Bike not charging battery

[manicguitarist]

See my previous comments re not doing anything that might cause you harm - but then see the documents in the library re testing the charging system.

[LennonRVF400]

Thanks will have a look

[manicguitarist]

I apologise for being slightly terse - I just don't want folks coming back and saying "I did this and my bike blew up / I got electrocuted / there is a crater where my garage used to be"

:)

[LennonRVF400]

Ha no bother I'll let ye know the outcome

[LennonRVF400]

Aftern fully charging the battery it's gone down to 11 volts...put the battery back in the bike and it won't start at all now has no ignition lights but when I press start button the ignition lights come on but are faded... Bike won't even try start

[manicguitarist]

Sounds like your battery is dead.

[LennonRVF400]

Would it still not turn over at 11 volts?.. The fan is constantly on when turn on ignition an it never worked b4

[manicguitarist]

No - at 11v it indicates a duff battery. I'd wager than when you try to turn it over at that voltage - the battery drops to around 6v or so. Re the fan going on - sounds odd. Not sure what drives the fan - if it is from the ECU then low voltage could do that - but if it is a switch that is purely temperature related (as opposed to a temperature sensor going into the ECU) then it shouldn't fire up. There is something awry in your electrics for sure. Do you have a car? Try connecting jump leads from your car or car battery. See what that does.

[LennonRVF400]

Just connected jump leads and it fired up straight away...tested it with multi meter while running and was only gettin11.5 to 12 volts

[manicguitarist]

So - this tells me that your battery *is* dead. You need a new one. But also, the charging system (most probably the reg/rec) is also at fault and that is what caused your battery to be drained. A fully drained battery sulphates and doesn't recover.

So - test your charging system (follow the steps in the document library - it is straight forwards if you have a DVM) and see where the problem is. Get yourself fixed and go playing out when the sun comes back out!

Fitting a new reg/rec (if that is all it is) will take probably 3 days. 2 days waiting for it to arrive once ordered. 1 day for you to get up the courage to do it. And 30mins to do it.
:)