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Bad battery cell or someting worse?


whiteknuckles

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My year old battery appears to be dead.  I have a 5 month old Shindengen FH020AA R&R  from Roadstercycle that generates 14.2 V when my bike is running (inline volt meter verified).  I recently noticed that with my bike running, my voltmeter readout was jumping from between 8v to 14.2v.  My bike even suddenly died, which I attributed to a bad Garmin GPS I had hardwired to my bike.  I disconnected the Garmin and thought my problem was fixed, but no.  I've charged my battery on both a trickle charger and a 2A charger.  Both show the battery to be fully charged within minutes of connecting it up, but once I connect it to my bike, the voltage drops from 12v to 8.5v within moments and the bike wont turn over.  I can bump start it and see the R&R is generating 14.2v, but once I turn of the ignition and try to start it again, the voltmeter reads 8.4v.

My question is, given the R&R is generating 14.2v when the engine is running,  does this appear to be a bad battery?

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The fact you see the voltage bouncing around would suggest that you may have a loose connection rather than a failing battery, but I would not rule that our either. If you've not already done so I would be checking over the battery terminals and also the earth strap connection to the frame, for any looseness or corrosion. There should be an earth connection from the RR as well to the frame.

 

A dodgy battery that shows "fully charged" on a charger can have a significant internal short that might show a healthy voltage (13.0-13.2V according to the service manual) but have insufficient current carrying capacity to do more than make the solenoid click. 

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  • 4 weeks later...
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You have a bad battery. Bad cell will cause what you are describing. On bike load test can be performed by connecting a volt meter to your battery, turn kill switch off and crank started for 10 seconds. If voltage drops below 9 volts you have a bad battery. On a side note I buy my batteries from Walmart and replace them once a year under warranty. I take it in tell them its bad and they give me a new one. They don't even check it!  Good luck hope this helps.

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  • 3 months later...
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On 23 September 2018 at 12:31 AM, burnes45 said:

You have a bad battery. Bad cell will cause what you are describing. On bike load test can be performed by connecting a volt meter to your battery, turn kill switch off and crank started for 10 seconds. If voltage drops below 9 volts you have a bad battery. On a side note I buy my batteries from Walmart and replace them once a year under warranty. I take it in tell them its bad and they give me a new one. They don't even check it!  Good luck hope this helps.

Kill switch activated = No cranking.(for a 6gen)

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58 minutes ago, Grum said:

Kill switch activated = No cranking.(for a 6gen)

If my memory serves me correctly it is the same for 5gen. I think the FI light stays on until the switch is turned on.

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I think all of us have been burned by the kill switch. After I put my bar risers on my kill switch would get turned off when the bars were turned full lock. Did not happen until I parked the bike and turned the bars. When it happened the first time I thought messed something up putting the bars on. 

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