05 WR450 eating battery

[Rustybits]

My WR is eating batteries, I had a brand new battery in my bike and road it hard for a couple hours only to find a dead battery. I switched batteries with a buddy of mine on another WR and it ate that battery also???? Stator powers the lights fine but for some reason I don't get a charge back to the battery and eventually the bike starts running like crap and the battery goes dead. Any ideas???? rectifier or fuse etc.

Thanks!

[trailhead2004]

My first guess is the rectifier/regulator. Check the fuse, but I doubt it is the problem. I can't recall if tehre are instructions in the owner's manual for checking the regulator, but that is where I'd start. I THINK I recall seeing some instructions there. Second place to look would be the stator. The headlight runs off the AC side of the split stator so if one side is good and the other bad, then your headlight would work fine and the battery wouldn't charge.

BTW, I'm referring to an '07/'08 WR450, but I imagine the earlier models can't be that different.

trailhead2004