Electrical Still Once Again

[dakota7557]

Hi, I started the thread "2nd New Battery, Still Dead. My bike has sat since Saturday (over 48 hours) since then I installed the extenders and put the Barnett Clutch Spring in and everything is well with those two adventures...When I left the key off on the bike Saturday, my battery registered 12.68 amps...Tonight, after I finished the Clutch I decided to start my bike. The bike turned over slowly and then I simply heard the starter relay click. :( here we go again...Took off the seat, checked the battery and it read 12.51. I hooked up the starter for less than 10 minutes and the bike turned over slow but did start.
The battery (New in December) was checked by Autozone and they said it was fully charged (last week). Why would it turn over (although slow) enough to start after only 10 minutes of being on the charger?
I am not an electrical guru, but I know someone has the answer out there...I've cleaned both positive (at the starter) and negative cables (on the frame) and the battery posts and they are spotless...I've taken apart the switch on the handlebars and cleaned the contact points. Cleaned every clip under the LH cover, double checked the clutch switch and I am at a loss. I know enough to use the meter but when it comes to technical stuff, I'll admit, I'm somewhat of a novice...Please no flames, just realistic suggestions that I can perform. Thanks for reading this far since it's 5 minutes you'll never get back..lol, Jody

[cactusjack]

Take the battery elsewhere and have it tested.

[dshelly]

Usually when a car just clicks it's the starter solenoid. Might be worth replacing if you are sure the starter is good.

[Sin City Stan]

My guess is you have a constant load on the battery. I don't know what type of meter you have but if it can read amperes try the following. Connect it in series with your battery. Make sure the key is off and see if there is amperage being drawn. If so, start pulling fuses until it stops. Whatever that fuse may be will be your starting point to track down what is bypassing a switch or relay.

Good Luck.

[ringadingh]

Take a look at your fuse panel and where the relays are located behind the RH side cover, there is a main fuse buried there as well. Pull the relays, the main fuse, etc and check for any dirty corroded connections in the plugs. Others have found their electrical problem in this area in the past.

[dakota7557]

Is that a lot for the amps to drop in 2 days? I checked the Main Fuse (30 amp) by the starter relay and it appeared to be good...on my junction box, the only 2 fuses that wouldn't light up are the ACC & Fan fuse...

[muz]

Originally Posted by Sin City Stan

My guess is you have a constant load on the battery. I don't know what type of meter you have but if it can read amperes try the following. Connect it in series with your battery. Make sure the key is off and see if there is amperage being drawn. If so, start pulling fuses until it stops. Whatever that fuse may be will be your starting point to track down what is bypassing a switch or relay.

Good Luck.

In series means disconnect one of the battery leads at the battery. Switch your meter to at least the 10 amp DC range. At this stage you will probably have to reposition the meters leads on the meter for amps to be read. Important you do this before you connect the meter or you may let all the smoke out. Look carefully on the meter for the correct lead orientation. Then make sure every thing is switched off on the bike. Turn the meter on, place one of the leads on the battery post you disconnected and the other on the lead you disconnected. Look at the meter and see if there is a current reading.
If the meter reads nothing forget about the bikes circuits flattening the battery.
Start suspecting in my order of preference:
The battery
The starter circuit and or starter
The battery charger.

You can also easily check the bikes charge voltage if you haven't already done so..........
Reconnect the battery and get the bike started
Reconfigure your meter to read DC volts
Connect your meter across the battery terminals, pos lead to pos and neg lead to neg
Bring the engine rpm up to about 2000.
You should have a reading better than 13.7 volts with a flatfish battery.

Good luck.

By the way just checking the unloaded voltage of a battery is not a good way to determine if a battery is serviceable or not. Best way is to load test it...........like this
Make sure the battery is fully charged, important.
Then place a volt meter reading DC volts across the battery terminals and crank the bike over while holding the meter leads in place. (Good luck with that one).
Voltage should not drop lower than about 10 volts on a good battery while cranking.
I personally prefer to dissable the ignition coils while performing this test so the bike wont start.

[Silent Sam]

As I recall...reading here somewhere...I think someone had an issue with the ignition switch having a short in it..that would drain the battery as long as the key was left inserted in the unit !...

Aint sure I'm accurate...but it might be an easy test ! ?

[dakota7557]

I took the battery out again...put it on the shelf (in my heated garage) and put the charger on it for 10 hours @ 2 amps...It registered only 13.02 by the end of the day. Hooked the meter on it and it dropped down to 12.50 within 15 minutes...I'm going to get a new yuasa battery and see what that does...I could literally see the amps drop after I took the charger off of it...I truly appreciate everyone's input...Jody

[Mongo PHUMC]

That is not uncommon. Most battery chargers charge at 13 volts or more. This gives the battery an "overcharge". Once you take the charger off you have to give it a minute to stabilize. Should read in the 12-12.5 range.

That being said, a nomad will start with as little as 11 volts as long as the battery is good.

example: a battery that reads 12 volts but drops to 6 when load tested is bad.
a battery that reads 11 volts (that hasn't been charged recently) but only drops to 9 volts when load tested is good.

A volt drop of 2 volts when load tested is acceptable. 3 is so-so, more than 4 and the battery is bad.

Your battery is fine.

[Mongo PHUMC]

Originally Posted by dakota7557

Is that a lot for the amps to drop in 2 days? I checked the Main Fuse (30 amp) by the starter relay and it appeared to be good...on my junction box, the only 2 fuses that wouldn't light up are the ACC & Fan fuse...

No it is not. Because this crew doesn't believe shit without footnotes:

From Yusa:

"Self Discharge

One not-so-nice feature of lead acid batteries is that they discharge all by themselves even if not used. A general rule of thumb is a one percent per day rate of self-discharge. This rate increases at high temperatures and decreases at cold temperatures. Don’t forget that your Gold Wing, with a clock, stereo, and CB radio, is never completely turned off. Each of those devices has a "keep alive memory" to preserve your radio pre-sets and time, and those memories draw about 20 milliamps, or .020 amps. This will suck about one half amp hour from your battery daily at 80 degrees Fahrenheit. This draw, combined with the self-discharge rate, will have your battery 50 percent discharged in two weeks if the bike is left unattended and unridden. "

So: Saturday 12.68 - 1% (.1268) = 12.55 (sunday) - 1% (.1255) = 12.42 v for monday night.

Again, your battery is fine.

[muz]

Originally Posted by dakota7557

I took the battery out again...put it on the shelf (in my heated garage) and put the charger on it for 10 hours @ 2 amps...It registered only 13.02 by the end of the day. Hooked the meter on it and it dropped down to 12.50 within 15 minutes...I'm going to get a new yuasa battery and see what that does...I could literally see the amps drop after I took the charger off of it...I truly appreciate everyone's input...Jody

Nope something wrong there Jody.
First check your charger with battery disconnected. Across the charger leads you should get at least 16volts. A good battery is considered charged at 14volts. A maintainance charge after the peak of 14volts is about 13.7
If your charger is only taking the battery to 13.02 it ain't enough!
If its not the charger then its your battery.
When you say charging at 2 amps are you reading 2 amps on a meter or is it a 2 amp charger?
Even if you were to put a flatish battery on your bike you would need to ride around for at least 2 or 3 hours to get even a half decent charge into that battery without it being a hollow surface charge.

[tomm]

Read the service manual . . .

[muz]

Originally Posted by tomm

Read the service manual . . .

Exactly. That terminal voltage is what it should read after being disconnected from the charger for about 30 mins. It would be proportional to the chargers peak end voltage.

[Silent Sam]

..That's What Iv' been Saying !! cCCHEEEeeeesss