Battery Getting Drained
- Thread starter BJMtz
- Start date
It could be either.
You're going to need a multimeter to know for sure. Get the bike started and leave it to idle a couple of minutes. Read the voltage directly across the two battery terminals (while the battery is still connected). You should see at least 12.5V. Any less is a not a good sign. Now rev the bike up to 4000RPM or so while continuing to monitor the multimeter. You want to see it sitting around 14V, now. If the voltages don't climb or only climb a little bit, it's possible you have a charging system problem and we can address that when you get to that point.
If the voltages do climb, go ahead and shut off the bike and continue to monitor the voltage on the battery with the engine not running. The battery should slowly return down to 12V or so over the course of 10 minutes (give or take a bit). If the voltage drops to 12.5V or less either immediately or very quickly (less than a minutes) you likely have a bad battery.
You're going to need a multimeter to know for sure. Get the bike started and leave it to idle a couple of minutes. Read the voltage directly across the two battery terminals (while the battery is still connected). You should see at least 12.5V. Any less is a not a good sign. Now rev the bike up to 4000RPM or so while continuing to monitor the multimeter. You want to see it sitting around 14V, now. If the voltages don't climb or only climb a little bit, it's possible you have a charging system problem and we can address that when you get to that point.
If the voltages do climb, go ahead and shut off the bike and continue to monitor the voltage on the battery with the engine not running. The battery should slowly return down to 12V or so over the course of 10 minutes (give or take a bit). If the voltage drops to 12.5V or less either immediately or very quickly (less than a minutes) you likely have a bad battery.
Sonreir said:
Ok, so I finally got a multimeter and ran the test as follows:
When measuring after idling for a few minutes it read 12.8V
When revving it measured up to 15.6V
Turned the bike off and let sit from 5 minutes and kept measuring all afternoon and evening and it was always right around 12.6V
*****since I made the first post I did replace the alternator due to other reasons. I hope that was the cure of my woes.
AlphaDogChoppers
Science is true whether you believe in it or not.
Those voltage sound good, except your highest charging voltage is a bit on the high side now. Make sure you keep the battery watered.
Ok new twist. Was just out trying to start my bike and nothing was happening. Measured the battery before even trying to start it and it still measured above 12.6V. It was turning over just not catching. I was measuring the battery while trying to start and it dipped just below 12V which I assume is normal. Any ideas on what I'm dealing with now?
