battery issues

Busasweety @ Feb. 18 2008 said:
thanks guys for the thoughts...as stated we have ridin them for 25-30 mile burst basically each month during the winter....will look into the water levels and check the battery out...may get an inexpensive b/t and see if that helps....need to figure it out before the season starts !!!
Click to expand...
Swap batteries in the bikes. See if the problem follows the battery or the bike.
 
ks-waterbug @ Feb. 18 2008 said:
Test the suspect battery with a hydrometer.... Sounds like one of the cells might be dead or its low on fluid caused by the heat of the engine. Fill with distilled water! The condition will only get worse with time if its a dead cell.
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Dang man, you go back a looooooong ways. I haven't seen a motorcycle battery with accessable cells since,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, oh, I don't know,,,,,,,,,,,,1962?

If your battery is not maintaining a charge it's most likely due to a weak, (Not dead) cell. I'd certainly agree with Brendan, buy a new battery. However, you could have a drain on the battery causing the problem as well? Maybe an anti theft device or???

The only real way to test your battery is with a load test. Many of the more expensive battery chargers come with a load tester. If you don't have one, take the battery out, charge it fully and stop in at your friendly Les Schwab store and they will test it for you.
 
brendanp @ Feb. 18 2008 said:
Wrong... If your battery is in good working condition, at idle, place a DC Volt meter over the battery terminals. It should be reading 14+ volts! This is proof that at idle, it most certainly is recharging a 12 VDC battery.
I'm not saying that running it for 10 minutes will keep your battery up to snuff, I'm stating that I do not use a B/T.
When a battery fails, I dont care what you use to try to keep it charged...get rid of it. If you are getting high 13-14 VDC using the voltmeter read directly off your battery while running, you AC alternator, dc rectifyer and battery is working properly....
Click to expand...
The alternator will run the bike at 14.4 VDC at idle. It puts out enough current to run the ignition system, but not enough to charge the batteries also. You have to run the engine between 3000 and 3500 RPMs to get enough wattage to do both jobs. Idling the bike will not charge the battery, but it will keep it from draining during the running time (clock, ECU, alarm if one is installed). If you've never had a problem battery you're very lucky. A battery tender goes on mine if it's not being ridden for more than a week. I haven't had to replace a battery since I started doing that.
 
TruWrecks @ Feb. 19 2008 said:
brendanp @ Feb. 18 2008 said:
Wrong... If your battery is in good working condition, at idle, place a DC Volt meter over the battery terminals. It should be reading 14+ volts! This is proof that at idle, it most certainly is recharging a 12 VDC battery.
I'm not saying that running it for 10 minutes will keep your battery up to snuff, I'm stating that I do not use a B/T.
When a battery fails, I dont care what you use to try to keep it charged...get rid of it. If you are getting  high 13-14 VDC using the voltmeter read directly off your battery while running, you AC alternator, dc rectifyer and battery is working properly....
Click to expand...
The alternator will run the bike at 14.4 VDC at idle.  It puts out enough current to run the ignition system, but not enough to charge the batteries also.  You have to run the engine between 3000 and 3500 RPMs to get enough wattage to do both jobs.  Idling the bike will not charge the battery, but it will keep it from draining during the running time (clock, ECU, alarm if one is installed).  If you've never had a problem battery you're very lucky.  A battery tender goes on mine if it's not being ridden for more than a week.  I haven't had to replace a battery since I started doing that.
Click to expand...
+100
 
Tufbusa @ Feb. 19 2008 said:
If your battery is not maintaining a charge it's most likely due to a weak, (Not dead) cell. I'd certainly agree with Brendan, buy a new battery. However, you could have a drain on the battery causing the problem as well? Maybe an anti theft device or???

The only real way to test your battery is with a load test. Many of the more expensive battery chargers come with a load tester. If you don't have one, take the battery out, charge it fully and stop in at your friendly Les Schwab store and they will test it for you.
Click to expand...
+1 on getting the battery tested. If the battery has been drained, then charged a few times it can get a sulfur buildup between the plates in a cell. That will short out the cell making it worthless. The more sulfur buildup, the more useless.

If you don't have a load tester you can do a simple test that can help you determine if the battery is faulty:

Disconnect the battery from the bike (both power and ground). Charge it @ 2 Amps for 2 to 3 hours. Turn off the charger and disconnect the leads. Wait 5 minutes and measure the voltage with a multi-meter. Wait an hour and measure it again. It the voltage is more than one volt less then your first reading you have a bad cell. If the voltage is less than one volt at the one hour mark, but the voltage continues to fall you may have a cell going bad, but not unusable yet.

If your battery maintains around 12.6V for several hours after charging it, you may have something on the bike that is draining the battery. You can use an Ammeter to check for power usage. High power consumption is usually because of a short circuit, or faulty electrical component. You can pull fuses one at a time to narrow the source.
 
Thanks guys.......nothing but factory stuff installed on her bike so will let you know what i find....again thanks !!
 
I disconnect the cable at the negative terminal after every ride, since it's at least a week between rides. Two bolts to remove the seat, then one for the terminal. Less than five minutes.
 
I hooked up the supplied disconnect that came with me cheepo Battery Maintainer and i keep it hooked up the bike 24-7 when not riding of course.
Never had a problemo since.
 
I dissagree...
The system requires 12 (or less volts) to run the bike. Anything reading higher than that read directly at the battery with a DC Voltmeter, and the batter is being restored.....
 
The results are in......had battery tested this morning, holding a 12.4 charge but only has 73 cold crank amps availible....Bike needs 175 if I'm understanding things right. So this means the battery has no more umfff......will be shopping for batteries.
battery warehouse has a std $59
Interstate battery for bike shop is $80 <<<<<< may be the winner..

Thanks to all that responded and helped....I LOVE THIS FAMILY
 
Like I said before, if my battery (in any of the bikes I ever had) gives me trouble, I get rid of it!
beerchug.gif
 
I had the same problem with both my wife's and my busa this winter. I have them both in my shop and we went for a ride and had to jump hers off but when i got to the gas station to fill up my would not start. So i went walmart and picked up 2 battery tenders and wired them up now they start up with no problems.
 
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