Charging

[john sever]

Hi
I have just fitted a new battery to my 1969 A65. The ammeter reads plus 4A or so.  Is this ok? Is this because the system still charges but its dissipated by the zener diode?
Thanks
John 

[rhyatt]

The amount of charge shown is dictated normally by the state of the battery, ie if it is discharged it will show a higher charge and fully charged , vice versa.
Also what lights you have on.
However , on these bike , there is no "regulation" as such on modern bikes.
In theory , if you had ridden 50 miles in daylight with no lights on , it should barely show anything.
Just keep your eye on the battery voltage to confirm to yourself that the battery is receiving a charge , with different lights on

[john sever]

Hi Rhyatt
Thanks for your reply. You say, "the amount of charge is dictated normally by the state of the battery".  Thats my query - if the battery is fully charged (as shown by my trickle charger) why is the ammeter showing a charge rate of around 4amps?  And yes, there is no regulator, but again, isnt the job of the Zener diode to "regulate" the charge going back to the battery?
John

[rhyatt]

See what you mean.
The function of the zener was to dump to earth in the form of heat , hence the finned body, anything over 14.2 v give or take.
The function of modern reg/recs is to dump to earth anything over 14.2v ish.
Remember, the bikes ammeter is pretty basic in its measurements, so , to satisfy yourself, can you use a multimeter on the Amps scale in series between the battery earth terminal and its earth wire.
This way you measure definitively what's going in and out