Drained Battery

I am having yet another problem with my bike. It just won't hold a charge. It has a brand new battery. If I leave it on the charger over night, it will start up fine, but only runs for 5-10 minutes until it is warm and then dies. It won't restart right away, and the battery seems noticably drained. I have to let it sit another five to ten minutes. I can usually get it to start again, but then have the same problem all over. By this time there is no charge left and I have to put it back on the charger overnight. From the other posts I've read, I'm guessing that it's the stator, but I don't get why it won't re-start right away. Has anyone else had this problem?

Your bike should be able to run on just the power of a new battery for more than 5 - 10 minutes..

It sounds like something is grounded out somewhere and causing a power drain.
I'd suggest checking all the electrical connections and all electrical components (lights, gauges, coils, etc.) for a short causing the power drain.

Not necessarily stator. More likely rectifier. If you ever pass current backwards through rectifier it is shot no ands, ifs, or buts about it.

These guys have good suggestions, check a few basic things first.

Do you have a testing meter? With the bike running at idle you should get 12.5-13 volts at the battery terminals at idle, and when you rev it to 3500 or so, it should read about 14.5 volts. Does it? If it does then your charging system should be ok, but keep going.

Go buy a small battery hydrometer and check your cells. You should have all the balls floating. It's a new battery, did you buy it or another owner? Check it to be sure, you may have a bad cell.

Like 4R said, check all connections, especially the ground from the battery to the engine. Make sure the connections on the ground cable are solid, grab them and try to twist them around, they should be solid.

Run the Electrosport charging test that can be found in the KZ filebase. You will need your meter, but this test, if followed, will tell you what's wrong. But you need a good charged battery first or don't bother.

If the battery and cables are good, it sounds like the regulator/rectifier is bad, or connections to that are bad, or the stator just isn't producing. The test will tell you. I found a bad connection to the rectifier on my bike from this test, and now it runs great. Yours will run great too.

Post edited by: OKC_Kent, at: 2006/03/07 16:55

Hi,

Do these suggestions apply to when the battery slowly slowly drains out over an 8 hour period?

It could be that it was just cold - I haven't tried the bike in the warm weather yet - but whenever I'd leave the bike sitting for 4 hours or more, it just has a tough time starting. I pretty much have to prime it by blowing into the carb vent tubes to get 'er fired, then rev the engine to 4K until it settles down enough to keep going on it's own.

I'm thinking that by reving it, I'm putting a charge back into the battery, which just boosts it enough to work.

Should I look into a new battery?

danke.

pyxen wrote:

Hi,

Do these suggestions apply to when the battery slowly slowly drains out over an 8 hour period?....Should I look into a new battery?
danke.

Well, I want to make sure we are all on the same page.
When you state it won't start, and we are talking about battery issues, then I assume that the engine does not turn over with the electric starter. That as opposed to meaning, in fact that it turns over fine, but does just that; as in, it does not start and then run as it should. The reason I ask the question like this is because 8hrs is a horrendously short time span for a battery to discharge unless you are leaving the trunk light, head light or some other high current device on.
Measure your leakage current to see if you have a problem. I can tell you how if need be.

What happens is that I hit the starter - and it comes to life, but then chokes and dies. It won't start again after that, for a few minutes - or until I blow into the carb vent tubes. That leads me to believe that it's carb related, but any time I've ridden it for a bit, it starts like a charm.

Once I do get it started, I have to rev it up to keep it going..then turn off the choke. I often have to mess with the idle screw to keep it going - and lower the idle once it climbs up on it's own.

I've disassembled the carbs and cleaned everything out, so I'm wondering if it's because of them instead..but I never (almost) get the oil/fuel lights on when I first turn the key unless I've had it on the charger for a bit beforehand, which leads me to believe it's a battery issue

I had some bad grounds, but have since fixed those. The problem continued until I put 'er away for the winter. It may have also been because of the cold..

I think this won't be easily diagonsed/fixed until I get to try the bike out this spring, unfortunately.

How do you measure leakage current?



Post edited by: pyxen, at: 2007/02/16 15:59

pyxen wrote:

How do you measure leakage current?

<br><br>Post edited by: pyxen, at: 2007/02/16 15:59

It's a cinch; you measure it with a current meter.:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
But seriously folks, there must be VERY thorough write ups on this in the filebase.
Pyxen
I have a ready procedure just for this. PM me and I will scoot you a copy. It is applicable for ANY vehicle for practical purposes.