Battery charging problem

edcphoto · Post by **edcphoto** » Tue Sep 11, 2012 11:05 pm

I have a 1963 CA95 I have been restoring and am currently working through a battery problem. The battery is charging at over 8.5 volts when revved which seems too high. The battery acid is bubbling pretty heavily which does not seem right. What should the battery be charging at when revved? I have a new silicon bridge rectifier I am going to put on. Could the old original rectifier cause over charging? If so might the new rectifier solve the over charging problem?

Thanks for any advice.

Ed Caldwell

ByTheLake · Post by **ByTheLake** » Wed Sep 12, 2012 3:11 am

Hello Ed, and welcome to the forum. I'm betting that it's not the rectifier.

How old is the battery? What is the battery voltage with the bike switched off?

Are you taking the voltage measurements with the key in position II or III (headlights)? Position III will engage additional alternator capacity to power the lighting, but if the headlight or tail light are burned out and not consuming this additional capacity, perhaps that could be an issue.

edcphoto · Post by **edcphoto** » Wed Sep 12, 2012 9:37 am

Thanks for the quick reply!

The battery is new and reads 6.4 volts with bike switched off, I was in position 3 when taking the readings. Headlight and tail light are not installed so sounds like that might be the problem. I imagine I can rig up a 6 volt bulb to simulate the headlight and install the tail light to see if that takes care of the over charging problem. I don't have a working head light which is one part that has been extremely hard to find unless I get one of the Taiwan plastic ones which I'd like to avoid.

The bike runs nicely and the remaining problem other than the charging is a clutch problem which I've not been able to fix. I'll post separately on that in the near future.

This is my first restore and my first bike period. The CA95 was a bit of an impulsive purchase. Got the bike with a 2nd bike for parts at a decent price ($700) at least I think. Had I realized the difficulty of getting parts I may have chosen another model. I'm in it now though so looking forward to getting the bike up and running soon.

Here's a photo of the bike when purchased. I'm repainting to eliminate the racing strips which I'm not fond of. Have chrome wheels from second bike that will go on this one.

Smithers · Post by **Smithers** » Wed Sep 12, 2012 1:11 pm

Black rims! Reminds me of a motorcycle from the war. You'll have to reverse some of those paint mods on there and you'll have a classy bike once again. Thanks for sharing this interesting custom job.

edcphoto · Post by **edcphoto** » Wed Sep 12, 2012 3:25 pm

Yeah already repainted most of the bike to get rid of the stripes. Still need to do the frame but want to get it running properly first. Have another set of wheels that are the original chrome which are in decent shape. Stripped off the white paint on the various painted parts. All should be fairly close to original bike minus some parts until I can find them. Seat needs to be redone as the original was a mess, seat frame was OK and cleaned up nicely. Need front carb shield and some other small parts.

comp_wiz101 · Post by **comp_wiz101** » Sun Sep 16, 2012 6:29 pm

edcphoto wrote:Yeah already repainted most of the bike to get rid of the stripes. Still need to do the frame but want to get it running properly first. Have another set of wheels that are the original chrome which are in decent shape. Stripped off the white paint on the various painted parts. All should be fairly close to original bike minus some parts until I can find them. Seat needs to be redone as the original was a mess, seat frame was OK and cleaned up nicely. Need front carb shield and some other small parts.

I've had good luck with my cast aluminum air cleaner shields from Thailand.

kartgreen · Post by **kartgreen** » Mon Sep 17, 2012 5:50 am

Looks like a nice bike to get started with , and amazingly enough you should be able to find the parts you need at reasonable prices . That's part of the fun of restoring an older bike , searching for parts .
I tell everyone to take a really good look at the wiring harness on their newly purchased bike . Usually wear and tear of 50 years leaves it's mark somewhere on the wiring ,not to mention various modifications owners have made over the years . You'll save yourself many headaches if you do that first and then go thru and complete general maintence items .
It's fun to see what people do to these bikes to make them " COOL" in their eyes . Yours was creative ! Good luck .