Whats the best battery to run on a 83 xlh. I keep having of the battery going almost dead when i try to crank it 4 or more times. Its a drag specities battery I bought from a local shop. This is driving me nuts. It starts immediatley if i jump it from my car. What could be the problem I am almost sure its the battery but no Certain. Any help would be appreciate. Also is there any battery thats may be high out put for starting. The generator is good and works great light is bright during all operations. Thanks again

 

If this were on a car I'd suggest maybe you have a starter going south, with an armature dragging or something. I can't say that about motorcycles as I've never had it happen. But, if this has happened with more than one battery, maybe the battery isn't the trouble.

Sorry I can't offer more advice, I've never had to crank my 96 XL1200 more than about 1/4 second with full choke, even at 30F...

 

Well, my 83's the same way - you have to crank it a little when it's cold to get it started. Aweak battery compounds the problem, because in addition to not spinning the motor very fast, the spark's compromised too. If the battery's not up to it, you either need to put a good charge on it, or if that doesn't help, buy a new one. I've had good luck with sealed gel batteries - they seem to last a lot longer.

 

my thoughts are you got a weak battery..... although I've never had problems with my batteries had a bad connection once that didnt deliver enough juice to fire the system....would crank a bit then die then had jump it off..... found a bad connection at the ground on the battery tgood luck Dustyhen no more problems......

 

In addition to checking connections, make sure that the lead from batt - to frame is the same guage as batt + to starter. A smaller guage wire will not allow the starter to draw as many amps as the bike needs. Also be sure the battery you got puts out at leastthe correct amount of cranking amps, if not more. The difference between the bike and the car batteries is the Cold Cranking Amps. A battery witha lower amp rate will die faster.My '77 calls for 300 cca but i like to go 320 - 350 just to give me more cranking time if its cold or I have to determin a problem. The bike still only draws 300 but the extra 20-50 amps means I have extra juice available. Has there been any motor work done that would change what the bike wants in order to start? Higher compression will put more stress on a battery, trying to draw more amps then the battery has available,and cause it to wear down faster. If the shop gave you the correct battery for a stock bikenotknowingit has bigger jugs, that could be a factor.

Something else, you could have a week generator and/or regulator not getting the battery up to full capacity. I recently replaced both on mine because I would charge overnight, go ride for an hour and then not even have enough juice to enguage the solenoid let alone get it started again. And remember, charging dosn't happen untill around 2000 rpm. If you have to work on her at idle for a while, you are draining the battery and taking away from cranking amps.

Electrical can be very trickybecause itcould be a combination of any or all of the above. Just take it one step at a time and, by process of elimanation, you should be able to work through it.

Rich

 

Was the battery brand new in the box when you bought it? You have to go by the book when filling the cells and slow charging it before using it. If it was used ask the shop to put it on a charger for a while and then load test it. I've always bought Yuasa batteries from Auto Zone and have never had any problems with those.

 

I did get a bad battery now i got a good one but still having similiar problems I think it might be the generator or regulator like Pyro said but has anyone had problems with the starter. Everyone keeps saying its the starter but I dont think it is since it starts right up when the battery is charged. Thanks everyone for everything again youve been great with all your help since the first day i was looking at getting an ironhead I going to start another tread because i ran into a problem with the breater and oil. thanks again

 

When I changed generator and regulator out, I was not sure which was the problem.The only test I could do for the solid state regulator was check the juice coming from that to the battery.The readings were not what they should have been but I couldn't tell ifthe regulator was in fact bad or if I got bad results from a bad generator sending bad juice to the regulator.Also, I opened up the generator and found that while nothing tested as shorted, it was extreemly worn and had loose shaft bearings. If I didn't replace it, it would deffinately need to be rebuilt. I made up my mind to replace both to have peace of mind that both would be new with warranty. I did, however, change only one piece at a time and determined that the regulator was the cause. Now, when I get to the point that the battery no longer holds a charge, I know it will be time to change the battery and nothing else.

Rich

 

Did you polarize the generator after you installed the new battery? If you don't do this it won't charge. Connect a wire to the "A" or armature terminal on the generator and then just touch the other end of the wire to the positive terminal on the battery for a half a second. Make sure all your wiring is connected before you do this and you have a charged battery. Not polarizing can result in generator and/or regulator failure.

 

yeah polerized it. I think maybe me jumping it off a car to get it started the first time when i was looking at it i may have mess up the regulator