Just got my tins back from painting. Put it all back together per the service manual and no power! I hook up my batter tender for a day. Nothing. Hooked it up to a trickle charger. Says its full charged. This battery has been outside in the bike all winter and off the tender for the last 2 months but The charger says fully charged after charging it. I rechecked all connections and fuses all are good. Makes no sense!!! Anyone have any ideas?

 

This is a 2000 road king classic.

 

If you have a volt meter test the battery voltage. If reading 12.6 to 12.9 battery should be good. If you have a load tester you can pull a load test also.

I would check all connections including the ground. Make sure all connections are clean and tight.

 

Think a trickle charger could show a false charge? I mean when I turn my ignition switch to accessory I get absolutely nothing. Not a dim lights or anything. Could the battery have frozen over the winter?

 

do not trust a tender to charge a dead battery or truly indicate condition.

a dead battery can be recharged with a real battery charger, then load tested.

do not try to get a jump and use the bike's charging system to bring it back to life, this can stress the charging system and kill it dead.

once fully discharged, a battery looses much of it's capacity and will slowly circle the drain at best.

mike

 

Check main fuse to make sure it's seated properly....and no I'm not trying to be a smart ***. I had a buddy who actually forgot to put his back in after taking it out for some major (2 month long) modificaitons. Let's just say the beers were on him after a couple of us helped him "trouble shoot" the problem

 

Well I never touched the main fuse I just took the battery out. I think the next step is to get a voltage meter and test it. Or take the battery out and bring it somewhere to have tested.

 

I had a similar issue, found out that all my fuses were corroded and this was on a 2008 FXDL only 4 months old. You can't use a trickle charger to charge a battery. You need 12V auto charger with the amps.

Hope you get it fixed.

 

Its amazing the times I have had a greasy hand print on my forehead after over thinking something and getting back to the "KISS" method of troubleshooting. This applies to all aspects of life and not just wrenching on a bike, something I am not all that great at. The obvious has already been mentioned.

 

If it is totally dead you will need to take it out of the bike and do a complete charge - but as stated earlier, charge with a regular charger. 10 amp for about 3 hours should do the trick. Then check voltage and load test it.

If it was drained down and left that way for a while it may not come back. If it is a gel battery you need to have a special gel charger for it.