Hello,
History: right before a 3000km trip, my battery was dead. I push-started it and it was fine for 2 days - it would start from the starter.
After 2 days, battery was dead for some days and wouldn't recharge for 3 days...only to work 1 day and then die again.
I went to a garage and it measured ~11V with running engine and the guy said it was either my generator or my regulator/rectifier.
Anyway, once I was home I measured the battery and it was dead.. went to 3V while pressing start button.
I bought a new battery, and it started right up.
However, when I now measure the voltage on the the battery with running engine (5000rpm, lights on according to the manual), I still only measure ~13,3V while it should be >13.5V - <15.5V.
I recorded a movie to show the problem:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/22072961/MF/2013-09-14%2011.39.02.mp4(19MB)
It even drops <13V sometimes:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/22072961/MF/2013-09-14%2011.33.04.mp4(10MB)
So I measured the AC generator according to the manual and it's OK (75V AC).
I then measured the rectifier/regulator and from the measurements it seems dead. I get infinite resistance on all wires.
However I asked around and some say it's OK as long as the voltage with running battery is higher than the battery? Which it is..it goes from 12.8V to >13V-13.5V as seen on the video.
What do you guys think? What do/did you guys measure with running engine?
Thanks