Possibly shot battery

[miss_syn]

Here's the deal:

Three separate times when riding I turned the bike off for a quick stop. The bike wouldn't turn over again when I went to start it. One day when I finally remembered (!) to check it while I was at home it needed to be bumped start. I did laps around my neighborhood for about 30 minutes. Pulled back up to the garage, turned it off, went to turn it back on again. Dead as a rock.

I'm thinking it's the battery, but my SO said it sounded like something else was still running one of the times when I turned it off.

If I pull the battery will they test moto batteries at someplace like Autozone? Is there anything else I can check?

Basic steps taken - used all the fuel and got a fresh tank, checked the battery connectors for corrosion, check wiring to make sure no critters got at anything.

I have a full set of tools except wheel stands.

[CC Cowboy]

Originally Posted by miss_syn

Here's the deal:

Three separate times when riding I turned the bike off for a quick stop. The bike wouldn't turn over again when I went to start it. One day when I finally remembered (!) to check it while I was at home it needed to be bumped start. I did laps around my neighborhood for about 30 minutes. Pulled back up to the garage, turned it off, went to turn it back on again. Dead as a rock.

I'm thinking it's the battery, but my SO said it sounded like something else was still running one of the times when I turned it off.

If I pull the battery will they test moto batteries at someplace like Autozone? Is there anything else I can check?

Basic steps taken - used all the fuel and got a fresh tank, checked the battery connectors for corrosion, check wiring to make sure no critters got at anything.

I have a full set of tools except wheel stands.

I believe any auto or battery store will be able to check it.

You could always get two screw drivers and touch one to the negative and then the other to the positive posts. If it blows you across the room the battery is probably still good. However; I don't recommend this test!

[cbinker]

Sounds dead, take it to auto zone or something like that and they can test it.

[jkv45]

You can check it yourself with a voltmeter.

Check all of the connections on the battery and down at the starter to be sure they are snug.

Check the battery voltage before you hit the button - a fully charged battery reads 12.7V. If it doesn't, charge it at 1A until it reads over 12.7V. After sitting off of the charger for a hour or 2 to bleed-off any surface charge it should settle at 12.7V. A charger feeds more than 12.7V, but after sitting it will stay at 12.7V if it's holding a full charge.

Then check it again when you hit the button - if it gives you anything less than about 11V as it's cranking it's too low and chances are the battery is bad.

From what you described, I would say the battery is bad.

There are a few other things that could be a possibility also, but I would start with that.

[Linkin]

I just had this issue on mine. Does it crank at all, or just click when you hit the starter?

Take off the site guards protecting the cabling where your legs would go and unscrew the seat, take it off. Clean up the battery terminals, loosen then tighten etc.

Do the same for the solenoid (it has the 30A fuse plugged into it)

Also check the lead from the solenoid to the starter motor (right hand side lead) - the starter motor is directly under the tank, follow the lead.

Loosen and tighten the connection. 10mm spanner (or wrench as you yanks call it) Tighten as much as possible by hand

Make sure you do all of this with the ignition off and the key out

Multimeter test:

Negative lead to battery
Positive lead to solenoid (right hand side connection)

Attempt to start and check voltage. If it reads good (ie 12v or higher) then move the positive lead to the starter motor and repeat the rest.

Ignition off when you move/touch the leads...

The culprit for me was the starter motor lead, tightened it up on the starter motor and it was all good. Wasn't the battery.

It's going to be one of these items:

Battery
Solenoid
Starter motor
Cabling between the above

Also measure the voltage on the battery when you hit the starter

[dcj13]

Originally Posted by CC Cowboy

You could always get two screw drivers and touch one to the negative and then the other to the positive posts. If it blows you across the room the battery is probably still good. However; I don't recommend this test!

Even "dead" batteries will do that.

When I was 10 or so, my neighbor Tim's dad had a dead car battery sitting in their garage. Tim took a big metal file (bastard file) and held it across the positive and negative leads. In just a few seconds, the file turned cherry red in the middle and melted in half before either end got warm. Tim and I about died laughing. In retrospect, a dumb thing to do.