my battery reads 19 volts across the terminals, I have smoke coming from the ignition block my cdi cuts out then it starts straight away again. my autochoke burnt out and I got a new one, my old CDI burnt out a fortnight ago. do you think perchance that in some small way on the whimsiest of guesses and a cunning wry smile, that my regulator is completely FFF***********XD*****D. and I should consider a replacement.
Surprisingly not, though afterwards (reading the manual and wiring diagram) I found out the lighting is on a seperate live from the regulator, and the ignition overload side is grounded seperately through the regulator, I have tested the ground wire from the cdi and stator to the regulator (8 pin) which gives me no breaks so all looks good apart from the regulator itself. so looks like the charging is being allowed too many volts and the ignition as well (probably everything else as well). reading up on the specs, the input is 25V - 30V with a max output of 14.5V so the battery should never exceed that, the head and tail lights are always on. Just checked all the ignition side about a week ago so all is good there. I have ordered another (tested) which should arrive midweek, so got lots of time to do more wiring checks and other things.
Found out why the lights and fuse didn't blow. The starter motor shorted and sent 40amps round everything apart from the lighting circuit. Cooked the ignition switch so as soon as enough voltage built up it shorted the exciter coil to ground. Have taken the starter motor and bendix out and blocked up the hole with a large rubber washer with a large steel washer holding it tight, an M8 bolt through to inside the transmission case with a large steel washer inside, also some spring washers and nyloc nuts and insulated the spade connection at the relay. Think I will just do without one. Took out the ignition switch and I have it running on ignition circuit only and all is well so far. Fitted the new regulator but have to wait for the new ignition switch to arrive to test everything else. just been doing some continuity and resistance checks, and looking for shorts until then. also noticed there should be a ground wire from the regulator casing to the chassis, and a ground wire from engine to chassis as Piaggio recommend. both were missing when I rebuilt. took the time to clean up the stator and housing behind the flywheel and reinsulate the wires, as I needed to strip the old insulation off to do all the checks. had to drill out the old fan screws and fit new ones. I now know every wire and component on the electrics
