84 200es electrical problems

[BuellBen]

Would anyone be able to point me in the right direction, when the trike is running the lights completely drain my battery; with the lights turned off the meter shows 12.3 volts at the battery. with the battery disconnected the lights do not work at all. I have a basic understanding of electrical things but not familiar with the parts on the 3-wheeler. thanks for any help

[kb0nly]

If you disconnect the cables from the battery and put your meter on them and start it up what do you get for a voltage? Anything?

It could be a bad rectifier/regulator. You should see around 13-14v on the battery cables while running without the battery. If you don't then go down by the sub-trans shifter and find the connector with the two yellow wires. Unplug it and connect your meter leads to the connector coming from the motor, thats the alternator coil output, set your meter for AC volts, again start it up and see what you get, should be around 20-30v AC on those yellow wires depending on engine speed.

If you have alternator output but no DC output at the battery cables then your rectifier/regulator is bad. If you don't have any AC output from the alternator then you will have to pull apart the left side of the motor and replace the coil.

[BuellBen]

I will try that tomorrow and let you know! Thank you!

[kb0nly]

Your welcome! Let me know what you find out.