I have a problem that is truly stumping me. I have a '07 softtail standard with the only mods being the turn signal relocation kit and the alarm that Harley sells on their website.

Apparently Thursday I either left the power on the bike or someone was messing with the bike afterwards, but when I went to take it for a ride Saturday I found that the power switch was still on and the battery was fully drained. No big deal, I pulled the battery and recharged it. However upon reinstalling the battery the bike will not start up, the electrical system comes up like normal, the fuel pump runs its cycle as usual, but when I attempt to start the bike all I get is loud clicking of the starter and the lights pulse on and off in sync with the clicking.

I left the battery charging for a good 8 hours so it has a good charge. What I'm thinking might have happened is that the deep discharge resulted in the battery not keeping enough amperage to give the starter enough juice to turn over the bike.

Does anyone have an idea what might be the problem and a potential solution. If its something that I can do myself and that costs little to nothing would be great, money is extremely tight at the moment, crappy economy and going back to college and all that.

Thank you everyone for any help.

 

It sounds like your diagnosis is right, the battery now has a sub-standard charge. The clicking is the starter solenoid engaging, but disengaging, then repeating that. A battery tender, rather than a conventional charger, may recover your battery.

I suggest you test your battery, or get it tested, to confirm its condition. There is a procedure in the service manual. Any auto battery store should be able to test it.

 

what type of charger did you use - a regular one or the trickle charger? If you tried using a trickle charger to recharge the battery then you probably didn't get it charged back up. I can't remember the volts needed in the battery for the trickle to work but I am thinking it has to be over 6 volts.

 

Thanks for the advice guys, I used a Battery Doc sport charger, its a 12 volt, 1.25 amp charger. At first it wouldn't recharge the battery because it was below the charger's threshold, but I charged the battery for a few minutes off my car battery until I gave it enough of a charge for the charger to take over.

I had class for 12 hours today, but tomorrow is an early day for me so I'm going to give the local dealership a call and see if they can take a look at the battery, best case scenario is they can properly recharge it, worse case, I buy a new battery.

I'll make sure to update you all on the outcome.