Roketa Electrical, but Really Generic By ellpee (Read 417 times)

[ellpee]

Back in Tucson for the winter, so took the Roketa for its first spin. Started and ran well in general, front brakes a little mushy but going in to the shop soon for misc. 5000-mile stuff so will have that checked.

HOWEVER, my old charging issue continues; holds 13v on the road until the fan kicks in, then barely 12, and gradually drops below 12. Makes me leery of taking it on any long runs where the fan would be running a lot.

So my generic question: for $100 or so I can buy a gorilla-grade R/R from Oregon, and for another $100 or so I can buy a gorilla-grade battery with lots more amp hours and CCA than the OEM battery. But will that do anything for my wimpy charging situation? I've acquired a basic grasp of scooter electrical here, but not enough to know if those pricey upgrades will actually fix anything.

[alleyoop]

There is another guy I think it was on here or on one of the other forums that had his 250 not charging and the only thing that he said fixed it was one of those gorilla-grade output R/Rs from Oregon.
And in your case in hot AR, it is not so much the CCA's for starting a motor in cold weather it is feeding the battery enough juice to replace what is being drawn which the R/R's do. Now you can help that along by replacing all the bulbs to LEDS all except the headlights, If you do not drive at night put in 35ws if they aren't already. The most draw on a scooter are the Headlights and the Fans if they have them.
Alleyoop

[ellpee]

OK, other input welcome, but will talk to Oregon about the R/R. As it stands now, I'm really afraid to venture more than 20-30 miles from home base without, at very least, a spare, fully charged battery in the trunk.

[alleyoop]

Yep good idea but make sure you tell him of anything you have changed as far as lighting radio or whatever that draws juice so he can make a intelligent yes this one will do the job or your shit out of luck(HAHA).
Alleyoop

[JR]

List of items that will help the charging on this scooter.

Replace wiring on fan circuit, meaning from fan through thermo switch on radiator to the fuse box. What some have found is taking the fan circuit out of the cheap Chines fuse box and running it through a new heavier wire blade fuse and to the battery. Also go with a heavier gauge wire like 14ga.

Running a heavier gauge wire to the light/dimmer switch.

Replace all bulbs except headlight bulbs with LED's and I mean every bulb.

Putting a lower amp/higher air volume fan on the radiator (a big help)

Making absolutely sure all ground wires are getting good connection especially the head lights and fan.

Speaking of headlights if you don't ride at night put a "lower" wattage bulb in say 25W but if you do then use a 25W/35W bulb and keep them on dim except at night.

Yes a heavier/higher CCA battery will help.

For your fan to kick in and it drop quickly to 12 volts or less indicates a bad amp draw in the system somewhere and the fan circuit is the poorest one on this scooter.

JR

[ellpee]

Taking it in next week to have various 5k stuff done that I don't want to be bothered with. They have shied away from diagnosing my charging/?fan? issue, but if I can tell them straight up, "just re-wire the fan circuit with heavier wire and its own fuse," they'll probably go for it. Bulbs have been replaced (but skipped the little gauge lights), fan has been replaced with one Alley recommended, which tested out at 3 amps pre-install. Oregon also says "my customers say" a gorilla-grade R/R will solve the problem, but that's not QUITE the same as Oregon saying that. Think I'll try the re-wire first, since I'm taking it in for general minor stuff anyway, and save the $100-a-pop options for if that doesn't do it.