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Ran all the multi meter tests yesterday and everything in the charging system checks out fine. Battery is slightly low at 12.68 VDC. It is 3 years old. I'll change it out soon. Bike started up fine every time through the checks with no symptoms.
Does the compensator act up intermittently when its bad?
Had a charging issue on my bike and regulator and stator checked out fine but some pins in the plug between the two were burnt. Both were replaced under warranty after the dealer finally figured it out. My issue was not starting or clunking, just voltage dropping after about 30 miles and acting extremely sporadic.
with those fitted the dash meter indicating rail voltage should always be rock steady at about 14.2 vdc, it is downstream of the regulator. The regulator shunts the excess (always an excess) to ground and by so doing regulates the operating voltage to components. If it is fluctuating at a constant rpm, there is problems. The battery has only one purpose in life, it provides the OFF voltage to get the bike going.
Does the compensator act up intermittently when its bad?
Mine did! Some would start fine and then after riding for a while and stopping it would let out a big back-fire or turn over more than normal when trying to restart. Sometimes it would clunk when trying to start the first time.
Try a battery first because it might be time, or see if you have a buddy with a bike that you could swap out a battery to test it in your bike.
I'm betting on the comp from my experience.
Just recently i'm getting a slight hesitation with a hard start and a clunk upon starting. It doesnt happen every time. I can shut the bike off and get a normal start right after. The last time it happened the radio face dimmed. At first i thought it to be the battery just not cranking like it used to.
Where to start?
That's what mine sounded like before I replaced my battery, it was a compression hesitation when it cranked over. New battery took care of it. My battery was less than 2 year old. Blame it on the knucklehead salesmen that start the bikes up for less than a minute for people to hear then shut it off, over and over again. Takes years off the age of a battery. The voltage from the batt checked out fine but the hesitation crack went from once in awhile to every time I went to start it.
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