Did I kill my Battery?

RalleyTuned

RalleyTuned

New Member
So I have an AGM type battery for my honda cb360. I actually borrowed it from my track car haha. When I first started working on the bike a few months ago, the battery seemed fine and held a charge, enough to crank the bike a few times before wearing down, and then I would hook it up to charge on trickle over night and would be fine again. I was not riding the bike, only troubleshooting running and electrical stuff.

I left the bike for a while since I had no money to continue fixing things. I went back at it and the battery was completely dead, and only showed .2v on the multimeter. I have tried all I can do with my charger and at current is the highest voltage it has held, only 7.8v.

I have tried to trickle charge over night with zero improvement. Hooked up in parallel with a fully charged battery and charged over night, which brought it up to the current voltage. No amount of charging will get it any higher than that. I try not to charge for over 8-15hrs to avoid worse damage.

Any other tips or is this thing done? I have read often that you shouldn't let the battery get below 50% (which is around 11v or so) and it was WAAAAAY below that at barely showing .2v.
 
If you were cranking the motor over with the battery until it was weak, you probably killed it right there. If you're working on the bike, leave the trickle charger hooked up to the battery on the bike and don't crank the motor but 3-4 times before you let the battery get charged back up.

I've killed a lot of batteries and learned to treat them well and keep them charged. Sorry.
 
Thanks for the condolences, I was pretty sure it kicked the bucket. I have been pretty hard on it over its life, I mean it was in my track car. It sat at a decent charge most the time but the head and cranking at track days and autox events took its toll.

I was kick starting the bike for testing probably 90% of the time, and usually left it on the auto trickle charge when I was finished or using the starter. Lesson learned on this one I suppose
 
For future reference, get a Battery Tender or equivalent. Keep the battery charged. Each excursion below 12V DC reduces AH capacity and CCA buy 40-50% or more. After 3 or 4 discharges, the battery is done. If you keep them charged, and don't run them down, they will last quite a while. My 91 NH750 has an AGM yuasa battery I bought in 2007. It replaced and conventional battery that was over 7 years old (Date code predated the present Yuasa owners, so it may of been older). My 2007 Battery is still at 12.5-12.6 volts standing. It is on the battery tender whenever I am not riding. I expect to get a few more years oout of it.

My CB360 has a 2 year old conventional lead acid battery. Still strong too. always on the tender, always use distilled water. I expect a few more seasons too.

Lead acid batteries need to be kept charged when they are not being used, and not over discharged. If you do that, you will be pleasantly surprised how long they last.
 
Thanks for the tips, I will keep them in mind with the replacement

I was pretty happy for long it lasted with how bad I treated it, Got a new one coming from a friend who had a new lead acid style battery so I will treat that one much better since it will be more sensitive to discharging.

Thanks to all for the quick replys!
 
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