Battery Water.

"Whoosh" is an apt description of the sound that issues from a well
worn anal sphincter.

 

Being as you pulled baby jesus out of yours you'd be the one to know
wouldn't you.

Nope you smelt it you delt it **** for brains.

 

Sulfation typically results from undercharging and can
often be remedied by deliberate overcharging. A monthly
overcharge to clean up sulfation is a recommended practice
for lead/acid based photovoltaic storage systems.

If he's boiling off fluid to the point where he has to add
water every 500 miles, he's almost certainly overcharging.

If he were dealing with sulfation, he'd have starting problems.
No mention of any problem other than loss of water.

Note too that in a followup posting, the OP mentions that
fiddling with the sense line to the regulator has dropped the
voltage, which in all likelihood will reduce the water consumption.

I don't normally want a charging voltage over 14V, regardless
of the 15V limit mentioned in the OP's manual.

I understand that you stand firmly behind your misdiagnosis.

 

Nor I. Something like 13.5v at higher revs is fine for me.

 

Questions:

1) What do you think is happening if the OP lets his engine run at
idle speed with the headlight on, overcharging or undercharging?

My answer: the battery is undercharged.

2) How does a PM alternator manage to raise charging system voltage
above battery voltage if it is always connected to the battery through
diodes?

My answer: PM alternators are "clamped" to battery voltage and cannot
raise the voltage any higher than the electrochemistry allows.

Yes, higher than normal charging voltage *will* penetrate the
sulfation.

"Overcharging" suggests that the battery voltage will indicate a
higher peak voltage than the normal 14.2 ~ 14.5 volts immediately
after being disconnected from a charger (or the PM alternator stops
turning).

The OP has not, AIR, ever told this NG what his voltage readings were
at that point, or half an hour afterwards.

The OP said that he rides in hot weather, and motorcycle engines are
easy to start in warmer weather.

Actually, this little discussion of "kelvin links" offers the
possibility of external adjustment for solid state rectifier
regulators by adding a low resistance in the sensing line.

Back when I was a flightline electrical specialist, we had a standing
maintenance practice of lowering the voltage regulator settings on our
aircraft from 28.0 volts to 27.5 volts to reduce water consumption in
the summer.

But it was as simple as turning a thumbwheel attached to a rheostat on
the carbon stack voltage regulator.

Depends on whether you have a flooded cell lead acid battery or a
maintenance free battery which requires slightly higher charging
voltage.

 

How does this relate to the OP's complaint of having his battery go dry?

Um, yeah...I'm pretty sure you've never been within 500 feet of an aircraft
you didn't buy an airfare for.

You say "maintenance free" when you mean AGM. But since the OP mentions
(frequently) replenishing water to his battery, what kind do you think he
has?

Booger, you really do have remarkable talents for completely missing the
obvious and making shit up.

 

While you were Abraham Lincoln's nephew...
While you were riding a half-million miles...
While you were making up more shit...

I sure hope he never gets within the same *county* as any aircraft I
might ride in.

+1

 

Don't ride in any Hughes 500 helicopters, L-1011 Tri-Stars, or MD80
jetliners then, 'cause I built a shitpot of those planes.

The Smithsonian Air & Space Museum is full of aircraft and spacecraft
that I worked on, and the oldest aircraft that I worked on which is
still flying is the B-52
at Edwards AFB that carries Pegasus rockets, etc up to 39K feet for
high altitude launch.

 

That's what *happens* to chronically discharged batteries, sonny.

The first aircraft I ever worked on was a B-50 (a later version of the
B-29 with two jet engines outboard of the reciprocating engines.

I also worked on B-36, B-47, B-52, B-58 and B-1B.

I worked on C-47, C-46, C-97, C-119, C-124, and C-130.

I worked on T-28, T-29, T-33, T-38 and TF-104.

I worked on F-86, F-100, F-101, F-102, F-104, and F-106.

I also worked on satellites and all the Apollo capsules that went to
the Moon (and a few that didn't).

Obviously the OP has a flooded cell lead acid battery.

Hey, I didn't work in the battery shop at Edwards AFB for nothing.

I've worked on lead acid batteries that weighed 500 pounds.

 

You can fill a battery with a syringe. They have them at auto parts
stores. The holes are too small for regular battery filler tubes.

 

Or a plastic straw! (available nearly everywhere)

 

Regarding 'boiling off' is it just the water that is reduced? (IOW no
need to replenish acid?)

 

You *never* add acid to a battery, you add electrolyte to the battery
under certain specific conditions, i.e., when the battery is fully
charged but the electrolyte level is low.

I seem to be the only person in the world that knows to add
electrolyte to a fully charged battery which has a low electrolyte
level.

This is what we did to batteries at the battery shop at Edwards AFB,
where we had hundreds of batteries on charge at all times.

Motor Cyclist magazine did make the point that corrosion will result
from making the electolyte too strong by adding acid.

But, what are you going to do? Take a fully charged battery and weaken
it by adding water to raise the fluid level?

That's the vicious cycle that the OP is in...

Electrolyte is an approximately 50/50 mixture of sulfuric acid and
distilled water.

There's no reason to add electrolyte to a battery that's in good
condition.

Normal battery electrochemistry weakens the electrolyte to become more
watery as the sulfur in the acid becomes lead sulfate during
discharge.

If the sulfur has plated itself onto the lead plates, adding water and
charging the battery simply boils the water off.

 

No shit.

 

I think by the time you get to the stage when you need to refill with
acid, the battery's got all four legs pointing skywards anyway.

 

No, it's not. He's got a fucked charging system that needs fixing. And
that's it. Sort out charging, replace battery, ride happily into the
sunset.

And nobody seems to have a problem understanding this except you.

 

Sure you did. <chortle>

*I* worked on Apollo 11, 12, 13; the Concordes; every Airbus A380; I
assembled Glamorous Glennis all by myself; and I was the inflight
mechanic for Charles Lindbergh during his historic flight.

BTW, more incorrect "Krusty facts": That B-52 (known as "Balls 8") was
retired in 2004.

Nobody believes anything you say.

 

Cite where there was ever a B-50 with jet engines.

(A B-50 is not a B-36D - and that had four jet engines.)

At least make up shit that could be possible...

 

According to Wiki, he's right. They made a batch with J-47 engines.

 

Where do you think *he* got that.