bike doesn't want to go!

[milo]

I took my GS out of the garage the other day. Grabbed the battery off the Tender Jr., dropped it in the bike, and it fired up no problem. Took a while to wamr up, but I think that's because it's running lean and the carbs need cleaning.

So with the slightest bit of choke I take off down the street. It pulls strong and loud, feels good after 2+ months of not riding. A couple blocks away, while riding straight, at a steady speed with steady throttle and clutch out, the revs suddenly drop and I lurch forward... it feels like a very poorly executed downshift. I add some throttle to get thing smooth again, but a block later it happens again, and this time the engine dies. I coast over to the side; I've got no lights or anything.

I turn everything off, count to 60, and I've got a headlight and indicators again. It starts up again, pulls away strong again, and three blocks later shuts down again.

My thinking is, this is a battery issue. It's not holding enough of a charge to keep the bike alive, even with the engine on.  Sound right?  I tried to check the fluid level in the battery, but it's so grimy that even held up to the sky I can't see it. Question one: if I just need to add some distilled water to it, how high should the level be?

On the other hand, I don't know how good this battery is in general. I know the prior owner took a spill that upset the battery, because there are some small acid stains on the frame under the seat. Question two: if I want to buy a new battery, about how much does it cost?  (NB, there is no Wal-Mart near me.)

[pnaberhaus]

Milo,

Your post description describes many of the symptoms of a battery "gone bad". So dirty that you can't see the electolyte level
After being on a slow charger, the battery can't maintain the bike's elecrical needs Evidence of a prior spill, and possibly no immediate distilled water replenisment I'd say you're right about needing a new battery.

Last week on the Forum, there was a rather lengthy post about the GS500's battery needs. It shouldn't be to hard to scroll down a few pages and find it. Some good info and insight were on that post.

[pnaberhaus]

Milo,
Read "Just a dead battery", last posted on March 10. I'd post the connection to it, but don't know how!

[Alphamazing]

http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=24575.0

[pnaberhaus]

Alpha, now don't do that and NOT let me know how! I must be missing something in the "instruction manual"

[Wrecent_Wryder]

I3

[milo]

Well, this passage from the above-referenced thread worried me a bit:

The mechanic said that Suzuki electrical systems all run through an unreliable central relay that is located under the seat along the right side of the frame/subframe. This relay has a tendency to short out and I had the exact same symptoms. I thought it was a dead battery - the electrical system wouldn't work sometimes and I got the bike working with jumpstarts, kinda. Later, I found out I could get the electrical system working when I juggled the relay but eventually the relay died altogether.

I had an extremely similar problem last year.  I would turn the key to on, get strong electricals, and then when I pressed the starter button I'd hear a soft *click* from beneath my right butt-cheek, and everything would cut out. I eventually noticed a small relay that's kind of separate from the big bundle of wires coming from the battery, like a little plug that lets two wires to snap together. It's located right about where the click came from. When I separated the two ends, all the electrical systems worked except the ignition button. When I snapped them back together, the starter button would work but would (unreliably) cause a short and shut the whole system down, as described above.

It only happened once in a while, and I could always get the bike started after a couple minutes of removing the seat and jiggling the wires, so I decided to wait until this year to deal with it. Then I noticed that the connection to the negative battery terminal was loose; after I tightened it the problem never happened again... but that was right before I garaged the bike for the winter, so it doesn't really decide the issue - especially since the negative terminal is on the left and the click came from the right.

However, that problem seems like a short circuit connected to the starter button, and would never affect the bike once it was moving. The behavior I saw yesterday seems like a more general battery problem. I don't think it's to do with the connections at the terminals, because it happened immediately after I reinstalled the battery and tightened those screws.