Battery SLOWLY Dying

[Legionnaire]

The bike is a 1981 GS450E:

When I turn on the electrical to my bike, and try to turn it down, the bike doesn't even try to turn over cause the second I press the starter the battery goes down too low to give it the juice. Then it slowly goes down and down and down till it is pretty much totally dead.

If I then turn the electrical off and hook up the voltmeter it goes back up 1 by 1 till it is full again, what would be causing such an issue. I must have a cord plugged in wrong or something, thanks ahead of time!

[koolaid_kid]

You need to have the battery load tested. It can show proper voltage but still not have enough current to do any actual work.

[almarconi]

How old is the battery? Maybe it's time for a new one.

[mike10]

maybe jumper cables

If you try and jump start (or boost it as some say) from a battery you know is good and she cranks up. Your battery is most likely bad. If you jump it from a car battery, DO NOT START THE CAR. DO NOT HAVE THE CAR RUNNING! If you do, you will fry/burn up/cook your charging system on your bike.

[Legionnaire]

I just bought a brand new Shorai battery 2 weeks ago actually!

But the thing is... keep this on the hush hush... I was trying to hook it up and put the positive end on, then the negative and the negative would spark and the starter would half way turn over. It ended up that I had the starter wire touching anothing wire on the starter relay. It was weird but basically it sparked a few times at the battery till I figured out what happened. Would that really have killed the battery cause it's seriously brand new!

[Legionnaire]

This is what I bought for my electric start GS450: http://www.shoraipower.com/s-420416-GS450.aspx

I looked it up using their model/make search and it was the only one it brought up, so I assume it is enough to power/turn over my bike, plus it has better specs that my lead battery which did fine!

[GateKeeper]

you might have killed the battery by shorting it out....

take it to a shop and have it load tested...since it's brand new and if the load test fails you might be able to get a replacement

or you still have a short somewhere and it's killing the battery

have battery checked first, and take it from there, at least you can eliminate one thing to worry about

.

[Legionnaire]

you might have killed the battery by shorting it out....

take it to a shop and have it load tested...since it's brand new and if the load test fails you might be able to get a replacement

or you still have a short somewhere and it's killing the battery

have battery checked first, and take it from there, at least you can eliminate one thing to worry about

.

Okay nice simple solution, thanks I will def do that!

[GateKeeper]

even tho you sort of might have caused this issue, I would probably not mention to the shop or the place you purchased the battery that you reversed the polarity, and or that you had a ground fault.....it will just work against you....

but you do need to get a load test done

.

[Legionnaire]

even tho you sort of might have caused this issue, I would probably not mention to the shop or the place you purchased the battery that you reversed the polarity, and or that you had a ground fault.....it will just work against you....

but you do need to get a load test done

.

Yeah totally I am gonna keep my mouth shut… if anything I am just going to return it to Amazon and order a new one and skip the Warranty nonsense/replacement nonsense. Thanks again!

[koolaid_kid]

even tho you sort of might have caused this issue, I would probably not mention to the shop or the place you purchased the battery that you reversed the polarity, and or that you had a ground fault.....it will just work against you....

but you do need to get a load test done

.

Absolutely volunteer no information whatsoever. Tell them it used to work, then suddenly did not, and you do not know why. They do not lose money, they just return it to the manufacturer. They will load test it for free, just to verify that it is dead.
BTW, glad you found the issue during your discovery process. Always a relief to find the issue before moving forward.

[GateKeeper]

battery problems do happen, I purchased a brand new one, the shop charged it for me, I took it home, did not even use it, in the morning I was going to install, tested the voltage it was at like 8 volts, I put my charger on, and would not charge. back to the shop, load test done, and it was a bad one, they would have replaced it right on the spot but had none in stock, I couldn't wait the week for them to get one in, got my cash back and went to another place that had one in stock, they also charged it for me, and it's been in use ever since....

.

[koolaid_kid]

Reminds me of a time about 20 years ago. I purchased a brand new high end battery for my vehicle. It had a bonus warranty where they would come fix it if the battery died. I sent in the warranty card for the service. Later that week I drove to the airport for my Christmas trip home to Houston, leaving the vehicle in the airport parking lot. I arrived back at the airport, where it had snowed while I was gone. I went to my vehicle; the battery was dead. I took the shuttle back to the airport and called the company. They had no record of my warranty because it was not in their system yet. Grrr. I had to call a friend to come give me a jump so I could take the damm battery back and get a new one.

[Legionnaire]

Can I go to an autozone or a place like that to get it load tested?

Esssshhhh yeah that is exactly why I am going to shut my mouth in case they ask me, I am just gonna go through Amazon because since I am an Amazon Prime member they don't ask a single question most of the time. That is a horrible story... warranties always seem to lead to some ****ty stories

[koolaid_kid]

Yes, any reputable auto parts can load test it for you for free.