Dead Shorai battery overnight

[scaylabs]

I've been using my bike to commute about 10 miles to work almost daily, and put almost 1000 miles on the clock with no battery issues, always on the same Shorai.

Last Friday night going home I got caught in some bad rain (not the first time). At some point it felt like I was running on 2 cylinders but it cleared after a couple of blocks. I figured something was getting wet that wasn't enjoying it or really running out of gas (was running on reserve as well, fun night! ).

Saturday afternoon, with everything nice and dry, got ready to go for a fun ride for a change, and the battery is completely dead. Tested it and its at 1.5V. Left it charging overnight with not much hope it would do anything...and it didn't, 2.2V this morning.

Any ideas on what might have happened?
Can't do much testing with no battery...

[Killer2600]

I've been using my bike to commute about 10 miles to work almost daily, and put almost 1000 miles on the clock with no battery issues, always on the same Shorai.

Last Friday night going home I got caught in some bad rain (not the first time). At some point it felt like I was running on 2 cylinders but it cleared after a couple of blocks. I figured something was getting wet that wasn't enjoying it or really running out of gas (was running on reserve as well, fun night! ).

Saturday afternoon, with everything nice and dry, got ready to go for a fun ride for a change, and the battery is completely dead. Tested it and its at 1.5V. Left it charging overnight with not much hope it would do anything...and it didn't, 2.2V this morning.

Any ideas on what might have happened?
Can't do much testing with no battery...

Without much thought, I'd say either the bikes not charging, the battery isn't taking a charge, or there's a short draining the battery. Either way that battery is toast, it either failed or over-discharged.

[posplayr]

I left my dash mounted volt meter "ON" with my Shori connected (I have a dash switch to tun it off). It went dead and no changing would bring it back. You would think there would be some sort of internal protection against destructive draining

I never replaced mine after that.

[hjfisk]

We used one on the GS500 street fighter and are still on the wall about it's capabilities, it has gone dead twice but we caught it both times and got it to charge back before total a drain. Our charging system is all new with 13.85 at idle and 14.25-14.5 above 2500 rpm and the battery would not keep up we ended up putting 35 watt headlamp bulbs and it is working but not sure for how long.

[scaylabs]

Thanks for the replies.
My charging system should be fine, the stator was replaced by a PO and I checked its output, regulator is a newer unit, wiring is all new.
I had no cranking issues indicating a weak battery either.
I can only think that the rain caused a short somewhere that depleted the battery.
Wouldn't I have a blown fuse or not necessarily? Any ideas on how to go about troubleshooting a possible short?

[posplayr]

Thanks for the replies.
My charging system should be fine, the stator was replaced by a PO and I checked its output, regulator is a newer unit, wiring is all new.
I had no cranking issues indicating a weak battery either.
I can only think that the rain caused a short somewhere that depleted the battery.
Wouldn't I have a blown fuse or not necessarily? Any ideas on how to go about troubleshooting a possible short?

pull the positive lead off the battery and tap it onto the terminal in teh dark; you should see a small spark.

[scaylabs]

Thanks for the tip Posplayr. I charged and hooked up the battery that came with the bike and there is definitely a short. I didn't have time to take the tank off to look into it but I think I hear the horn relay.
We will see tomorrow!