Battery going flat went left at night

[StrayAlien]

Hi all,

All help appreciated.

Two weekends ago: I charged the battery Sunday night. At the track on Monday (the day after) the battery seemed to not have enough juice to do anything. Just a click sound when I hit the starter button. Bummer. It meant two days of jump starting the bike before each track session.

Battery might be knackered. So, I got a new one at short notice. It weighs a tonne.

Saturday night this weekend gone: New battery started the bike fine (it fired into life like a happy puppy) but I charged it just in case and installed it in bike. 8am the next morning at the track (yesterday) - same. No life, just a faint click when I hit the starter button. I put battery on charge and charger light went green after 30 mins or so.

For the rest of the day it struggled and sounded less-than-lively but did fire.

So I left it overnight to see how it sounded after a day and when I hit the starter today it sounded pretty lifeless - it did turn over and not just click but was pretty dead.

Any hints? This was a new battery and was fully charged and then the next morning had no life.

WARNING WARNING WARNING: I am utterly totally completely electrically retarded. Be gentle.

Greg.

[speedy231278]

So, you put a brand new, completely charged battery on the bike one night, started it (presumably not running very long) then the next morning it was flat? If so, I'd remove the battery and check the the wiring loom for shorts. Get a multimeter, set to milliAmps, and measure across the battery terminals with the ignition switched off. If you get a reading of more than just a handful of mA, then there's a short circuit somewhere and the battery is is being discharged. It's then a matter of tracing the short, which could be anything from dead easy to nigh on impossible to find...

If, on the other hand, you ran the bike for quite a while, it may be possible that the charging system isn't charging (assuming you're not running total loss), in which check it as per the tons of threads and document in the docs section of the website....

[Neosophist]

Right idea but thats now how you do a current leak test.

Set your multimeter to amps.. start at the largest setting and work downwards to the smallest if its manual.

Disconnect the negative lead from the battery and have the ignition switched off.

Put the one lead from the meter onto the negative lead and the other lead to the battery negatve (your connecting the battery back up via the multimeter if you can visualise that)

<-ve Terminal>~~~~~[Multi Meter]~~~~~~~~<disconnected -ve lead>

If you have anything on the scale the bike is leaking current (taking electricity when switched off).. possibly a short circuit.

If not then theres a chance its a knackered battery discharging itself.. is the bike charging ok? If its charging too much, even after 10 minutes you can destroy a new battery.

[speedy231278]

It appears I have been given duff advice then! On reflection, I should have wondered where the current is supposed to come from if you stick the meter across the disconnected battery leads..... lol

[magg]

Is your track bike total lose or do you run the OEM charging system. What is the battery voltage when trying to start the engine, particularly when the engine is reluctant to crank.

[Morespeedvicar]

you can do it speeys way if select resistance rather than amps, there should be infinate resistance across battery connectors (with the battery disconected and ignition off) or nearly anyway, sometimes the reg/rec will have a high resistance between the outputs.
Cheers
Ian

[StrayAlien]

Hi all. Thanks. I'll do the tests and post results back here.

Just for more info as requested. Bike has EOM charging and is not total loss.

[28hodge]

Its a track bike yeah?

Do you have an ignition switch still? or is your right hand, run/off switch the ignition? basically a live from fuse box the right hand switch.

Mine is like this, i have no ignition so in effect my temp gauge is permenantly live and acts as a parsidic drain on the battery, if i leave the battery connected, even a brand new one, over night it will be dead come the morning.

i fitted an anderson powerpole connector into the battery live and negative cable to allow me to leave the battery installed and simply disconnect the powerpole rendering the battery disconnected.

If needs be i can get some pics to help explain, but if you google anderson powerpole connector you'll get the picture.

[StrayAlien]

Actually, I do not have an ignition switch - the right hand kill switch has been wired as an off/on switch. It was like that when I got the bike.

But .. the temp readout I have has its won on/off switch. I am not sure if this is just for the readout or it does more. But I have left the bike sometimes for weeks with a battery in and it has been fine to start. So my feeling is this is something new.

I do like the idea of the quick disconnect tho.

I'll be in the shed tonight taking some read as per the above. Is there any way I can tell if the temp sensor is the culprit?

[Neosophist]

Do as I said

With your ignition switch off and temperature switch off check for current draw on the battery.

If you switch the switch on for the temperature gauge only after you have the meter connected up you should see the current jump up. Indicating that it isnt the problem.

See how much current the bike is drawing first.