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Battery Dead?

2K views 7 replies 5 participants last post by  pa_vn750 
#1 ·
It figures. Try do do some repairs to the bike, change the oil, try starting . . . no go.

I'm not sure what this is, but I'm near positive it's electrical. Bike won't start unless it's a bump start, so I bump it and figure I'll ride it a bit to charge up the battery. Make it about 10 minutes down the road and it stalls at a red light. Bump again, same thing. Girlfriend helps jump it. Take it on a 40 minute ride, feeling good about it, bike doesn't die at lights -- stop for food, and she won't start after we're done eating. What gives. Something isn't keeping a charge?

Is this the end of the battery's life? Or is the R/R dead? I do have a multimeter but have very little clue what I'd be testing with it.
 
#2 ·
Take the battery in and have it load tested. Any good auto parts store should be able to do a load test.
One or two bad cells will keep the battery from holding a charge.
If the battery checks out ok, then it could be a connection problem, bad ground, dirty or corroded connection, bad battery cable..
If those all check out then move to the R/R and Stator tests but most problems surface with checking stuff in the above order.
How old is the battery? Is it a maintenance free battery?
 
#5 ·
Responding out of order, but . . .

The battery was on the bike when I got it a year ago, I don't know if it's older than that. It was a MF battery, the new one is as well.
Sears refused to load test a non Sears battery, decided to just buy a new one on tcat's post.

I'll be running the gamut of tests tonight and hopefully have substantial news to report back on later.
 
#3 · (Edited)
Battery

Hey Guy.........Replace the battery! From what you are stating.........your charging system is working. When you get it started by pushing or whatever........the charging system is trying to put a charge back into the battery. This means the stator & RR is working. The battery won't take much of a charge or hold it because it is shot. That is why after you take it for a scoot, the charging system is putting a small amount of charge into the battery, keeping the bike running......the battery won't hold much of a charge.......when you come out after a stop & try to start it again, there is no juice in the battery again, because the battery has failed.

The stator is doing double duty trying to charge the battery & continuing doing this WILL result in stator & or RR failure!

Now do this....Take a digital volt meter....test battery voltage at the battery posts.....(DC setting)....Red to positive, black to negative.....write down voltage....now get bike started........again test voltage at idle........it should be higher, maybe around 12 plus volts.....rev engine to about 1/4 throttle.....again read voltage.......if your stator & RR is working, you should be reading about 13---14 plus volts. If voltage as stated above does not rise at all after test.......you have charging issues (or bad connections.) If it reads higher at idle & higher at 1/4 throttle....replace the battery!

Again....I suspect the battery, but the above simple test will confirm. It's not hard to do & will only take a couple of minutes to confirm...

Have a nice day

Tcat
 
#4 ·
Well, I did a dumb thing.

I wanted to go to the Gettysburg greet so much that I just went out and bought a new battery, slapped it in the bike and went on the road -- after a half charge at the Sears (maybe less?).

Had some issues on the trip, notably with chugging, poor starting (started fine a few time son Saturday, after that it everything was a push-start. Got home safely Sunday, but soon after the battery died (though that was my fault for leaving the ignition on).

Took the battery home Sunday night and put it on a charger, put it in the bike and she started up fine. A few multi-meter tests, Reading 13.5 volts fully charged out of the bike, reads 12.6 in the bike with the bike started after some warm up time, reads 13.5 or so with some throttle, continues to read around there when I give it more throttle. Got the bike back to my apartment, where I feel it's safer and will be taking more of a look at it tonight and likely tomorrow.
 
#6 ·
Something else to keep in mind if the #'s look good when the bike is cold, check it after warming up a little too.

My r/r went out last year and I was getting good readings across the battery (new m/f battery) at idle and at the higher rpm's, but I still got stranded. When I warmed the bike up and re-checked the #'s, I was getting less than 12 at idle and at higher rpm's.


Here's a link to the thread documenting my charging system saga, hope it helps.
http://www.vn750.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3930&highlight=multimeter+challenged

Keep us posted, and good luck.

Tony
 
#7 ·
Well I think I finally got everything sorted out that needed to be sorted out. Took a while, but here we go.

The easy solution. Took the left side cover off to check and test wires, sure enough, one of the stator wires was uncoupled. Made sense since I was working on the gasket around the stator wires earlier last week (two weeks now?) and must have tugged a wire enough to loosen / break that connection.

Everything plugged in to everything else, still had trouble starting. All the wires tested fine, voltage read good. Push start, ride for a while, no drain on the battery -- still having trouble starting.

Pulled the plugs -- white. I don't know how to read spark plugs, but everything I saw was saying 'overheating' and 'old'. Decided to replace with some iridium plugs. Did that, WOW! seriously, what a difference. Starts up with little issue, idles *so* much better and the power the bike delivers feels much smoother.

I also fixed a bad vacuum tube (???) from the front carb. It was dry rotted at the connecting nipple on the carb. Maybe that had an effect too.

Anyways she *almost* runs like a dream now. Still have some stalling issues to take care of, though I think that's rider error more than anything (too quick to take the choke in without letting the bike warm up properly), since it only tends to happen within the first 10 minutes of riding. I am keeping an eye out on my ignition though, since I know I've had key issues randomly.

Beyond that, just wow. It's amazing how much going from bald tires to brand new metzlers, brand new MF battery, and new plugs changes the ride. I was happy with it before . . . didn't know I'd be this happy with it now.
 
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