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Why won?t my bike start

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
  • Start date Start date
Hango said:
Are these numbers low? Where should they be? Wouldn’t riding 170 miles fully charge the battery? The battery is a 1 week old “big crank”.
Jim
Click to expand...

No amount of riding will charge the battery if the charging system is not delivering. The charging voltage has to be above the battery voltage to get charge to go in, think foot pump and tyre. Typically at idle you should be seeing 13+ volts at idle and rising to 14.4 ish at 5000 rpm. At shutdown the voltage will be of the order of 13 volts falling slowly over several hours to 12.6 if the battery is fully charged.
I bought a new wet battery last month and despite claims that it would be ready to go it took half a day on the charger to top out.
 
Brendan W said:
I bought a new wet battery last month and despite claims that it would be ready to go it took half a day on the charger to top out.
Click to expand...
The vendors fall into one of two categories:
1. They are ignorant and truly believe the battery is "ready to go".
2. They know it is somewhat limited, tell you it's ready so you will lock it into its compromised condition. It will then fail quicker, you will buy a new battery sooner.

The good news is that even a less-than-fully-charged battery works better than the dead battery you are replacing, so you think everything is just hunky-dory and keep going in ignorance.

Even if they say it doesn't need it, charge the battery before you use it.

.
 
Sorry Steve I was not able to jump the bike,from a non running car, however I did take voltage readings after leaving my battery tender trickle charger on over night.
battery with key off
13.04
battery with key on
12.45
starting bike
11.4
after start with key off
12.8
btw the bike started right up with a full charge.
i will ride it around 50 miles and check the voltages again, this should tell me if there is still a problem.
Jim
 
Compare those numbers with what I was suggesting in post #18. More comments added.
Hango said:
Sorry Steve I was not able to jump the bike,from a non running car, however I did take voltage readings after leaving my battery tender trickle charger on over night.
battery with key off - 13.04
A wet-cell battery should be 12.6, a sealed battery should be 12.8.
I am guessing that you did not wait very long after removing the charger.

battery with key on - 12.45
it should be over 12, more like 12.2.
Probably still just a bit high from a very recent charger disconnect.

starting bike - 11.4
close to 11.5.

after start with key off - 12.8
should be closer to 12.5 to 12.7, depending on type of battery.

btw the bike started right up with a full charge.
Amazing, ain't it?
Click to expand...

.
 
Hango said:
i will ride it around 50 miles and check the voltages again, this should tell me if there is still a problem.
Jim
Click to expand...

Before you set off for the 50 miles check that the charging system is actually charging.
13 +/- 0.2 at idle
14.2 +/- 0.2 at 5000 rpm
 
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