Ok ever helpful fellow forum members...I need some help As you probably know from my posts elsewhere I have been having issues with the battery going flat in about 12 hours. First port of call was the alarm...that is now gone but still the issue persists. So today, after fully charging the battery I'm in search of the parasite.. Having disconnected everything and pulled all the fuses, I find that putting the meter between the positive side of the battery, (the negative is still connected to the loom), the other end of the meter poked into the live feed into the instrument cluster, I get a current draw of 10.6 volts, which if I'm not mistaken, I shouldn't get until the ignition is powered up and supplying power to the ignition live so enabling the internal connections. Of course I have no idea if that scenario is right. However, if someone could enlighten me or pull the clock fuse on their bike and put a meter between battery live and the feed to the clocks and tell me if they get any voltage flow I would be most grateful. It seems that the clocks are continuously supplying power to all the sensors even with the ignition off, so flattening the battery in the short time span previously mentioned...which can't be right... Cheers
You are doing this wrong, you are not measuring current draw but voltage. You need a dvm and set the meter to the direct amps or milliamps scale, make sure the lead is moved to the input for amps or milliamps on the meter ie move it from the volts input to amps input and the other lead is left in the com input, leave all fuses etc in place, disconnect the negative battery lead and place the dvm leads in series with the battery and neg lead. ie one probe onto the neg batt terminal and the other onto the disconnected negative clamp, then you will see if you are getting any current draw that is unacceptable. There will be some as the hiss light will be flashing etc, then you can starting disconnecting ccts and find which one is pulling the current draw, Warning in this setting do not place the 2 leads across pos and neg on battery, it will blow your meter
Done all that, no Amps or mAmps being drawn at all. I'm going to connect everything back up, take a reading of the battery voltage, then re-check in 6 hours, as I know that in 12hrs the battery previously didn't have the power to start the bike, managing only a weak attempt at turning the engine over. I've noticed that the Motobatt battery that used to be on, that I fully charged last week and has sat in my kitchen cupboard since, only has 9v on it now...it's less than 2 years old...
Do not get caught up in static readings of batteries, they do not mean much, the real test is when they are under load. A knackered batt can still be charged to 12.8-13v If it's dropped to 9v after a week in a cupboard then it's fooked. Personally I would be taking a very close look at your RR then your genny and the condition of the grounding to the frame.
Sounds like a duff battery to me. Charge it up and leave it disconnected. Measure the voltage a couple of days later, if it drops like that again then it's not holding charge and is time to get a new one.
The battery thats only reading 9v is a 23 month old motobatt one that came off the bike 8 months ago, which is how long the current,(excuse the pun), battery has been fitted. Don't have drop tester, though I might be able to borrow one tomorrow. The Lithium battery should be here in the morning, so if the battery thats on is shot then it going back to the shop. Annoyingly, my old 20 year old Suzuki 600 that sits alongside the blade in the shed, never loses any charge, never gets used and always starts after a bit of cranking over..
If it's only a couple of years old then I'd check how long the warranty on it is. They can still die in that time though I goosed a brand new one within 1 year on our lasses moped as she kept leaving it stood. The problem is that once a lead acid battery goes flat the plates start to close up, reducing the capacity until there is not enough left to start the bike.
New Lithium battery arrived today...it feels like a toy, seems like an empty plastic battery box that someone forgot to put the contents in....so light. The lead acid battery thats on the bike dropped to 11.99 volts overnight and didn't have the power to start the bike this morning. When I did get the bike started I checked the alternator output and got 14.35-14.4 volts, so the charging circuit it's working ok. Going to swap batteries over and drop test the old one to see if it's goosed.
You still need to check for amp drain with nowt switched on. I had a 929 that would drop the battery voltage when sitting in the garage for a few days, ended up being the Rec
Just fitted the Lithium battery...how much easier that was, needed a grip like someone holding a TV on black Friday getting the old lead battery out, but just thumb and forefinger putting the new one in. Anyway, drop tested the old battery, it's been on charge nearly all day, and it failed, found the receipt and I bought it 15 months ago, I think it had a 2 year warranty sp will be going back, the Motobatt was only 7 months old when that packed up, unfortunately I didn't buy the and didn't get the receipt when I bought the bike. The Datatool alarm was fitted new on the bike in 2007 when the bike was purchased, so if it does turn out to be that it was the culprit, it could be that the internal battery was goosed and drawing power trying to recharge itself. Will check on the new battery in the morning,(it has a little test button on) and see if it's faring better...it better had be...
