tools so I can't check anything. Sounded like a relay clicking super fast and not dying off with repeated attempts to start.

Tried to pop start it unsuccessfully (with some old guys watching and commenting on how you don't see that any more, laughing at me sweating my balls off in the humidity). Bike gets towed home. I stick it in the garage and forget about it until 9 at night. I turn the key on and pull the choke out just to see what happens, fires up immediately.

I am going to replace the battery since it's old anyways, but my thinking is that the battery wasn't being recharged as I rode around, which is making me think stator or r/r. The rectifier is easy to access but the more I read about it the more confused I get, testing backwards and forwards continuity.

As I said, a new battery is in order since I don't know the history or age of what's in there, but that won't keep me from being stranded if the bike won't restart again. Anyone got any widsdom on this?

[RandyO]

have you checked output voltage while running ?

what type of RR ? if oem is a shunt type, replace with a serial MOFSET type

or could be burnt coils in stator, or floating magnets on rotor

[boosten lebaron]

Have you checked it with a voltmeter yet? I would hold off on the new battery until you do. Why throw away good money?
I just did a mosfet upgrade to the gsxr. Easy as can be. It was about $180 for the diy kit from roadstercycles. I think they have a triumph specific kit that will just plug and play on the t100.
If it does turn out to be a stator or rr most people recommend to replace both at the same time so that can save you so testing time.
The stator wires shouldn't be too bad to get to. They usually are connected a few in inches from the case cover. You do all your testing right there. The rr is a bit technical on the testing but chances are it's your stator or both anyway.

[01xj]

With the choke on about 1/2 way, it's reading around 13.5v. After letting it warm up and using no choke, at normal idle it's reading 12.5- 12.8.

Can you explain either the differences or the benefits of a mosfet regulator? I've read the term but don't know what it is.

[golden chicken]

Don't those have that stupid low battery voltage interlock?

[01xj]

Don't those have that stupid low battery voltage interlock?

I don't think an 08 would have that but I could be wrong.

[MattR302]

Print this out, start at the top
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/10...29069374954073

[boosten lebaron]

With the choke on about 1/2 way, it's reading around 13.5v. After letting it warm up and using no choke, at normal idle it's reading 12.5- 12.8.

Can you explain either the differences or the benefits of a mosfet regulator? I've read the term but don't know what it is.

You want to be at about 5k rpms when you test the voltage at the battery. 13.5 with fast idle on doesn't sound horrible, a few more rpms and it might hit 14v. Which is in the ball park of where you want to be. I could argue 13.5 is good enough too. It might very well have been your battery but easy enough to rule everything out.
The mosfet rr uses circuitry to regulate voltage where as the older shunt type ones regulate using primitive means and generate tons of heat. When a mosfet goes bad it usually doesn't kill anything else. When an older shunt type one goes bad and can take down everything.

[01xj]

Thanks guys. Matt I knew I had that diagram somewhere, just couldn't find it.

[RandyO]

With the choke on about 1/2 way, it's reading around 13.5v. After letting it warm up and using no choke, at normal idle it's reading 12.5- 12.8.

Can you explain either the differences or the benefits of a mosfet regulator? I've read the term but don't know what it is.

the benefit, is that it does not overtax the stator like a shunt style RR that is constantly shunting electricity back into the coils and dissipating the energy as heat, the MOFSET type, shuts off the flow momentarily

you would think manufacturers would put the better type in bikes, but the bean counters can't justify it for a product that on average only lasts 30k-40k (10yrs @ 3k-4k/yr)

[FriskyDingo]

the benefit, is that it does not overtax the stator like a shunt style RR that is constantly shunting electricity back into the coils and dissipating the energy as heat, the MOFSET type, shuts off the flow momentarily

you would think manufacturers would put the better type in bikes, but the bean counters can't justify it for a product that on average only lasts 30k-40k (10yrs @ 3k-4k/yr)

I get that it adds up, but gawd dam I hate when MFG severely shorten reliability over saving $.50, $1.85 per unit at the cost of..... (i'm sure the mosfet VS shunt is more than $1.85...)


Good luck resolving your problem....all this RR talk recently is making think I should look into the Hyper, preemptively, 15 years old now...DAM

[whynot]

My 2010 Triumph STR suffered a R/R melt down. Warranty covered installation of MOFSET R/R. Triumph never did a recall, just replaced in case of failure, for a while, not forever. The topic is pretty thoroughly covered on Triumph forums.

[01xj]

Thanks for the help everyone. Ordered a mosfet r/r from Rick's and a new yuasa battery. Got them both installed and have had no issues. Idle voltage is right at 14 and it starts faster and idles stronger. Rode a little bit to confirm everything last night and it seems to be good to go. No trouble restarting. Ordering a nicer multimetrer is now on my radar too.

[boosten lebaron]

I use UEI phoenix meters exclusively. Everyone says buy fluke but I feel they are over rated and over priced.