Battery drain???

[28hodge]

Got a slight problem at the minute and im unsure as to whts happeneing.

Its on a trackbike so it isnt a major problem just an annoyance, the battery keeps draining its self right down to the extent that if i put the ignition to on and press the starter i dont even get a click.

First noticed it on a trackday at anglesey, loaded the bike the night before after leaving the battery on the charger for a couple of hours to make sure it was nicely full/topped up. Took it out the van on sat morn at anglesey and it was flat as you like. Now i know it had charge when we loaded it as my mates dad accidently thumbed the starter as we were loading it, strapping it in on fri night, te ignition switch was off so it never fired but it still turned over. in the space of 12hours its was flat?

Now i didnt tink much of it t the time as i thought that maybe the ignition had got knocked to on and so it had been sat with the ignition on all night and that would be the reason.

Bumped it at the trackday for the first session and as i still have the charging circuit it was fine all day after that, started on the button every time.

Came home left it in the van over night and unloaded it on sunday wentto start it to see and again flat as a runover hedgehog, and this timethe ignition was 100% turned to off!!!

Charged it the following weekend started it and ran it alls fine, left it again till last night in the garage, and came t start it, no go???

Is something draining the battery and running it down, is that even possible with the ignition set to off?? or am i looking for a worn wire that is shorting and draining the battery?

The battery is only maybe 4months old and whilst i havent looked after it brilliantly, ie leaving it on optimate etc ive still kept it well enough to mean that it shouldnt be fubar'd this quick??

Any ideas hints or tips to check, electrics are my main weakness so please feel free to teach me.

thanks

[28hodge]

Found a post from Neo stating the below,is this my first checks??

So...

Disconnect the earth lead from the bike, put your multimeter to AMP testing. Make sure ignition is switched off.

Go from where the earht lead was with one probe to the earth lead with the other. Note the current drain on the battery.

You can also test the battery by fully charging it with a bike charger and leaving it disconnected from the bike for a few days then see if it still has the power to start the bike (an internal short will drain the battery)

Test the altenator and reg/rec after the above to make sure there both outputting voltages within tolerance.

You should know the cause then :-)

[Neosophist]

The current leak test is a good way to check if there is an electrical short draining the battery.

You should only get a few ma or even 0, if you have anythign higher then there is something leeching power from the battery.

If you don't have a current drain then it's possible the battery is knackered and draining itself.

To test this you can fully charge the battery and leave it disconnected from the bike, and try it after a few days.

[magg]

Just a little history, do you keep the battery on charge between track days and do you charge the battery during track days?

[Neosophist]

Just a little history, do you keep the battery on charge between track days and do you charge the battery during track days?

First noticed it on a trackday at anglesey, loaded the bike the night before after leaving the battery on the charger for a couple of hours to make sure it was nicely full/topped up. Took it out the van on sat morn at anglesey and it was flat as you like. Now i know it had charge when we loaded it as my mates dad accidently thumbed the starter as we were loading it, strapping it in on fri night, te ignition switch was off so it never fired but it still turned over. in the space of 12hours its was flat?

[magg]

Yes but hodge28 says at one point he left the battery in the discharged state for a week before recharging. This would not help the state of the battery. May be there have been other occasions when the battery has been left discharged for an extended period.

[Neosophist]

Yes thats a good point, leaving a battery in a state of deep discharge will not do it any good, hence the reason I said test the battery's charge holding capacity after eliminating current drain.

If the bike isn't total loss then following the elimination of either one of the above then an electrical system check is needed.

It's possible this originated from the battery just being old and worn out, or from being left flat too long or from something else all together.

[28hodge]

Yeah gotta admit it has gone completely flat and I've not looked after it perfectly, charged it last night and taken it off the bike, I'll see if it holds a charge, have a feeling it won't, as I don't need it to start every morning it's not a massive problem but a niggling elec fault could be so just wanted to now how to check it, charging system seems good as after I bumped it off it had enough charge in it all day to start up.

[magg]

Do you have the OEM road headlights or a couple of 60 watt lamps, if so after you fully charge the battery connect the lamps across the battery together with a multimeter,. If the battery is a ok the voltage should remain above 12 volts for a few hours easy. A dud battery will fall below 12 volts in maybe less than 30 minutes, depending on how stuffed it is.

[28hodge]

I'm working on the basis that it went flat overnight last time so will put it back on the bike tomo morn and see if it fires up if not I'll put some charge into it first thing then it's off to the dyno to see what it's making.

I think it's the battery the more I think about it now, seems weird how it's suddenly completely gone in a week tho, like I say with it being a trackbike it's not a complete nightmare more just a bit irritating having to bump it first thing.

We shall see