Jump to content

Battery Killer...


daword2011

Recommended Posts

How bad did the battery fail in the bike, what was the voltage ?

I have seen batteries with a broken connection inside act normal, until even any type of real load was applied to it.

What happens is that the connection is touching enough to get voltage, but then opens up and disconnects when even a headlight wattage is applied to it.

this would show up as 0.0 volts.

If using a digital battery tester, it will not open up. It will look normal.

Problem is, it is rare, and for you to have TWO of them, is not likely.

but two batteries doing this? the volt meter reads .2 volts as soon as i turn on the ignition... turn it off and i get 12.7... and then i hook up the charger and i lost power from the battery, it will read somewhere like 90%, can't imagine it is good charging and draining a battery over and over grr this is frustrating. Going to start pulling small fuses to try and find where the fault is... then i am going to keep trying to screw around... i feel that since the voltage drops so much with only the ignition on then it has to be somewhere that is hot only when the ignition is on...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 63
  • Created
  • Last Reply

starter switch, and kill switch are OK ?

thats something i have checked, eventhough the battery voltage drops to .2 volts with the ignition on, when i depress the starter switch the .2 volts does travel to the relay haha.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi. You should start at fuse box , pull lights fuse turn ignition on check drop ? If same try. Fan fuse and retry the drop you have across the neg. is way to high From what you say your starter circuit is o.k. It,s telling you the fault is when ign. Switch on not when you press the starter. Hope this helps you

Link to comment
Share on other sites

ok i took a vid of some weird stuff... maybe yall will have input



Hi. You should start at fuse box , pull lights fuse turn ignition on check drop ? If same try. Fan fuse and retry the drop you have across the neg. is way to high From what you say your starter circuit is o.k. It,s telling you the fault is when ign. Switch on not when you press the starter. Hope this helps you

i pulled every fuse and no change... even pulled the big 30 amp inline and nothing there either... such a confusing issue...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

ok pulled the relay harness... boom no draw anymore, ok now i am narrowing it down! Posting two videos soon to show you the issues im having, that way you can get the idea. Some weird alien stuff is going down...



Hi. I you pulled the main fuse you have no power ? ? If you have pull all the fuse box and you turn the ing. On and the drop is there the disconnect the instrument cluster.

wait for the vids, then ask more questions haha you'll see what i mean in a minute

Link to comment
Share on other sites

First video of my issues... Some weird thins going on... Pardon the attempts at a humorous voice, exhausted and all i want is to fix my baby :(

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRu9fJEigac



Second video... So i narrowed it down to something around the relay... what are the two signal wires that come into it? Pardon if it is shakey

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_WY2ASYGfs&feature=youtu.be

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On Canadian bikes ( probably USA bikes,too) when you turn on the key-- the head and tail lights come on. When you hit the starter, though, I think the starter relay disables the lights so all the available power in the battery goes to the starter and ignition/fuel system to get the engine running . When you release the start button, the relay enables the lights again.

Hope this helps,

Jeff

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On Canadian bikes ( probably USA bikes,too) when you turn on the key-- the head and tail lights come on. When you hit the starter, though, I think the starter relay disables the lights so all the available power in the battery goes to the starter and ignition/fuel system to get the engine running . When you release the start button, the relay enables the lights again.

Hope this helps,

Jeff

yeah if i remember right there is an electro magnet in there that bounces back and forth to engage/disengage the lights/etc.

issue is when i turn the key on there are no lights at all, No whir of the pump, nothing. The system drops to .2volts. If i hook up the charger and charge it at the same time then when i turn the key the pump barley whines and the lights just barley come on (4 volts on the meter), thumb the starter and the bike turns off the headlights and tail lights but no starter turn over... I don't think the starter is the issue because the system gets heavily drained before i even press the starter button... I know it seems like the battery is dead but i have two tested (good) batteries that are both doing the same thing... grabbed the battery from my friends z1000 and same thing...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Does anyone have any idea whats going on? im stumped



That sounds alot like a problem with either the ignition switch, or the wiring associated with it.

GL,

Jeff

ok so is there a way to trouble shoot it? is there some continuity that i can check? obviously the power that is supposed to go to the lights and etc is getting stolen and taken somewhere... how can i find it? And do the ignitions commonly fail? there is only 3 wires going to the relay, and when i disconnect that one plug the drainage stops... so its not the power wire because i ohmed it out and it was fine... now either the starter relay is shorting or the other two wires coming in are messing it up correct?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Have you got a wiring diagram? I think the battery power goes to the key swtch, ( check with key in the off position)- should be close to 12v. Then, when you turn the ignition on, power should go to the lights( or light relay if there is one, and the starter switch).

Maybe disconnect the key switch, and with the ohmmeter , check for a short to ground in the associated wiring. Has the bike suffered any damage recently? look for pinched wires, damaged connectors, etc.

GL,

Jeff

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Have you got a wiring diagram? I think the battery power goes to the key swtch, ( check with key in the off position)- should be close to 12v. Then, when you turn the ignition on, power should go to the lights( or light relay if there is one, and the starter switch).

Maybe disconnect the key switch, and with the ohmmeter , check for a short to ground in the associated wiring. Has the bike suffered any damage recently? look for pinched wires, damaged connectors, etc.

GL,

Jeff

Did you watch the video? what would cause that step up in the power?

literally ride it every day, no issues for the 8,000 miles that i have had it. No pinched wires anywhere that i can find... It is just weird how it sucks the power out of it... And i have the wiring diagram but i could stare at it forever and maybe get the slightest information from it... i used it to trace the other two wires from the starter relay to the clutch switch and the starter button... I just need a freakin electrician to look at it and figure it out...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Id hook everything back up, and fully charge the battery with the battery cables diconnected. then with the negative cable hooked back up measure the amperage draw, with key off from postive battery post on battery to the disconnected positive battery cable. You have to select amperage on the meter( negative side of meter should be on positve post)positive on the cable. The draw should be less than 1 amp. if its haigher then you know theres a short somewhere, but the bike natually draws some amperage in key off mode, via clock and cluster.

Is it easy to unplug the headlights, that would also take that draw out of the equation when doing future checks.. but if you have a hard short it should be popping fuses.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Unlikely, but it could be the ignition switch itself. Disconnect the connector from the switch and see what gives-- something is dumping the power to ground.

GL,

Jeff

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Id hook everything back up, and fully charge the battery with the battery cables diconnected. then with the negative cable hooked back up measure the amperage draw, with key off from postive battery post on battery to the disconnected positive battery cable. You have to select amperage on the meter( negative side of meter should be on positve post)positive on the cable. The draw should be less than 1 amp. if its haigher then you know theres a short somewhere, but the bike natually draws some amperage in key off mode, via clock and cluster.

Is it easy to unplug the headlights, that would also take that draw out of the equation when doing future checks.. but if you have a hard short it should be popping fuses.

tried jumping it and instead of absolutely nothing i get a slight dim lighting of the whole bike haha and then just clicking from the relay. As for the draw it is constantly reading 4.3 amps of draw... i can imagine that doesn't help the battery turn the bike over... so that means i have a "soft" fault or short?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The agm's have to be atleast 12.8v in standby, anything below they are garbage, charge the battery , once fully charged if it cant hold above 12.8 volt after a couple hours, whether you have more than 1 problem the battery is crap.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The agm's have to be atleast 12.8v in standby, anything below they are garbage, charge the battery , once fully charged if it cant hold above 12.8 volt after a couple hours, whether you have more than 1 problem the battery is crap.

it was holding 12.5 because ive been screwing with everything the whole time, after charging it it holds a constant 12.77 volts, is that ok?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The agm's have to be atleast 12.8v in standby, anything below they are garbage, charge the battery , once fully charged if it cant hold above 12.8 volt after a couple hours, whether you have more than 1 problem the battery is crap.

it was holding 12.5 because ive been screwing with everything the whole time, after charging it it holds a constant 12.77 volts, is that ok?

12.7 volt on an agm is very marginal to a dud, a good agm will hold abouve 13 volts for weeeks and weeks in standby, I understand your testing is wearing down on the battery, Im just saying. after a full charge any AGM thats below 12.8 volt is very suspect. Now this is a 5th gen maybe older battery technology, and doesnt behave like 6th gen batteries.

Now if you fully charge it, it should go above 13 volt, maybe after a couple hours it drop to 12.8v (and thats still a sign of a aging battery). But if you cant even get the battery to 13 volt, thats also a sign of battery issue. Im not saying the battery is your only issue, but the very little room to play with the vfr battery for testing. Ive seen vfr agm batteries you leave the lights on for 40 seconds, they instantly loose enough Ummph to no longer turn the motor over, and they were reading right were your battery is reading.

However, if you cant jump from a car battery, then you have additional wiring issues. But since your having to replentish the battery alot, id stick to the car battery for testing, so the the measly vfr battery doesnt run out of juice in the testing process.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The agm's have to be atleast 12.8v in standby, anything below they are garbage, charge the battery , once fully charged if it cant hold above 12.8 volt after a couple hours, whether you have more than 1 problem the battery is crap.

it was holding 12.5 because ive been screwing with everything the whole time, after charging it it holds a constant 12.77 volts, is that ok?

12.7 volt on an agm is very marginal to a dud, a good agm will hold abouve 13 volts for weeeks and weeks in standby, I understand your testing is wearing down on the battery, Im just saying. after a full charge any AGM thats below 12.8 volt is very suspect. Now this is a 5th gen maybe older battery technology, and doesnt behave like 6th gen batteries.

Now if you fully charge it, it should go above 13 volt, maybe after a couple hours it drop to 12.8v (and thats still a sign of a aging battery). But if you cant even get the battery to 13 volt, thats also a sign of battery issue. Im not saying the battery is your only issue, but the very little room to play with the vfr battery for testing. Ive seen vfr agm batteries you leave the lights on for 40 seconds, they instantly loose enough Ummph to no longer turn the motor over, and they were reading right were your battery is reading.

However, if you cant jump from a car battery, then you have additional wiring issues. But since your having to replentish the battery alot, id stick to the car battery for testing, so the the measly vfr battery doesnt run out of juice in the testing process.

ok thanks ill do more tinkering

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.


×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy.