battery problem?

[gs850cafe]

i have a newer ricks stator, shindigen r/r good connections etc...

did the stator tests and so on...battert wong go past 13v at rev.

battery has never had a tender etc through winters, been hard winter starts etc etc...its been dead a few times and jumped it an took off...

is it possible the battery wont charge past the 13.04 v ?

[almarconi]

If the battery is questionable then replace it. From what you have described it is possible the battery is damaged. You should use a known good battery when doing charging system tests.

[BassCliff]

Hi,

How old and what type of battery?


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

[posplayr]

We keep relearning the same stuff over and over

Or not

[gs850cafe]

Hi,

How old and what type of battery?


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

just a crappy duralast... maybe 5 months old

and posplayr.. the reason i ask is cause not all of us can shell out 50 bucks for a battery...in my case in broke, i have to borrow money to even eat half the time..so yea if im not sure about something i ask

[BassCliff]

Hi,

If properly initialized, even a cheap lead-acid battery should last 2-3 years. Some batteries don't like to be completely discharged (like AGM?) and will never perform properly afterwards. Can you take the battery to a shop or auto parts store and have it load tested?

What type of battery do you have? Lead acid? Sealed (no maintenence) lead acid? AGM? Lithium Ion? Nickel Cadmium?

Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

[posplayr]

just a crappy duralast... maybe 5 months old

and posplayr.. the reason i ask is cause not all of us can shell out 50 bucks for a battery...in my case in broke, i have to borrow money to even eat half the time..so yea if im not sure about something i ask

I'm referring more to the fact that you claim to have done all tests but the battery will not charge beyond 13.0 and you donot understand why. The stator pages phase A require a good battery to perform the test, so unless you determined if you have a good battery then throw out that.

Do you know how to test for a good battery without having to buy one

In the old days you could actually take absttery to a shop znd they will test it for you with a load tester.


Have you ever heard of a "Quick Test"?

[eil]

Lead-acid batteries don't like to be deeply discharged. If you've done it a few times, or if it's sat discharged for some time, it might be shot.

Take it to any auto parts store and they'll check it for free. (Although I'm not 100% sure they can test smaller powersports batteries without blowing them up, so ask first.)

Or buy a load tester from HF for $15 and never be unsure again.

[posplayr]

Lead-acid batteries don't like to be deeply discharged. If you've done it a few times, or if it's sat discharged for some time, it might be shot.

Take it to any auto parts store and they'll check it for free. (Although I'm not 100% sure they can test smaller powersports batteries without blowing them up, so ask first.)

Or buy a load tester from HF for $15 and never be unsure again.

Without spending any money and using his Volt meter he can do a "Quick Test" in 5 minutes.

[Gorminrider]

...yes, you've beat your battery up, by not maintaining it through the winter. It's not possible for a useable motorcycle battery to only show 13.04 volts while being properly charged.
Battery "Useable"?
...The worst:The battery is badly sulfated, -cell could be shorted out, making it a 10 Volt battery because each cell =2 volts. "at rest" (after 12-24 hours disconnected)....This battery will overtax your charging system, because it badly wants to make it to be +/- 14.8 volts and it never will so it's always running at max output. That partly explains why you need a decent battery-you can make the problem worse. (maybe feel the regulator for a quick test. really Hot? STOP!!!(or too late...)

But, if the battery is just partly sulfated (almost guaranteed, given your OP), your "13.04" volts points to
A) a crummy voltmeter(test it on other known dc voltages)
B) something wrong with the charging system...
You should be able to run a headlight and brakelight without the motor running for a period. You should be start the bike AFTER that. Otherwise, you should not go further than around the block.
Poor folk need be clever. Too late now, but you can make a suitable trickle charger from many ac/dc power adapters.

[eil]

Without spending any money and using his Volt meter he can do a "Quick Test" in 5 minutes.

Not strictly true... a bad battery can still read 12V with a voltmeter. In order to get an accurate reading, you need to put a significant current load on it as well, which is what the $15 HF battery tester does.

Unless you're talking about some other kind of test that uses a voltmeter but also puts a load on the battery.

[posplayr]

Not strictly true... a bad battery can still read 12V with a voltmeter. In order to get an accurate reading, you need to put a significant current load on it as well, which is what the $15 HF battery tester does.

Unless you're talking about some other kind of test that uses a voltmeter but also puts a load on the battery.

" Quick Test" http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum...92#post1272192

The first thing is to put a standard GS load on the battery by turning the key on.

[posplayr]

...yes, you've beat your battery up, by not maintaining it through the winter. It's not possible for a useable motorcycle battery to only show 13.04 volts while being properly charged.
Battery "Useable"?
...The worst:The battery is badly sulfated, -cell could be shorted out, making it a 10 Volt battery because each cell =2 volts. "at rest" (after 12-24 hours disconnected)....This battery will overtax your charging system, because it badly wants to make it to be +/- 14.8 volts and it never will so it's always running at max output. That partly explains why you need a decent battery-you can make the problem worse. (maybe feel the regulator for a quick test. really Hot? STOP!!!(or too late...)

But, if the battery is just partly sulfated (almost guaranteed, given your OP), your "13.04" volts points to
A) a crummy voltmeter(test it on other known dc voltages)
B) something wrong with the charging system...
You should be able to run a headlight and brakelight without the motor running for a period. You should be start the bike AFTER that. Otherwise, you should not go further than around the block.
Poor folk need be clever. Too late now, but you can make a suitable trickle charger from many ac/dc power adapters.

one way or another he is going to need to charge the battery before testing the battery any further or anything else. He could have at least three different situations given his 13.04V reading

• Battery charge could be low with a good battery
• Battery could be sulfated bad battery
• The charging system just not charging.

He needs to charge the battery and see if he can pull current from it without the voltage dropping appreciable. He can do that with the "Quick Test"

[Gorminrider]

...yes, I should have phrased it better( re:It's not possible for a useable motorcycle battery to only show 13.04 volts while being properly charged.)
...I was hearing the OP's ..."is it possible the battery wont charge past the 13.04 v ?"

I think these little batteries, say what-10 to14ah capacity "starting" batteries -should reach the regulated voltage pretty quick, given the charging system's full output, even quicker in a crummy battery.



added: now, if the OP was using a CAR battery, then, I think, he'd be likely see lower voltages for a longer time...

[posplayr]

...yes, I should have phrased it better( re:It's not possible for a useable motorcycle battery to only show 13.04 volts while being properly charged.)
...I was hearing the OP's ..."is it possible the battery wont charge past the 13.04 v ?"

I think these little batteries, say what-10 to14ah capacity "starting" batteries -should reach the regulated voltage pretty quick, given the charging system's full output, even quicker in a crummy battery.



added: now, if the OP was using a CAR battery, then, I think, he'd be likely see lower voltages for a longer time...

Based on some measurements I did a few years back when I was testing various R/R's , my GS1100E charging system produced about 11 amps that went to the GS electrical system with about 3 amps going to the charge the battery at 14.5 V. That is somewhere around a total of 14 amps.

3 amps for a 14 amp-hr battery is C=0.21. Looking at this chart

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=11129&d=1283969167

Reading from the graph, if you are at a 14.25V setpoint at the battery and C/5 (3 amps) with 80% charge you still need to charge 20% of the capacity which would take 1 hour of riding. If the battery state is lower (say 50%), and with only C/5 available (3 charging amps), the battery voltage will stay below 13.5V. This is the reason the stator pages require a good battery to do the test. It can only supply 3 amps and so the battery charging voltage is very dependent on having the battery above 80% charged capacity.


Compared to an alternator that is pretty poor charging performance. The alternator can change the field strength and step up the charging rate to bring the state of charge up to 100% much faster.