OK, riddle me this -
Thread Starter
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Seasoned HDF Member
Joined: Jun 2015
Posts: 10,291
Likes: 7,773
From: West Central FL
OK, riddle me this -
1993 Heritage Classic with a one year old battery and a six month old stator and regulator.
Sitting at a light and boom, total catastrophic electrical failure. No lights, no ignition no nothing. I push the bike off the road and take a wrench from the tool bag and in an effort to see if the battery is dead I jump across the terminals. Zip, no arc. So dead battery right? I call the wife and ask her to pull a battery from the other bike and bring it to me with the VOM. I check voltage on the battery in the bike and get 000 on the meter. I pull off the ground line then the hot line and check the battery again- 13.2v. Hook the hot line back up and clip the meter to the battery - 13.2v! With the meter still attached, I hold the ground line to negative terminal and the meter goes to 11v to 3.6v to 000 in about 5 sec. WTF? I pull the battery, bolt up the other battery and the bike fires right up. I get home no problem and the second battery reads 13.2v. Check the "problem battery" and it reads 13.2v again. Hmmm.
I take the battery back to the store because I still have a year replacement left on it but the kid at the store doesn't want to honor the warranty with a new battery because he says there's nothing wrong with the old one. Now I'm pissed. Will go back in the morning and have a talk with the manager. Hopefully he'll realize that it's best to just give me a replacement battery and be rid of me.
In all my years I've never heard of this. What would cause a year old battery to act like this???
Sitting at a light and boom, total catastrophic electrical failure. No lights, no ignition no nothing. I push the bike off the road and take a wrench from the tool bag and in an effort to see if the battery is dead I jump across the terminals. Zip, no arc. So dead battery right? I call the wife and ask her to pull a battery from the other bike and bring it to me with the VOM. I check voltage on the battery in the bike and get 000 on the meter. I pull off the ground line then the hot line and check the battery again- 13.2v. Hook the hot line back up and clip the meter to the battery - 13.2v! With the meter still attached, I hold the ground line to negative terminal and the meter goes to 11v to 3.6v to 000 in about 5 sec. WTF? I pull the battery, bolt up the other battery and the bike fires right up. I get home no problem and the second battery reads 13.2v. Check the "problem battery" and it reads 13.2v again. Hmmm.
I take the battery back to the store because I still have a year replacement left on it but the kid at the store doesn't want to honor the warranty with a new battery because he says there's nothing wrong with the old one. Now I'm pissed. Will go back in the morning and have a talk with the manager. Hopefully he'll realize that it's best to just give me a replacement battery and be rid of me.
In all my years I've never heard of this. What would cause a year old battery to act like this???
Last edited by Hey Man; May 5, 2020 at 07:29 PM.
Stellar HDF Member
Joined: Apr 2016
Posts: 3,323
Likes: 2,114
From: Masshole
Did they load test it or just check voltage? Could be a broken terminal inside allowing just enough contact for the meter to read voltage. If you bought it from a chain, go to the next place, might have better luck. Add a test light in to your tool kit, a whole lot safer than the wrenches, LOL!
Grand HDF Member
Joined: Aug 2018
Posts: 4,126
Likes: 2,117
From: W. MI.
Because its new(er) means nothing. I had 2 bad batteries within 2 weeks. No problem getting them adjusted. After charge showed fine. Load test and they both took a dump, both the same. Good luck getting them adjusted.
Road Master
Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 942
Likes: 323
From: Grew up in Texas, moved to AZ
Did you check your charging system? I would. I've had 3 electrical failure 1) bad battery 2) bad stator 3) bad ground to battery So, basically, I had the top 3 things that normally go wrong an electrical failure. 
Thread Starter
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Seasoned HDF Member
Joined: Jun 2015
Posts: 10,291
Likes: 7,773
From: West Central FL
Did they load test it or just check voltage? Could be a broken terminal inside allowing just enough contact for the meter to read voltage. If you bought it from a chain, go to the next place, might have better luck. Add a test light in to your tool kit, a whole lot safer than the wrenches, LOL!
Thread Starter
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Seasoned HDF Member
Joined: Jun 2015
Posts: 10,291
Likes: 7,773
From: West Central FL
Seasoned HDF Member
Joined: Mar 2010
Posts: 21,116
Likes: 7,639
From: Poolville
For ***** and Giggles, Try the battery in the other bike that your wife took the battery out of and see what happens... Sounds like under a load it will fail so the seller will have to load test to properly test the battery...
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Club Member
Joined: Jun 2018
Posts: 4,052
Likes: 5,159
From: Below the Gnat Line
Definitely a dead battery. Internal short or bad cell. I don't know the intricacies of batteries, so I can't explain what may have happened, but I have a load tester and I've proven many times that a battery will show full voltage on the shelf, but the voltage has no "depth" (technically amperage, but the new kid at the register would be lost on that one). You have a bad battery. Take a suggestion from 98hotrodfatboy and put the bad battery in the other bike just to prove that it's the battery and not the bike. Hvae them load test the battery; it will fail a load test and they should honor the replacement warranty.
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