Weird charging problem

[Dotetcher]

The battery I had in for a year or so died about a month ago so I replaced it. Shortly after the new battery went dead so I did some tests on the stator and all checked out fine so I ordered an R1 rectifier and installed it. Everything worked fine for a couple of weeks and then the battery went down to nothing. I was lucky to get it home before the bike died. I disonnected all xtra accessory hook ups, installed a voltmeter and have been riding the bike for a couple of days with some strange readings on the meter. On the way to work today the voltage went over 15 volts. Shut the bike down at work and the voltage dropped to low 13's. Started the bike and it immediately went back to 14 at idle. I decided to ride the bike after work and put a load on the electrical system so I connected my gerbings heated gear, cranked it up and went for a ride. Everything seemed fine (meter reading 13.9-14 volts @ 4000 rpm) with the gear cranked all the way for about 15-20 miles. Glanced at the meter and all the sudden it was just reading 12.5 volts and dropping. Turned the heated gear off while riding and the meter didn't move, except for down. Then every once in a while it would jump to 13.8 or so and then back to mid 12's and dropping. So... What do you all think. Corroded connections, rectifier, missed something with the stator. I'm confused.

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[tofastgt]

The battery I had in for a year or so died about a month ago so I replaced it. Shortly after the new battery went dead so I did some tests on the stator and all checked out fine so I ordered an R1 rectifier and installed it. Everything worked fine for a couple of weeks and then the battery went down to nothing. I was lucky to get it home before the bike died. I disonnected all xtra accessory hook ups, installed a voltmeter and have been riding the bike for a couple of days with some strange readings on the meter. On the way to work today the voltage went over 15 volts. Shut the bike down at work and the voltage dropped to low 13's. Started the bike and it immediately went back to 14 at idle. I decided to ride the bike after work and put a load on the electrical system so I connected my gerbings heated gear, cranked it up and went for a ride. Everything seemed fine (meter reading 13.9-14 volts @ 4000 rpm) with the gear cranked all the way for about 15-20 miles. Glanced at the meter and all the sudden it was just reading 12.5 volts and dropping. Turned the heated gear off while riding and the meter didn't move, except for down. Then every once in a while it would jump to 13.8 or so and then back to mid 12's and dropping. So... What do you all think. Corroded connections, rectifier, missed something with the stator. I'm confused.

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What year is your bike? I have a 99 that I had to replace the battery. stator, and R/R because the wire loom was corroded and caused high resistance.

[Dotetcher]

Here's the latest. After checking the stator and finding nothing wrong I decided to replace the rectifier and check connections. I found the connection on the loom side of the starter switch assy. where the main 30 amp fuse is (35850-MR5-007) to be pretty fried. Had a very hard time getting the parts to separate. I cleaned it up as best as I could and applied some dielectric grease to it. I installed another new R1 rectifier and took it for a test run. It holds at 13.9 volts while above 3000 rpm. I ran with the gerbings gear at full tilt and the voltmter still read 13.9. It dropped to 13.8 after 30 minutes or so. I turned the heat troller down to about half and the voltage popped back up to 13.9. So I figure my problem was bad connections first which probably contributed to the rectifier failing. Just a guess though. Now I'm looking for a used wireing harness for my '97 that's in better shape than mine.