Trouble-shooting advice appreciated!

[n4s]

I think I know the answer already, but wouldn't mind everyone's thoughts.

The bike = 2007 S4RS.

Stored over the winter in the garage. But the owner (that's me) was somewhat negligent and lazy and never hooked it up to a battery tender. He put it up on stands and added stabil, but unfortunately... no tender (I know, he should be tied and beaten). So anyway, the owner finally got his lazy butt to gpbikes last week to buy a tender (by the way, the new location is awesome). The reason he needed a tender was bc his old one was the standard trickle charger with the two cables that attach to the battery. Last season, he had GP hook up one of those sweet wires that connect to the battery and hang off the side. Unfortunately, he never got around to buying a tender with the right cable.

Fast forward to last week. So the owner finally connected the trickle charger and plugged her in. The red light came on, which according to the manual means that the battery is charging. The problem is, the red light never turned to green (which means fully charged and in standby mode). The red light stayed on for 3 days. The owner knew something was wrong so today he unplugged the tender and tried to fire the bike up. Guess what. nothing. Not even dim headlights. not a chirp. nada.

so...........

here is what i think. dead battery. battery was so low that the trickle charger won't charge it.

the fix. buy a new battery.

the request. any other thoughts???? I have no problem buying a new battery, but would really really prefer some other option (mybe the trickle charger is defective? probably not.. i know...)... the reason is, getting to the battery on my bike is a PITA..... i have a steering stablizer installed which sort of blocks the tank. On top of that, my tank has swelled a bit so that it is really hard to unclip it (whole other issue).......

[Chris]

Here's what I would do:

1) verify that the lead that was put on by GP was still attached to both terminals. If so, go to 2. If the charger is not attached to the battery, the red light still comes on. You may find that one of the ends is not attached.
2) test to see if the bike starts with another battery. If so, go to 3.
3) yell at myself for being a lazy a$$ - go directly to 4.
4) buy a new battery. I hear good things about those fancy new Shorai batteries.

I'd be really surprised if your battery (after that much charging) couldn't at least give you some dim lights.

I think a connection between the battery->bike or battery->charger has gone wrong.

Good luck

[n4s]

[Sailor]

Hi, as Chris said in his list, sounds like one of the anode connections is off or loose. That being said Bike batteries are notorious for dying when you least need it to. You can buy ten of these things and at least 4 of them will be junk. The battery may have sulfated to the point where a trickle charge will not do anything for it so if you can get at it and hammer it with an auto charger (12V at 6 amps) for about 4 hours, no longer, that may knock off some of the crap on the plates and allow the trick charger (12v at 1.5 - 2 amps) to bring it to full strength. Good luck and remember if we don't make mistakes we never learn things. Cheers

Sailor

[ERIC SUMMERS]

Hello n4s,
Dont waste your time.buy a new battery.The Battery Tender will not charge the battery because the batteries resistance is too high.If a lead was off the red lite would flash . Whereas this bike constantly draws off the battery to some extent ,the battery has totally discharged ,the sulfuric acid is in the plates ,the plates are sulfated, the battery will never be any good,dont let anyone sell you a miracle pulsing charger and tell you it will revive the battery by getting rid of the sulfation ,it wont,you cannot rid the sulfation internally in the plates,only on the surface ,you will still have a battery that will not store or deliver enough energy to operate your electrical system adequately and you take the chance of damaging other more expensive components because the revitalized battery will not deliver enough voltage under load so the high amperage will damage components.Also you cannot charge this battery at any more than 2.5-3 amps absolute maximum without overheating the plates and causing plate warpage .If it is a gel battery you should not go over 2 amps.Next year make up a Y adaptor for your Battery Tender and you can maintain two bikes on one charger after you charge them individually.
Tnxs. Eric

[jimgoeg]

Eric:
Re: Miracle pulsing charger
Well said!. I bought one of those "pulsing chargers" some time ago. It has never lived up to its promise.