alternator installed in 2002 conquest, voltmeter acting weird now

[The Swamp Donkey]

Hey just an update. After about 4 hours of running the machine around, I noticed that it is hovering at 12 volts now...

Still drops to 0 when I turn on the main headlights, but with them off it stays around 12 volts so I suppose my battery was a it drained and it took a couple of hours to top it off.

Thanks for everyone's comments, I'm going to consider this one a success and not worry about the main headlights killing the gauge.. I have no reason to turn them on anyways with the new LED's.

Cheers

[Positrac]

Check your alternator belt. Output will decrease as the belt starts to slip. It is not uncommon for a new belt to stretch as it breaks in.

I thought the new one on my Conquest was tight when installed but then I noticed the alternator output on the gauge drop from 14 volts to close to 10 after a few rides. Found the belt was a little loose, tightened it and was back up to 14 volts and never had to tighten it again.

[JohnF]

The status LED is a signal from the alternator (or regulator on those without an alternator).

The gauge is a voltmeter that just connects to the ignition bus (the yellow wire. The brown wire is ground and the white wire is for the lamp). It is parallel on the bus so if the voltage went to 0 for real it would go to 0 for everything; you would notice your headlamps going super dim (uh, dark).

If everything is bright and running right then the voltmeter is lying to you.

Why when the headlamps are turned on? I am guessing it isn't anything with the headlamp switch but rather something wrong when the lamp in the gauge comes on. The gauge and the lamp use the common ground. If there is corrosion or a break - basically something wrong - in the ground side then the voltmeter could measure the voltage between the ignition bus and the lamp bus - which would be 0.

Check that the ground side of voltmeter has good connectivity.

[ARGOJIM]

If everything is bright and running right then the voltmeter is lying to you.

Check that the ground side of voltmeter has good connectivity.