battery disconnect switch

Rekoob said:

What's connected to it? with nothing connected to the outlet you shouldn't have any draw from it. So, unplugging whatever is plugged in should also "solve" the problem.

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+1 As a few of the previous posts have stated there is something wrong if all your batteries in the ST have died in a week.

In disconnecting the outlet you may have found the what but not the why. Either the outlet has some damage in the from of a short or it was connected incorrectly or the wires connecting it are damaged. A typical outlet/socket should have no drain whatsoever if there's nothing plugged into it. Is the socket connected to a relay? (Mea culpa I haven't read the whole thread.)

Here's hoping you find out why disconnecting the outlet has stopped the drain.

i wired in a new single outlet. the previous outlet was a quad with flashing lights gizmo. i rarely used more than one outlet at a time so i don't think i'll miss the quad and i definitely won't miss it running down the battery. btw, i run the wire into the left (locking) console, so the outlet can charge a cell phone in there, but the wiring is long enough to reach a tank bag to power a gps or other devices.

+1 on some drain on the battery. If it doesn't drain while disconnected the the drain is something other than the battery. Best to identify the problem.

As for an isolation switch: if putting it into the battery ground cable, it will need to handle the peak load of the starting motor so best be sized to handle 100 amps. I can't recall if the ST also has a secondary ground wire from the harness common ground to the battery negative. If that's the case, then your switch will have to disable that one also or you will still have the drain and forgetting the switch will likely fry the common ground wiring.

vmax02rider said:

the previous outlet was a quad with flashing lights gizmo.

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Glad you found the problem. Obviously the parasitic drain was the flashing lights/electronics within this quad outlet setup.

If you did discharge the battery completely once or several times, it is almost certainly damaged. When a battery is discharged beyond a certain point, the sponge lead in the plates expands and flakes off the plate. If this material lodges between two adjacent plates, it can short out that cell of the battery. Best case is you lost some material, worst case (since it accepts a charge) is some minor damage that might (read probably) will shorten the battery's overall life.

And just for the record, if you were to use a battery disconnect switch, you should put it on the positive side, not the neg (ground) side. I would lean toward the load (bike) side of the big fuse. If, as you said, you have a 60 and a 30 and one side (battery side) are connected together, then the switch would go between the battery and these two terminals.


Old threads never die.... they don't even fade away.