Did you go through 3 fillable gel batteries. Or pre-filled batteries.?

 

"A regular pre-filled battery may have been sitting on the shelf for quite some time with-ought the proper maintenance. "

If you do sell batteries, you should already know that neither the gell or liquid acid type are filled until the customer comes in the shop and asks for one.

 

exact same batteries you posted

 

I got the machine running today with the crappy battery and checked the voltage across the battery posts. At idle, it hovered around 9-9.5 volts. If I revved the engine, it seemed to max out around 10.5 volts. Whoa. That's way too low. I'm not sure if the crappy battery was adversely affecting the reading though. Any thoughts on that?

The Diehard batteries are sold unfilled. The battery comes with separate "fluid" (not sure if it's gel, water, or something else) in vials that you upend into the battery when you get it home.

In any case, I'm suspect of the charging system. I don't know much about how the charging system works on the TaoTao. Any tips for diagnosing the charging system?

Thanks!

 

We sell both types of battery. Honda and Suzuki use gell cell, but Yamahas and Kawasakis, the older ones anyway, still use liquid acid. In both cases the liquid you pour in is sulphuric acid and in both cases we don't fill 'em with it 'til we sell 'em. It is the liquid type we are more likely to let the customer fill at home, as a full one, tipped over in the back of your Range Rover, is going to make a mess.

Regarding the original question, Check you are getting 12V POWER to the regulator from the battery, not volts, so you need a fairly high wattage test lamp. With engine off, if it doesn't glow with the same power at the reg as across the battery, you have a bad earth or bad live from battery to regulator.

 

I searched Google Images since I don't know what the regulator looks like. Is the attached picture of the regulator?

Instead of checking "glow" of a test lamp, would it be better to check resistance between the regulator and the battery? That is, I would expect zero ohms if the circuitry was in good shape, correct?

 

Its most likely your stator. A stator or Magneto Coil as some call it acts similar to an alternator on a car.
There are a lot of good youtube videos on how to test your stator. Here one
There are lost of different models of stators with different wire options.
Here are some stators to take a look at. Stators

 

OK, it is possible to be stator, but checking battery power to reg first is easy and cheap. It is also far more likely to be the regulator than either, but you can test the wires and stator, the reg you can only substitute. Maybe it is because I have found the ohms scale on all AVO meters to be inaccurate, but I prefer the test lamp to a meter for the power to regulator test.

 

Hmm, interesting. In this link https://atvconnection.com/forums/1-e...ml#post3387733, I discussed a separate no-spark issue with my machine. It turns out that the stator was the issue. Therefore, my stator is brand new. So I'm guessing that rules it out as the culprit behind the low system voltage. But I would like to understand better...I realize an alternator on a car charges the battery. On this ATV, does the stator serve that role?

Was the image of the regulator in my previous post correct? I want to ensure I'm checking the right component. If that image is correct, I see it has 4 wires. Are two of them feeding directly to the battery? I assume those would be the two to check for good continuity. Are there any other diagnostics I can do, to affirm the regulator is bad or am I limited basically to installing a new one and hoping it works?

 

Stators on quads do many things. Some are, like car stators, just providing power to the battery, but they also have a trigger coil, (usually outboard of the flywheel) which sends a timing signal to the CDI telling it when to spark. On most AC ignition systems there is also an "exciter" coil, next to the charging coils, this is there to provide the power for the spark.

Yes your picture is of a voltage regulator. If it is four wire, two to stator (usually yellow) and two to battery (usually green = earth, and red = live). If you get full power there, and the stator tests in the video show an OK stator, it has got to be a regulator fault.