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Is my new radio, drawing more power than my alternator can keep up with?
Here’s what’s going on, Saturday I installed a radio with a pair of speakers on my 96 Road King. I rode around for a bit after I was done. Parked the bike and unplugged the radio’s power.
Today, I get the bike out, go to start it and it barely turns over. The battery is drained, so I drag the booster pack out and the bike fires right up. I turn on my new radio, and head out. About five miles out of town, I press the turn signal switch. And I see the speedometer shut off, for a few seconds, and then come back on. I try it again and the same thing happens.
I stop and sniff around the tank near the cluster, fearing a short. But everything smells ok; I didn’t turn the bike off.So thinking I may have, screw something up, running the speaker wires, I head for home. On the way home the speedometer, keeps cutting on and off. But the bike is running fine. I get home; shut the bike off, look at the radio and the wiring. Nothing seems wrong, so I go to fire the bike back up and nothing. The battery is almost completely drained.
So now I’m thinking some things up with the charging system. I look in the book; go through the trouble shooting guide. And find nothing wrong, everything is working fine. The battery is two weeks old, and was fine before I installed the radio. Here’s what I am wondering. The radio hooks up to the battery. If the additional draw from the radio, is too much for the alternator? I have a 32 amp alternator, I can’t find what the draw of the radio is. So I’m thinking I’ll have to get a higher amp alternator, if I want to keep the radio. So what do you think, am I on the right track or not? Or have I missed something?
It's a motorcycle radio, no extra wires. The specifications only say. RMS power: 25W X 2@4 Ohm 10% THD.
In the U.S. All bikes have to have the headlight on all the time. Can't turn it off. On the FLHR anything over 3 milliameres is excessive draw. I'm not sure what thr radio draws, but it seems to be more than the system can handle.
4 Answers
- Todd LLv 41 decade agoFavorite Answer
use ohm meter to check out the output voltage. when you start the bike. The charging should read about 14.5 volts. if under 12 volts while running. It could be voltage regulator on front of engine frame that could be burned out. I have seen alot of harley have voltage regulator problems.If you cant figure out. Have a professional help you with this issue.
Let me know .
- Philip PLv 71 decade ago
Is the radio designed for a car or is it one meant for a Bike.
Car radios have a permanently live wire preventing it from loosing the code and data stored for the channels (ones for bikes have a battery back up installed), Is it possible that though you are disconnecting the main feed you are leaving the "memory" wire still connected? Though on a car the current consumption is low on a bike due to the small battery size it is quite high.
Secondly it sounds like that when you installed the wiring loom for the radio you disturbed the bikes wiring loom for the battery connections rather than using an auxillary circuit through the bikes ignition.
If this is the case are you sure you didn't fracture the Alternator wire.
The alternator has a seperate Feed wire to the +ive from the loom so to the battery there should be 1 thick wire to the starter motor 1 thinner wire to the wirein loom for the accessories ignition switch etc and one for the alternator plus now the loom for the radio, On the -'ve side there will be the main frame earth which is the thick one the main loom earth and dependant on how the model is wired a seperate earth wire for accessories and possibly one for the alternator.
It appears that your alternator is actually producing current BUT it is not getting back to the battery though it is being sent round the main part of the loom to power the ignition but not the accessories.
Recheck your work to ensure there are no wires left hanging.
Good luck.
- Dimo JLv 71 decade ago
That's a 400 watt alternator. If adding the radio increased your power usage to over 400 watts you have a problem. Are you running headlight and extra lights? Can you shut the lights off and see if that allows the battery to recharge?
