So.. I noticed that, along with my other woes... i was so distracted when I corralled my bike, I also left the ignition on.
For days.
I've noticed that when I do this sort of thing with a car battery, it never really holds a charge properly, and its time to get a new one.
Is it pretty much the same thing with bike batteries?
You've probably taken some life out of it and maybe even terminated it prematurely but if you have (or have access to) a staged trickle charger give it a run. Nothing to lose.
Hmmm.... left it ON?
I always take my key with me. Maybe you should start that habit. Worst you can do then is leave it in park.
And you do that to cars, too?
Put it on a 12V slow charger (1 amp hour I think), and give it a try. If it's dead, go and buy a Yuasa and forget about it for another 4 or so years.
Leaving a lead-acid battery on until it drains doesn't actually kill it, just corrodes the plates inside and evaporates some electrolyte inside (why sealed batteries are so good!).
If you have access to one or you can buy one yourself (if you do this often enough) a desulfator that goes inline with a good trickle charger. I've got one of these setups in my garage for charging open lead acids, and it extends the life by a lot.
If you don't have this, or access to one, check your electrolyte levels in the battery. If they're only a little low, top them up with deionized water (buy this specifically, tap water will NOT work!) or if very low, buy battery electrolyte to top up, then charge the battery and she should be good for a while.
Lead acid batteries are actually pretty hard to kill. :thumb:
i found some part numbers on the battery. Looks like its a "stock" one, surprisingly.
(YB10L-B2, Yuasa)
I have a car battery charger, that claims it can also do motorcycle batteries on the label. but lacks explicit instructions.
Obviously, I want the "slow charge", not the fast charge. But do I need "maintainance free" switch, or "deep cycle/gel" switch, anyone know?
Edit: well, I took a gamble, and put it on "maint free", based on other net reading that I did in the last hour.
The "slow charge" option, is 2amp. (oops.. that's over spec. officially, charge amps =1.1)
Seems to be working. The charger lies, and says the battery is already "charged" right from the beginning... but leaving it on for an hour, has brought it up from 6V, to around 12V.
It doesnt have enough charge to actually crank, though, so guess I'll leave it on longer.
Also.. doing some google searches, Sears claims that "UB10L-B2" is an upgrade to the standard Yuasa one
http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_SPM187922202P?sid=IDx20070921x00003a&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=SPM187922202
Anyone used these?
It woud seem by the picture to be a pure stock replacement drop-in
It comes down to:
1.Do I want a battery that will work today, even though I may need a tender next month and another batter next year, and get by for $35
2. Do I never want to worry about a battery again, even though I may have to settle for cheap beers for a while because I spent $99 or $150 for a top of the line battery
I think all the time wasted deciding what to get should be worth something. If the battery is toast, then go buy a quality sealed battery or a Shorai for $99 or the more powerful one for $150 and close the case on what battery to get.
People who "try" other batteries or want to "get by as cheap as possible" are the ones always mentioning they use a battery tender and have future battery & starting problems. "They say it should work" - I'm not taking that chance.
The topic of what battery to buy has been covered countless times. Basically comes down to:
1. Go cheap. Expect problems and suddenly you have to push start. Have a good battery tender.
(cheap battery + cost of battery tender = cost of a better battery! )
2. Go better - sealed gel battery. Will last a longtime. No acid to rot away your bike.
3. Go best: Shorai - top of the line. Holds a charge for a year. Sell your battery tender to a person who does #1
Quote from: adidasguy on June 05, 2012, 02:33:55 PM
The topic of what battery to buy has been covered countless times. Basically comes down to:
1. Go cheap. Expect problems and suddenly you have to push start. Have a good battery tender.
(cheap battery + cost of battery tender = cost of a better battery! )
2. Go better - sealed gel battery. Will last a longtime. No acid to rot away your bike.
...
as mentioned, I have a "stock" yuasa, non-sealed, non-gel, probably quite old battery.
I've never had to push start it, and never used a tender on it.
I do (or have up until now) ride my bike at least once every 2 weeks.
My SV650 had a Yuasa battery in it. It's an 02...it was the original battery. Lasted 10 years before it died. Bike only had 17k miles on it.
Replaced with AGM (same thing as gel, AFAIK) battery from walmart. Haven't had a problem since. Walmart only sells 2 AGM batteries that I know of, and neither one of them fits the GS, unfortunately. You'd be fine with another Yuasa battery, IMO.
Any luck dude?
Thanks for the check in.
I havent actually tried it yet; waiting for some replacement parts, to try out the bike. But I guess I could see if it is able to start the engine while I wait, tonight. Would be silly to do all the work on the bike, and then not be able to start it! :-p
well... didnt check it that night. But checked it today.
half a second of turning, followed by click-click-click...
So I threw it on the charger for another hour.
This time.. it started! Woo!
Wonder how long it will actually hold charge for though.
What's the proceedure for a jumpstart? If I ride it into the office, and the battery dies before I can ride home... is it going to blow out something, if I have a facilities person hook up a jumpstart type thingie to my battery poles to allow me to start it?
Quote from: Phil B on June 12, 2012, 09:26:51 PM
well... didnt check it that night. But checked it today.
half a second of turning, followed by click-click-click...
So I threw it on the charger for another hour.
This time.. it started! Woo!
Wonder how long it will actually hold charge for though.
What's the proceedure for a jumpstart? If I ride it into the office, and the battery dies before I can ride home... is it going to blow out something, if I have a facilities person hook up a jumpstart type thingie to my battery poles to allow me to start it?
Same as you would for a car. If you were trying to jump start from a vehicle with jumper cables, all you would need to do is have them open their hood, put black to black and red to red (positive to positive, negative to negative). Not necessary to have them start their car and probably best they didn't. Then you'd lift the seat on your bike, connect positive to positive, negative to negative (ground). Same thing with a jumpstart battery box thing. Just connect it to the battery terminals...no need to do anything else.
It's that simple.
It's easy to test the battery. Start the bike, take it for a ride, then come home. Turn the bike off, connect multimeter to the battery, read voltage with bike not running. Should be above 12v. Ideally about above 12 but not more than 14. Then, with the multimeter still attached, turn the engine over. If the voltage drops below 10v (shouldn't drop much at all, if it's still good), you'll know the battery is toast. Keep in mind, riding the bike with a bad battery can ruin the voltage R/R (rectifier/regulator).
I've looked at the battery during cranking. (One of these days I'll finish the video on electrical system.) It can drop down while cranking but should recover really fast when you let up on the starter. The drop when cranking has to do with the load, battery condition and available cranking amps of the battery. A bad battery will drop more and take longer to recover. A good 14ah battery will not drop as much as a good 9ah battery. It is just how much reserve power the battery has.
One way I like to check a battery is to turn the bike off. Read the voltage. Probably closer to 13v. Then wait a while and check again. Then check again later (like in the morning?).
The battery should drop very little, if any, after sitting. If it drops while sitting with no load then it can't hold a charge.
Quote from: adidasguy on June 12, 2012, 10:42:47 PM
I've looked at the battery during cranking. (One of these days I'll finish the video on electrical system.) It can drop down while cranking but should recover really fast when you let up on the starter. The drop when cranking has to do with the load, battery condition and available cranking amps of the battery. A bad battery will drop more and take longer to recover. A good 14ah battery will not drop as much as a good 9ah battery. It is just how much reserve power the battery has.
One way I like to check a battery is to turn the bike off. Read the voltage. Probably closer to 13v. Then wait a while and check again. Then check again later (like in the morning?).
The battery should drop very little, if any, after sitting. If it drops while sitting with no load then it can't hold a charge.
Not to dispute you Adidas, but sometimes that's not always a good indicator. Then again, neither is voltage drop I guess.
On several batteries that I've had over the years...everything was fine one day, then the next...dead. I had that happen on my 07, I know I've told the story numerous times.
Even happened on my truck once. Started up every day just like normal then one day...nothing. Got a jump, was fine for a while...then nothing.
I guess what it boils down to is...just run it. If it seems okay, then you're good. If you notice any indication that it doesn't want to start, or struggles, after sitting for a few hours or a few days even, then you know it's bad. Good batteries should be able to hold a charge for a while. Hell, the cheap-ass Everstart (made by Johnson Controls) battery we bought from Walmart for the DL1000 sat for damn close to a year and still had plenty of juice to crank that big v-twin.
Battery on my SV was like that. Seemed fine...cranked perfectly every day for a few weeks or something...then out of nowhere I went to start it one morning (was kind of cold, about 45°F), and it BARELY turned over. Luckily I was able to get it to start. It was alright...everything seemed fine. Then it did it again when it was cold so I figured hey...it's just a little weak because it's cold. Well, I left it long enough and one day I went into Walmart and came back out and the bike just...I mean, that battery had one last turn over left in it before it was dead. Luckily I got the bike to start and went home and then went and bought another battery for it - ironically enough, another Everstart AGM battery, which to this day has not let me down.
A lead acid battery non sealed type that has been completely discarged ... I know of one guy that uses this trick, charge them @ 24v but low current put on the charger upside down with the vent hole plugged. However even he has had a few batteries get hot and swell, so you cant put it on and leave. The thing should get warm but not hot, it should get the electrolyte moving as it were, and that is where the upside down comes in. I have heard some battery chargers like this one I have when they are in the desulphate more do put out near 22v.
Cool.
Buddha.
Wow. well good thing mine wasnt "completely" discharged ;)
even when I got no lights on the indicator panel, and no noise when i turned the key... it still registered at 6V.
Surprising.
Quote from: Phil B on June 13, 2012, 06:45:41 AM
Wow. well good thing mine wasnt "completely" discharged ;)
even when I got no lights on the indicator panel, and no noise when i turned the key... it still registered at 6V.
Surprising.
Somebody correct me if I'm wrong but I believe the R/R simply shuts the power off if the voltage drops enough.
If nothing else, the reason why nothing comes on is because everything on the bike is 12v (sans the ignition).
The voltage regulator does nothing from battery to bike.
It is from stator to battery - to regulate the stator electricity and convert the AC into DC.
Check the wiring diagram.
Battery goes to fuse mounted on starter relay. Then goes to rest of bike.
Regulator connects to stator (3 wires) then to battery (2 wires).
Oh, in answer to your question I am correcting you because you are wrong :flipoff:
Quote from: adidasguy on June 13, 2012, 11:16:54 AM
The voltage regulator does nothing from battery to bike.
It is from stator to battery - to regulate the stator electricity and convert the AC into DC.
Check the wiring diagram.
Battery goes to fuse mounted on starter relay. Then goes to rest of bike.
Regulator connects to stator (3 wires) then to battery (2 wires).
Oh, in answer to your question I am correcting you because you are wrong :flipoff:
:P I believe you. Lol, is that a jab at me from way back over the LEDs? I was just reading those old posts last night!
Quote from: Kijona on June 13, 2012, 01:02:54 PM
:P I believe you. Lol, is that a jab at me from way back over the LEDs? I was just reading those old posts last night!
No, there are 2 other people I made a modification to the wiring harness for the 2 diodes. They were supposed to return their original indicator harness in replacement for the one I modified. So I'm out 2 gauge wiring harnesses and can't (won't) do that modification anymore. I have to buy 2 more gauge wiring harnesses for my own projects now.
What? You're saying you screwed me over about something? Better remind me what it was so I can get testy about it :flipoff:
Quote from: adidasguy on June 13, 2012, 04:56:45 PM
Quote from: Kijona on June 13, 2012, 01:02:54 PM
:P I believe you. Lol, is that a jab at me from way back over the LEDs? I was just reading those old posts last night!
No, there are 2 other people I made a modification to the wiring harness for the 2 diodes. They were supposed to return their original indicator harness in replacement for the one I modified. So I'm out 2 gauge wiring harnesses and can't (won't) do that modification anymore. I have to buy 2 more gauge wiring harnesses for my own projects now.
What? You're saying you screwed me over about something? Better remind me what it was so I can get testy about it :flipoff:
Noooo no no!