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Originally Posted by mrlmd1
I'm going to take a different path here and say the problem may be with your battery. If it measured 11.75V at rest, after a 1/2 hr. of riding or not, it is dead. LIke, almost ZERO charge.
A fully charged battery should read 12.6-12.8V, not 12.4. And if you measure the voltage right after taking it off the charger, you are reading a "surface charge" which is inaccurate. The battery must sit at least 1/2 -1 hr. to let this dissipate and then you will get an accurate reading of it's voltage. And if you let it sit 24-48hrs, it should maintain that voltage.
I would check your battery's resting voltage again after you remove it from the bike or disconnect it. Then charge it completely, and then get it load tested.
It may have a bad cell causing your charging voltage to go all over the place.
I would also hook up anther good battery, even an auto battery, to the bike via jumper cables (being careful not to short anything out against the frame or each other) and measure your charging voltage again at slow and fast rpms to see what your system is putting out, before you start digging into it.
If your battery checks out good with a load test and holds it's charge, then the problem is elsewhere. Likewise for the voltage check when you hook up a good battery and run the bike.
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My fault, I worded that part a little strangely.
After riding, the voltage was low. After charging, the battery stayed at 12.6 to 12.7, even after sitting for months! I didn't put it on the battery tender until the end of December when the temps got really low here.
I like your idea of testing with another battery, though. If the bike battery does have a problem of some kind, that would show it up. But, like the static test on the stator, that'll have to wait until I fix the power problem so I can get it running.