81xls --the bike shows to be charging good(12.3 IDLE with lights on 12.5 idle lights off...i beleive it was somthing like 12.8 and 13 revved...no tach guessing 2-2.5k) but the battery does not seem to take a charge unless i use a battery charger on it....and then it will hold it..better if left off but still hold it regardless. example-i left yesterday the battery was at 12.2 i ran with the lights on,aprx 5 miles down road the bike started cutting out...thought it might be running out of juice and couldnt turn off lights immediatly because p.o located light/kill swith 2 inches away from chain so i stop, kill lights come home 5 miles check battery its at 12.09?the charge has been lower after riding on several occasions without using lights.----any suggestions...observations..recomendations....??

for everyones info--
i took the rat nest of wires in batt compartment and sorted and cleaned them.placed the breakers back as they are suppose to go.i cant stand people who just string sh along without making it look clean.much easier in the future.------also found out the oil line had a ground off place from the battery..could have been big fun if i leaked over engine/exhaust-----if you dont know might want to check it.i had the batt out twice and never saw it.also i realized the voltage regulator wasnt grounding out to the frame because of the paint which when i scraped it brouhght the voltage up quite a bit.i KNEW that was my problem but guess not, but still needed to be done.

 

well i went riding for about an hour or so...when i left battery showed 12.7 as i just had it on a charger.when i got back it was 12.6.this was without lights.-----i am hoping it was just missing out a bit the last time i took it out and had to turn around and that i fixed the problem when i scraped the paint off the frame for the regulator.i am going to take it out again with lights on to verify.----maybe this seems like i asking questions prematurely but its easier than walking home.

why is it that i can charge the batt on a charger and it will charge up to 12.8 but it never shows that by being charged by the bike even though the generator shows to be charging that much?

 

sounds like you are charging at below the required rate.You should be charging at least 13.5.Try this.Remove the battery negative cable from the battery post.Put it back.When you touchthe cableback to the neg. post on the battery see if it sparks at all.If it does you have a dead short somewhere...Also pay careful attention to the hot wire going from the reg. to your battery.http://www.cycleelectricinc.com/

 

another thing dog.Even though you are not charging at the rated rate you didn't state the age of your battery.Scooter batteries don't last more than a couple years for me.http://www.bikernet.com/garage/PageV...sp?PageID=1212

 

i only had the bike for a month or two.i dont know the age of the battery.the first thing i did was to charge the battery and then let it sit.it held a 12.5 charge for days.so i ruled that out.
also it didnt occur to me to pput the brights on.i wanted to just to see if it would still charge over 12....anyway doing that killed it.i found a worn wire grounding out inside the light switch.fixed that,taking it out later to see what happens.---when testing i was grounding out to frame instead of battery.it was hard getting a long term reading at any kind of revs due to vibration.i will check from both post for better reading.regardless its still not keeping the charge its getting.i will check that hot wire to the battery as well.--thanks.