Battery or Stator?

Hello kind People! I have a 2002 SX250 with factory guages. She has about 46 hours on her. Recently I noticed that when I'm at idle speed with electronics, etc. working, the voltage starts at normal (12.2 volts), but after a little while, starts to drop to less than 12 volts. When this happens, the meter starts blinking at me (low voltage). It has gotten as low at 11.4 v. Once I start bringing the rpms up, it slowly makes it's way back to 12.2 or so after a few minutes. I have dual batteries, and this happens on either one. Shouldn't the motor be able to power the electronics at idle without draining the battery? Does this sound like a battery or stator issue?

Thanks!

Would both batteries go bad at the same time?

No I wasn't running on both at the same time. I was trying them one at a time with similar results. I've since bought one new battery, and will see how it does this weekend compared to the old one still installed. I'll let you know. Thanks for your help.

Pat

the stator might not be rated to put out as much power at idle compared to how much juice you are using at idle.

Okay, I put in a new battery, and the voltage is still dropping at idle (according to my guage on the dash board). The only thing drawing power is my fish finder. How do I tell if the stator is putting out enough juice at idle?

Thanks

Using a volt meter on the 20V DC scale, check the voltage with the engine and accessories off. Start the engine and check the voltage. There should be a noticable increase and at 3000 RPM you should have upward of 14V.
Don't rule out the rectifier/regulator as the source of the problem.

Thanks, I'll put the volt meter on at 3,000 rpms this weekend. I can tell you that with the factory guages, it shows only 12.6 volts at wot

One more thing: Am I supposed to hook the volt meter to the battery terminal while underway?

FYI, the problem was diagnosed as a bad regulator

Thanks for your help.