• Required reading for all forum users!!!

    Welcome!
    Register to access the full functionality of the GSResources forum. Until you register and activate your account you will not have full forum access, nor will you be able to post or reply to messages.

    A note to new registrants...
    All new forum registrations must be activated via email before you have full access to the forum.

    A Special Note about Email accounts!
    DO NOT SIGN UP USING hotmail, outlook, gmx, sbcglobal, att, bellsouth or email.com. They delete our forum signup emails.

    A note to old forum members...
    I receive numerous requests from people who can no longer log in because their accounts were deleted. As mentioned in the forum FAQ, user accounts are deleted if you haven't logged in for the past 6 months. If you can't log in, then create a new forum account. If you don't get an error message, then check your email account for an activation message. If you get a message stating that the email address is already in use, then your account still exists so follow the instructions in the forum FAQ for resetting your password.

    Have you forgotten your password or have a new email address? Then read the forum FAQ for details on how to reset it.

    Any email requests for "can't log in anymore" problems or "lost my password" problems will be deleted. Read the forum FAQ and follow the instructions there - that's what we have one for...

  • Returning Visitors

    If you are a returning visitor who never received your confirmation email, then odds are your email provider is blockinig emails from our server. The only thing that can be done to get around this is you will have to try creating another forum account using an email address from another domain.

    If you are a returning visitor to the forum and can't log in using your old forum name and password but used to be able to then chances are your account is deleted. Purges of the databases are done regularly. You will have to create a new forum account and you should be all set.

New problem - battery

  • Thread starter Thread starter Patihubi
  • Start date Start date
P

Patihubi

Guest
After being excited that the brake light on my bike was finally figured out I was replacing signal lights as well and was playing around with it. At some point I decided to go inside to relax a little.

I get back out and I left the keys in the ignition turned on. :|

No problem I think, battery was dead before, I take it off and bring it in - hook it up to the battery charger aaaaand...nothing.

I have 3 indication lights - AC power/Charging/Floating on my charger. Only AC power light is on. So I get the multimeter out and it's telling me there are 6v left on my 12v battery. So I think I should try again in the bike but nothing. No light at all - no power.

I am completely clueless at this point :cry:
 
How old is that battery ? Water between the lines ? Connections clean ? Cables on the right terminals (it happens) ? I didnt remove mine this winter and it must have froze (-25f) so I just went and got a new one. On the charger now. $35 bucks is well worth it after having been stranded with a dead battery. Ever push start a 500lb bike :eek:.
 
Charge overnight and see if it holds, or if you can get a battery for 35 bucks just do that, even a new battery requires proper charging,,,,my batteries usually cost me between 80 and 120 bucks.....
 
Well, shouldn't the battery do SOMETHING with 6v on it?

But, I held the multimeter on the clamps of the battery charger and it gave me nothing - 0.01
 
6 volts is low, and probably will do nothing, you need a full 12 volts or close to it...

sounds like the charger is not charging, then again I don't know what charger you have, and is it the correct one for the battery you are using ?

.
 
The drawback of these modern microprocessor-controlled chargers is that they're too damn smart for our own good.
A half-voltage battery fools the charger into thinking it's a 6V bike battery and it won't treat it like a proper 12V one, and will only put 7.2V into it (or thereabouts).
You need to get the terminal voltage of the battery up a bit, to around 10.5V then connect the smart charger and it will treat it as normal from there on.
Two ways of doing this
1. Borrow an old-fashioned iron tranformer and rectifier charger and simply charge the battery up as used to be done for decades, or at least until there's sufficient voltage put into it.
2. Parallel charge the battery from another bike or car, but keep an eye on it, monitor the voltage at rest from time to time if doing it from a car - there shouldn't be any trouble, but you don't wan't to risk it overcharging.
3. Get another known good battery and connect it in parallel with the dud battery, then charge both of them on the smart charger.
 
I wouldn't know where to borrow an iron transformer from :( And I have only access to our van with it's huge battery that does not have any indication if it's 12V. But it's humungus and not as small as our battery from the previous car (volvo) Could is just jump start the motorcycle with that if it's the same voltage?

Thanks for explaining that though, that makes a lot of sense! Could I somehow get a "not so smart" battery charger?


also, if the charger really "thinks" it is a 6V battery, shouldn't the indicator lamps say 'floating" when plugged in?



And I also still don't know why the clamps give me 0.01 on the multimeter
 
Patihubi said:
.
.But, I held the multimeter on the clamps of the battery charger and it gave me nothing - 0.01
Click to expand...

Sometimes those battery chargers have some "reverse polarity" protection in them, they do not really turn on until it sees you have it connected to battery in proper polarity, so it needs to see some voltage in proper polarity before it really turns on. THis is so if If connected backwards (reverse poliarity) it doesn't turn on.

So if you were measuring voltage on charger without ti connected to battery, maybe it really wasn't turning on.
 
Patihubi said:
I wouldn't know where to borrow an iron transformer from :( And I have only access to our van with it's huge battery that does not have any indication if it's 12V. But it's humungus and not as small as our battery from the previous car (volvo) Could is just jump start the motorcycle with that if it's the same voltage?
Click to expand...
If it's 12V, sure. But make sure it's properly charged up itself, only do a direct parallel jump connection, don't have the car running.
Patihubi said:
Thanks for explaining that though, that makes a lot of sense! Could I somehow get a "not so smart" battery charger?
Click to expand...
Yes, there are still plenty around, even if they've dropped off the shelf a bit. A trawl on ebay or fleamarkets will find one for a couple of bucks.
Here's the kind of thing to look for..
http://tinyurl.com/old-car-battery-charger

Patihubi said:
also, if the charger really "thinks" it is a 6V battery, shouldn't the indicator lamps say 'floating" when plugged in?
Click to expand...
I can't answer that without knowing what charger you have and how it's supposed to behave. There's always the chance it might be defective, or the battery has dropped too low so the charger even supposes that it's a 6V beyond saving.
Patihubi said:
And I also still don't know why the clamps give me 0.01 on the multimeter
Click to expand...
Umm... dunno :) Again, I don't know what meter you have and what its characteristics are. Mine, for example, gives some fairly dumb and uninformative readings when it's out of range.
 
Patihubi said:
Well, shouldn't the battery do SOMETHING with 6v on it?

But, I held the multimeter on the clamps of the battery charger and it gave me nothing - 0.01
Click to expand...
What kind of multimeter are you using?
What range are you using (in other words, where is the dial set?)
If you put your location in your profile, there may be a GSR member near you willing to lend a hand...
 
Just connect it to the van battery using jumper cables. Unless it's a semi truck, it's going to be a 12V battery. The size of the battery is irrelevant. Just connect the jumpers to it and don't start the van. Let is sit for an hour and you should be good to go. If the battery goes dead again, then either your battery is toast or your bike's charging system is.
 
I agree with all the tips I've been reading. I would go to the local WalMart or O'Reilly's, Advance Auto Parts, Napa etc. and buy a good multi function charger. Take your battery with you to the Auto Parts store, they will charge it and test it for you, problem solved.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top