Melted Negative Battery Terminal

[silverhorse47]

Not much to be gained from taking a battery that won't hold a charge to be 'tested'.
Still wondering about the 'puff of smoke'.

S.

[Normk]

+1. Not much use testing a battery which won't hold charge. Let's consider what the test result could indicate?

Oh, yes. Battery is no good. It won't hold a charge but other than that it's great.

How do you know that it won't hold a charge? Does it go dead when charged and left disconnected or only when connected to the bike?

If only goes dead when connected to the bike then you have a parasitic drain rather than a battery issue.

Do have access to anyother battery which can be used for testing?

Regardless, charge the battery and leave disconnected to see if it goes dead. If so you will need to buy another battery. If you intend to do trouble shooting before buying the new battery then another needs to stand in but you could use jumper cables off another battery such as an automotive one. If using a battery in another vehicle, do not run the other vehicle's engine while connected to the bike.

Once you have battery power connected to the bike's battery cables, you can test for power at the battery side of the starter relay, at the ignition switch side of the fuse box (with key on), etc.

As for the puff of smoke, could be from anywhere, especially if you just did some rewiring. I'd be pulling all the fuses and then starting with testing, beginning with main fuse and adding the others one at a time until you locate the issue.

IMO, the starter theories are not the place to start as you will need to have battery power connected and then begin with testing from there.

This all goes without saying that the battery cable connections need to be clean and bright but not shiny black.

It may be that there was a serious short which caused a connector bar failure within the battery but if that were the case you would have more than a small puff of smoke.

Too much conjecture and not enough data. Deal with the battery questions first and then go from there.

Not much to be gained from taking a battery that won't hold a charge to be 'tested'.
Still wondering about the 'puff of smoke'.

S.

[tpalmer1359]

Silverhorse47 and Normk. Thanks very much for your responses. Put in new battery a couple weeks ago and all is perfect electrically. Fires right up. All indicators and gages work. Battery holds its charge.

Only issue is that my "repaired" starter cluth just failed again with a pronounced rattle. A spring had collapsed, the unit is full of marks and gauged, plus one pin won't come out of its bore, so I ordered a brand new unit from Boulevard Suzuki during sale.

Can't wait to button it up and twist the thottle again.

[chuck hahn]

With the bike running, did you check the voltage at the battery?? Is it charging properly?

[tpalmer1359]

With the bike running, did you check the voltage at the battery?? Is it charging properly?

I have not. Battery recharges very quickly on tender after being run either for a ride or in garage for a short period.

Please let me know how to check voltage. I have a 6v / 12v tester in its package.

[chuck hahn]

Start the bike and have a volt meter set at DC volts . Touch the meter probes to the corresponding battery terminals. Should be ( around ) 12.6 to 12.9 at idle. Rev up to around 4,000 RPM and see if the voltage increases as the RPMs rise..should reach around 13.9 to 14.5 as a usual normal range. However if its somewhere around 13.5 or so it is still considered to be an acceptable charge rate.

[tpalmer1359]

Start the bike and have a volt meter set at DC volts . Touch the meter probes to the corresponding battery terminals. Should be ( around ) 12.6 to 12.9 at idle. Rev up to around 4,000 RPM and see if the voltage increases as the RPMs rise..should reach around 13.9 to 14.5 as a usual normal range. However if its somewhere around 13.5 or so it is still considered to be an acceptable charge rate.

Thanks very much and happy new year. I'll do this after I put on the new starter clutch.

[old_skool]

Melted negative battery post...thats exactly how I bought my latest endeavor, it had nothing to do with the actuall negative circuit on mine, the starter cover shorted to the starter hot post, make sure yours didn't do this, you may have inadvertantly fixed the issue when you removed the starter and reinstalled it without it making the short. Double check the inside of the starter cover for a burn mark, you may have other repairs because of the short, but double check just in case so if it was this, it doesn't do it again.