Topic: cb550 overcharging battery but regulator is good

[turboed13b]

Long story short battery died or so I thought because the next day I checked the battery (4 cell ballistic) and it was fine. So I hooked a voltmeter up to my battery while riding. Everything was fine then all of sudden my voltage starts raising higher and higher then my bike dies again zero volts on the voltmeter. So I am stumped for a little bit and check my reg/rec unit and it checks out ok. So I look at my battery again and decided to tap on in and bam voltage goes up to 13.3 volts.

So I find my problem the battery has a loose internal connection or bad cell. This got me thinking though shouldn't the regulator stop the voltage from overcharging? So should I replace my reg/rec too?

OR
 
If it was a bad cell then the regulator would have a false low reading so it would pump the max current possible and since it technically is only on three out of four cells it would result in overcharging? Such as if too small of a battery will overcharge.

[calj737]

Both of your assumptions can be correct. But you also overlook a different issue, and that is this type of battery is not resilient to over-discharging. SOHCs run in a charging deficit until they get above 3,000-4,000 RPMs sustained riding. Depending on your riding conditions, time of day, style, etc. you may want to invest in a different type of battery with more than 3Ah of capacity.

[scottly]

Everything was fine then all of sudden my voltage starts raising higher and higher

How high did it go? Over 15V?
Sounds like the zero voltage condition might be a loose battery connection, depending on where the meter is connected.

[TwoTired]

What brand regulator?

It is also going to matter what RPM the alternator is turning and what the bike electrical loads are.

[turboed13b]

It turned out to be a broken internal connection in the ballistic battery. I tapped on it with the voltmeter attached and the voltage would drop to 9v meaning one of the cells would drop off. I bought a cheap battery from Walmart I think the es4lbs and it never goes over 14.5v. 

All my wiring is custom and everything is led except for my headlight which is 35w HID. I have not seen any  overcharging or discharging  yet and I have been running the cheap Walmart battery in my other bike for 2 years so I shouldn't be running into any problems.