Street glide battery issue
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Tourer
Joined: Jan 2013
Posts: 259
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From: Pennsylvania
Street glide battery issue
I've searched and looked around but had a quick question. I charged my battery (out of bike) over winter, put it in for the year and was dead a week later. I was thinking I had a drain but wanted to test after full charge so took bat out of bike and had on charger for approx 4 days. Green light was on took it out to try to test and before I put in bike I used multimeter and it was only 11.8 volts. Took battery to advanced to have tested, they said it was fine but needs charged. I assuming bad battery since it lost charge in a day not even hooked up to bike, do you all think that's it?
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Tourer
Joined: Jan 2013
Posts: 259
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From: Pennsylvania
I used the same charger on 3 other batteries including my dads ultra and they are doing fine so I assume the charger is working properly. In fact I used my dads battery to just check for a draw. Either I didn't do something right or my multimeter doesn't go low enough but I put it on Adc and got a reading of 0. If I use a test light I get the light to come on but only get it to go off by pulling the main fuse or all acc (lights, radio and battery) not just pulling one works. At this point I'm assuming I have a normal draw for radio,alarm system etc but not enough to drain that quick so I'm l believe bad battery?
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Tourer
Joined: Jan 2013
Posts: 259
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From: Pennsylvania
Using a small trickle charger. I bought the battery last year but didn't ride it much do to work and it went dead on me a few times. I've had to jump start it when it went did and I'm thinking I probably hurt the battery. I thought slowly charging it over winter would of helped. It'll show green light on charger but if I test its showing about 11.8 v.
Seasoned HDF Member
Joined: May 2008
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From: South Carolina
I think they need some electrical training....
You cannot test a battery unless it is fully charged.
If you cannot charge it with a properly operating battery charger....it is kaput.
Last edited by Dan89FLSTC; Mar 27, 2016 at 04:50 PM.
Club Member
Joined: Apr 2013
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From: Utah
Trickle chargers have been replaced with maintenance chargers like Battery Tender. Their site has a lot of good information on charging batteries.
http://www.batterytender.com/Motorcycle/
Each time a battery goes dead it looses a little bit of it's life and won't charge back to the level it had before.
As far as checking for a "parasitic draw", DC amps, does your meter have a fuse in that circuit and is it good? A test light will only tell you if you have enough Voltage to light the bulb if you have have a complete circuit.
Dan's spot on above about testing a battery.
You might want to charge it fully and take it somewhere else and have it tested.
http://www.batterytender.com/Motorcycle/
Each time a battery goes dead it looses a little bit of it's life and won't charge back to the level it had before.
As far as checking for a "parasitic draw", DC amps, does your meter have a fuse in that circuit and is it good? A test light will only tell you if you have enough Voltage to light the bulb if you have have a complete circuit.
Dan's spot on above about testing a battery.
You might want to charge it fully and take it somewhere else and have it tested.
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Tourer
Joined: Jan 2013
Posts: 259
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From: Pennsylvania
Thank you a all! The battery was only off the charger for less than 8 hours sitting in the house. You're right I don't believe they knew what they were talking about but it was the only place open today. I bit the bullet and ordered a new battery to be sure.
I was reading a lot of post on here and other sites but I'll admit my experience with a multimeter isn't extensive and I need to learn a lot yet. I have craftsman multimeter that I believe has everything I need. I tried it on Adc at 20m and 200m as well as tried it on 10A. Again I'll admit I'm a little ignorant when it comes to using one.
I was reading a lot of post on here and other sites but I'll admit my experience with a multimeter isn't extensive and I need to learn a lot yet. I have craftsman multimeter that I believe has everything I need. I tried it on Adc at 20m and 200m as well as tried it on 10A. Again I'll admit I'm a little ignorant when it comes to using one.
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Thread Starter
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Tourer
Joined: Jan 2013
Posts: 259
Likes: 1
From: Pennsylvania
And i apologize if some of it is confusing or typos, I'm in garage messing with my bike and my uncles old shadow and between that and Easter dinner I'm rushing this on my phone. I promise My English isn't as bad as my electrical skills lol
