New Battery Issues
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Road Captain
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 690
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RE: New Battery Issues
ZD, I was thinking the same thing.
I put about 100 miles on the battery yesterday and it didn't act any differently. The Kuryakyn LED gauge is still not showing any green bars when the bike is initially turned on, just 4 orange. When the bike is running however, it gives 4 orange and 2 green.
The charge on the batter was 12.93V after returning yesterday and 12.92 this morning. I'll keep an eye on it.
Should I only be concerned about voltage? Is there a way to test the amperage also?
Maybe I'm worried about nothing here ... ?
I put about 100 miles on the battery yesterday and it didn't act any differently. The Kuryakyn LED gauge is still not showing any green bars when the bike is initially turned on, just 4 orange. When the bike is running however, it gives 4 orange and 2 green.
The charge on the batter was 12.93V after returning yesterday and 12.92 this morning. I'll keep an eye on it.
Should I only be concerned about voltage? Is there a way to test the amperage also?
Maybe I'm worried about nothing here ... ?
Road Master
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 769
Likes: 1
From: (UK)
RE: New Battery Issues
ORIGINAL: ultravista
I replaced the battery in my Night Train last week. Following what seemed to be sound advice, the battery was put on a 2 AMP charge until fully charged, about 15 hours. After it was charged, I put it in the bike and on the HD Super Smart charger to keep it "topped off" and it's been that way for nearly a week.
Today I started the bike for the first time and found the battery to be quite low. I would say it was somewhere in the 10V range but did start the bike without a problem. My LED Kuryakyn voltmeter only registered the LED's in the orange range, none in the green as it would fully charged.
My commute to work is too short to make a difference so the battery was the same 4 miles later.
Does it sound like I have a bad battery here? I'm confused as to why after being fully charged, it would have lost power while connected to the Super Smart charger. Something doesn't make sense.
I called three of my local HD dealers, each said don't worry about but didn't offer any suggestions as to why it would have lost power while connected to the charger. Furthermore, I was told by all three sources that newer batteries do NOT have a memory capacity like the old ones and a full charge isn't necessary before putting a load on it such as starting the bike. The old batteries yes, new batteries no.
Can someone help me out here? I am curious as to why the voltate would have dropped from a full charge while on the battery tender.
Is this something I sould worry about or not? I'm thinking about taking the battery in to have it load tested, that should tell me if it's a POS or not.
Suggestions?
I replaced the battery in my Night Train last week. Following what seemed to be sound advice, the battery was put on a 2 AMP charge until fully charged, about 15 hours. After it was charged, I put it in the bike and on the HD Super Smart charger to keep it "topped off" and it's been that way for nearly a week.
Today I started the bike for the first time and found the battery to be quite low. I would say it was somewhere in the 10V range but did start the bike without a problem. My LED Kuryakyn voltmeter only registered the LED's in the orange range, none in the green as it would fully charged.
My commute to work is too short to make a difference so the battery was the same 4 miles later.
Does it sound like I have a bad battery here? I'm confused as to why after being fully charged, it would have lost power while connected to the Super Smart charger. Something doesn't make sense.
I called three of my local HD dealers, each said don't worry about but didn't offer any suggestions as to why it would have lost power while connected to the charger. Furthermore, I was told by all three sources that newer batteries do NOT have a memory capacity like the old ones and a full charge isn't necessary before putting a load on it such as starting the bike. The old batteries yes, new batteries no.
Can someone help me out here? I am curious as to why the voltate would have dropped from a full charge while on the battery tender.
Is this something I sould worry about or not? I'm thinking about taking the battery in to have it load tested, that should tell me if it's a POS or not.
Suggestions?
I have never heared of lead acid battery's behaving in this way and most cheap voltmeters are totally inacurate. I use a voltmeter for work which costs ÂŁ300 and is calibrated every six monthsfor accuracy. Try and find some one with a good voltmeter and test the standing volts of the battery and then the output volts with the engine running,the voltage regulator should clip at around 14.2 to 14.4 volts. I doubt 10 Volts would have started the bikeas my bike will not even think about it lower than 12 volts.
If you want to check the charge rate you will need to connect an ammeter in series to the battery i.e take the Positive lead off the battery and connect to the input of the ammeter and connect the output to the battery this will measure current BUT SHORT THESE CONNECTIONS TO THE AMMETER OUT BEFORE STARTING THE BIKE AS THE HIGH CURRENT DRAWN BY THE STARTER MOTOR WILL PROBABLY SEE THE AMMETER OUT UNLESS YOU HAVE A VERY HIGH CURRENT AMMETER , TAKE THE SHORT OFF WHEN THE BIKE IS RUNNING TO SEE THE CHARGE RATE IN AMPS.
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