Battery totally dead

guitar bowler

guitar bowler

Joined
Apr 23, 2012
Messages
21
Age
58
Location
Godwin,n.c.
Bike
05 st1300
Went out to ride this morning.Hadn't rode in about a week.Dead battery.Wouldn't even read on the volt meter.Last couple of times I rode the bike felt a little down on power.Thought it might have been a fouled plug or bad gas.But if the battery was dying I could see how that might sap a little power.Guess if it had to die it did it in the right place.Home.Going to the mountains in September.Would have sucked if it died on the blue ridge parkway.Just wondering if anybody else had a battery go completely out like that.
 
guitar bowler said:
Went out to ride this morning.Hadn't rode in about a week.Dead battery.Wouldn't even read on the volt meter.Last couple of times I rode the bike felt a little down on power.Thought it might have been a fouled plug or bad gas.But if the battery was dying I could see how that might sap a little power.Guess if it had to die it did it in the right place.Home.Going to the mountains in September.Would have sucked if it died on the blue ridge parkway.Just wondering if anybody else had a battery go completely out like that.
Click to expand...

This is what I repaced mine with. Free shipping to your house in about 3 days or less...has 230 CCA's same as OEM battery

http://www.batterystuff.com/powersports-batteries/sYTZ14S.html
 
This has been happening to me lately as well. If I do not ride for several days, my battery will be completely dead. I have double checked to ensure nothing is left on/plugged in. The only thing permanently connected is a J&M 2003. I have replaced my battery twice in the last couple of months. Very odd.

JD
 
guitar bowler said:
Just wondering if anybody else had a battery go completely out like that.
Click to expand...

I have, about thirty years ago. I was out riding somewhere and came home, parked the bike and went in to shower and go out bar hopping or something. Came back about 30-45 minutes later to find the bike wouldn't even turn over. Checked everything out the next morning and the battery just went stone dead, the charging system was OK. Someone had told me that the vibration of motorcycles sometimes caused internal battery connections to break all at once, so the battery would go from normal to open circuit in the blink of an eye.
 
Yup, batteries can die a slow chemical death loosing capacity or they can develop a physical problem and die like a light bulb. Prolly unrelated to the horse power issue though.
 
I have a J&M and Stebel horn attached to the battery. I remembered the stebel today when I took the battery out to recharge it. Initially I got the FO1 bad battery code. Unplugged everything and started over, it is charging fine.

Could something with the stebel horn be bad? Relay?

JD
 
F01 ? What charger and what is it's definition of Failure Mode 1? Some charges here will error if the battery is too drained to tell if it's a 6 or 12 volt battery.

If you've replaced the battery a few times and still get a drained battery after only a few days something isn't turning off. Check you're manual I'm guessing you have the HISS security thing so your bike off normal battery drain may be different than here, which is 2.5ma.

Then I'd put the current jack on you multimeter inline with the battery to see no load drain current.
If it's high start disconnecting a suspect farkles like the J&M and see if it changes significantly if not reconnect and move on to the next suspect. If that doesn't get it start with the bike fuses until you get in the church.
 
Carl,

Thank for the idea's. I am in Italy working for the Navy, I have a U.S. Spec ST1300, no HISS on this one. Yep the next step is getting out the Fluke. The meter is NOT my friend!! The FO1 is a bad battery, bad battery cell or battery too low to charge. Back to the garage . . . .

JD
 
Connect a 12v dc test light (normal bulb not LED) in series between the batt neg post and the neg cable.If the light comes on you have a draw large enought to kill the batt,simple and it works (42 years as a mech).Then you can start to disconnect as st1300r suggests.
 
stmike1300 said:
Connect a 12v dc test light (normal bulb not LED) in series between the batt neg post and the neg cable.If the light comes on you have a draw large enought to kill the batt,simple and it works (42 years as a mech).Then you can start to disconnect as st1300r suggests.
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Nice! I like it!

JD
 
MAC_JD said:
12v dc test light (normal bulb not LED)
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No.. use an LED, then you get an audible indicator too. If you hear a pop, you have a drain problem, if it glows, your good.

Might need more then one LED...
:rofl1::crackup
 
I took off the plastics today and disconnected everything electrical that was not stock including the quartet harness. That connection and the other connections near where the quartet harness connects were extremely dirty. I cleaned the quartet harness connections and the area where the quartet harness plugs in. I cleaned the battery connections (again) and all the connections that had been connected to the battery. The sides of the radiator had some flaking paint and oxidation. I wire brushed those, degrease them and painted the bare metal.

When running I was getting 14 volts. When shut off the voltage was 12.10 volts. Initially the battery was draining very slowly. Over the course of the afternoon of cleaning and looking at wiring it stopped draining PFM!! I did not see any locations where there was a rubbed wire, pinched wire etc.

I am going to check the battery voltage again in a couple of hours to see where it is at.

A couple of questions:

What else should I look for?
Any pointers, hints or tips on how to clean the wiring harness plugs where the dielectric grease is without damaging anything?
Where is a good place to buy replacement dielectric grease? I will be in Chicago next Thursday for a couple of days. I can get some when I am home.

Thanks,

JD
 
Three hours after the voltage was 11.97 volts. This morning the voltage was 11.93 volts.

Makes no sense. More cleaning and inspecting today . . . .

JD
 
OK you either have a battery that can't hold a charge or some kind of parasitic load that's killing it. If you have the same battery that's seen a few complete disharges it may be toast. Is this a new battery?

Bike off, with a battery fully charged disconnect one side and put an amp meter in series where you disconnected it. You may need to move the red lead on your multi meter to the current jack depending on which model you have. Start with a higher range and work you're way down. There may be a low current and high current jack corresponding with your range selector.

If you start with the low current mA range and had a higher load you may pop the internal fuse in the multimeter and fool yourself thing there is no load since it's now an open curcuit and no current can flow.





multi-jacks.gif


Normal current with everything off is 2.5ma If it's more than that you have a bike issue, if not you have a battery issue.

If you're cleaning connectors get a platic safe contact cleaner.
Dielectric grease should be available in any autoparts place.
Sometimes called dielectric grease, dielectric tune up grease, or bulb grease. (clear silicone grease) The 3oz? tubes are a better value than the little .25oz squeeze packets.

It's normal for a battery to loose voltage at rest when you turn the bike off as it looses surface charge. Estimate of state of charge would be the voltage measured after the battery was disconnected for at least 4 hrs. 11.9 is pretty drained.

Bike off voltage of 12.1 is pretty low if it was fully charged when you turned it off.
14 and change would be normal when running.
 
Last edited:
MAC_JD said:
When running I was getting 14 volts. When shut off the voltage was 12.10 volts.

What else should I look for?

JD
Click to expand...

A new battery. If your charging system is putting out 14v, when you shut it off it should be over 13 initially, then gradually drop down to 12.6-12.7 range. If you're at 12.1 shortly after shutting off the bike, your battery is toast. If you want to be absolutely sure, take it out of the bike and put it on a charger so you know it can't be discharging due to anything on the bike. If it only holds 12.1 after removing the charging source, then you have your positive diagnosis. I'm not 100% sure because I've never had it happen, but I'd suspect that if your battery were good AND you had a small leakage current you'd see higher voltage than you're seeing upon shutting off the bike. A leak could cause it to drop to 12.0-12.1 over a few hours, but not within minutes if the battery were otherwise healthy.
 
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