Friend's bike wont start... ideas?

[setasai]

Hey, not a Ninjette related question but since you all are my best resource I figured i'd post the question here.

Here's the deal, my friend has a Suzuki Intruder 800cc cruiser and for some reason it wont start. No clicks, no cranking, lights come on when jumping but not when connected to the battery. So I thought it might be the battery. I connected a battery tender to the battery but strangely it doesnt want to charge (light on tender kept flashing red meaning no connection). Disconnect the (+) terminal from his battery to the bike and then the tender would charge. Charged the battery for 3 hours or so and tried to see if it would work. Still nothing. We've checked the fuses also and they look good. To our memory, we came back from an awesome ride, parked it and he forgot to shut the lights off so we assumed it was a dead battery.

Any other ideas? We will leave the battery on the tender overnight but what bothers me is that when the battery is connected to the bike, it will NOT charge but it will charge when disconnected. Does that mean there is a short somewhere?

Trying to get it running by this saturday for our Mt. Hamilton ride.

[CThunder-blue]

Tommy's bike? If it fails to hold a charge, the battery likely needs to be replaced.

[setasai]

Originally Posted by CThunder-blue

Tommy's bike? From what I recall from the battery tender instructions, the battery is NOT supposed to be connected to bike/car when you are charging it. If it fails to hold a charge, the battery likely needs to be replaced.

Haha yea it can be. I have the battery tender jr that comes with a connection that allows me to leave it on the bike and use it as a jumping/charging port. I'll look into it though to make sure.

[CThunder-blue]

Yeah, I just realized it's ok to leave it connected. However, since disconnecting it allows the battery to charge, it may have a shorted power wire. Did you guys take a look at the wiring? I think when I wrote that bit about not having it connected, I was remembering how you're not supposed to have it charging when you have 2 batteries connected to each other.

[setasai]

Originally Posted by CThunder-blue

Yeah, I just realized it's ok to leave it connected. However, since disconnecting it allows the battery to charge, it may have a shorted power wire. Did you guys take a look at the wiring? I think when I wrote that bit about not having it connected, I was remembering how you're not supposed to have it charging when you have 2 batteries connected to each other.

We looked but the wiring on a suzuki intruder is a nightmare. We didnt see anything wierd about it. On the other hand after fiddling with it, it seems to be charging while everything is connected. Noooo idea what we did to make it happen but we're not touching it and figured that if it charges overnight, maybe it'll be ok. No matter how you look at it, the battery was very dead by the end of that night and it's been atleast a few weeks since so it could be even more dead. We'll find out. If you come up with any other ideas, let me know and i'll have him check it.

[alex.s]

err... what is it? lead acid batteries once they get past a certain point will not take a charge again? they start evaporating the electrolytes or something??? can you check the levels in the battery or is it sealed? this is my brother's expertise but everytime he tries to tell me about it he does it in a way that makes me zone out and not listen...

[setasai]

Originally Posted by alex.s

err... what is it? lead acid batteries once they get past a certain point will not take a charge again? they start evaporating the electrolytes or something??? can you check the levels in the battery or is it sealed? this is my brother's expertise but everytime he tries to tell me about it he does it in a way that makes me zone out and not listen...

Haha, yes that is a possibility. We refilled it with DI water so it should be ok. Will be charging it overnight and see what happens.

[alex.s]

it sounds like the battery is toast... you might want to just go buy a battery from your local moto shop... usually they'll let you return it if you don't need it (unless its a crappy shop...) but yeah check it in the morning and see if it has a good charge... if it keeps a charge good to go... maybe. if not... new battery time