110cc Tao Tao over charging battery
#1
110cc Tao Tao over charging battery
My grand kids little 110 Tao Tao ATV has developed an over charging problem. When the original rectifier crapped out it was making 17 volts at idle and would jump to 19 volts at higher rpms and it was cooking the battery. So ordered a new rectifier from Tao Tao direct parts and installed it, I tested it and it was making 13.1 volts at idle and 14.1 volts at higher rpms, so I put a new battery in it and they rode the wheels off it for two days and then another dead battery. I found the battery was cooked again and the atv was again over charging with 15 volts at idle and 19 volts at higher rpms. My question is there a better quality four wire rectifier I can wire into this ATV? I have double checked all the wiring and grounds on the atv and they are all like new, I feel like it needs a little bigger rectifier; just need a line on a good 4 wire rectifier to go with.
#4
Some small bikes just have a rectifier as the charging coils don't have a big output. Some Chinese "regulators" are a poor design which doesn't cap the output. There was a flurry of postings on here about four years ago because one maker, I think it was Tao Tao had been sending out new bikes with a high output stator and the low quality "regulator" these cooked batteries right from the start. Unfortunately, almost all the replacement regs were the same. Can't remember how the owners fixed it but the 250 regulator may well be of better quality. Trouble with 4 wire regs is there are two different types, one is for single phase stators, the other for three phase stators where earth is used instead of the third wire, so the green wire acts as both battery neg and third phase AC wire. Fit the wrong one and you will burn out the stator, see https://atvconnection.com/forums/chi...ml#post3485011
#5
Thanks, that has been somewhat helpful, I'm also reading that the headlight should always on when running these ATVs, as the headlight helps absorb any over voltage from the regulator? I know the kids have been riding it with the headlight off; I may try having them ride with the light on at all times and see if it stops cooking the battery that way.
#6
Yes, I also found the old post where running with lights on did fix the problem. Really strange how many of those 4 wire "regulators" don't seem to actually regulate the voltage, even the old Zener diode system worked better. I did wonder if you could fit a Zenner between the pos and neg output leads of the regulator, but don't know enough about electronics to be sure it would work.
#7
Thanks for the help on this guys, I'm really trying to fix this thing, it runs great other than the over charging. Some of the grandkids have moved on up to bigger better ATVs now, but I still have several younger ones that I need to cycle through this little ATV for training. I've decided to swap in another new rectifier and try having them run it with the head light on all the time and see if the rectifier lives that way. Down the road if the issue continues I may try a battery switch, switch the battery on to start, then switch it off to keep any charge getting to it while running. I'll have to research it and see if that would fry the stator.
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#8
After digging through a ton of posts in here I finally found where a guy fixed his over charging problem by installing an adjustable step down DC voltage regulator between the rectifier and battery. This will allow me to limit the max voltage to the battery to where I want it; I'll update when I have the results.
#10
Ok, I installed the regulator into the charging system of the little ATV and it’s working as advertised. The rectifier voltage at higher rpms was 20 volts dc, the buck regulator capped the voltage to the battery to 13.2 volts dc regardless of engine rpms. UPDATE: I can officially declare the little atv fixed, they have rodden the tar out of it, it never puts out over 13,2 volts while running and the battery is sitting at 12.9 volts at the end of the day.
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