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I took this battery out of an Ultima Engined chop yesterday. Measures 12.25 volts but it goes down to 2.5 volts when you hit the starter. Obviously it doesn't start. New battery got it running. Charging at 14.3 volts at 2000 rpm now.
Last edited by Andy Malham; Aug 1, 2018 at 05:49 AM.
We had the bike brought to us as a non-runner. My guess is that it has been started using jumper cables rather than a Battery Pack. Using jumper cables from a car or a truck is a No No as the car or truck charging system is too strong for the motorcycle battery. Not such an issue if the 4 wheeler isn't running at the time but you have to consider how much current the car battery is pushing into the bike battery. Shops use a motorcycle specific Battery Pack for jump starting.
We had the bike brought to us as a non-runner. My guess is that it has been started using jumper cables rather than a Battery Pack. Using jumper cables from a car or a truck is a No No as the car or truck charging system is too strong for the motorcycle battery. Not such an issue if the 4 wheeler isn't running at the time but you have to consider how much current the car battery is pushing into the bike battery. Shops use a motorcycle specific Battery Pack for jump starting.
You need to brush up on your electric theory. Current is not pushed, it's pulled based on load/demand. You can certainly boost off of a car or truck. The bike will only pull the current it needs. Volts are pushed, so the risk is that if the boosting vehicle has a bad voltage regulator it could send too many volts and fry the bikes electronics. To mitigate that risk, don't start the engine of the boosting vehicle. But in general, it is perfectly ok to use any 12V battery that has enough current to feed the starter of the bike.
Swollen case is often a sign of a battery that froze
Minus 6C is about as cold as it gets in England. Would that do it?
I haven't seen one as bad as this before.There is a little devil in me that wants to hook this up to a high power battery charger and then stand well back and see what happens!
Originally Posted by Brewmany
You need to brush up on your electric theory. Current is not pushed, it's pulled based on load/demand. You can certainly boost off of a car or truck. The bike will only pull the current it needs. Volts are pushed, so the risk is that if the boosting vehicle has a bad voltage regulator it could send too many volts and fry the bikes electronics. To mitigate that risk, don't start the engine of the boosting vehicle. But in general, it is perfectly ok to use any 12V battery that has enough current to feed the starter of the bike.
Nothing wrong with your theory. My thoughts are:- what happens when you hook up a flat 18Ah bike battery to a 60Ah or higher fully charged car battery? Obviously current will flow from the charged battery to the flat battery but, how much current?
My recollection is that vehicles with dual batteries like camper vans (RVs) have matched amp/hour batteries to avoid excess current flow between the batteries. Am I barking up the wrong tree with this theory? Would love to know why this battery ended up like this.
Originally Posted by monkeyboy22
Holy cow! That thing is swollen up like a corpse left in the desert for a few days.
We had to use pry bars to get it out of the battery box.
Last edited by ChickinOnaChain; Aug 6, 2018 at 07:38 AM.
Reason: Multiple posts
Minus 6C is about as cold as it gets in England. Would that do it?
I haven't seen one as bad as this before.There is a little devil in me that wants to hook this up to a high power battery charger and then stand well back and see what happens!
1. That is below freezing, so maybe.
2. Unless you are ready to go down in history as another "Watch This! accident" Definitely do NOT!!!
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Bad Battery
