Bad battery after ~3 months?

[posplayr]

That looks like an inline fuse and a bullet connector. There has to be a fuse between the battery and the rest of the system. Also notice where there is a "dot" between where the r/r red joins withe the fused wire from battery; there is a crimp there but inside the harness. Probably no more that 3-4 inches in. Find that And rune solder into it as well

[incarceration]

Yeah that red dot I put there because the schematic had it on there and that signifies being a connection between the 2.

There is the one fuse between the battery and the rest of the system via the smaller wire that is crimped to the larger wire that's attached to the starter relay, there isn't a fuse between the starter relay and the battery though.

Alright I'll try and track down the wire from the other wire with the fuse

[posplayr]

Yeah that red dot I put there because the schematic had it on there and that signifies being a connection between the 2.

There is the one fuse between the battery and the rest of the system via the smaller wire that is crimped to the larger wire that's attached to the starter relay, there isn't a fuse between the starter relay and the battery though.

Alright I'll try and track down the wire from the other wire with the fuse

Generally not considered a risk.

[incarceration]

Generally not considered a risk.

Yeah, cause it's a very short distance.

Anyway, I checked out the wire and chased it down, it goes from the POS (RED) battery terminal to an eyelet-like, copper connector that goes onto the POS post of the starter relay, that same eyelet-like, copper connector has another wire come out of it and crimped into it and that goes to the fuse, then to a little plug type connector with a plastic sheath over it and then it goes into some electrical tape and then into the VRR (voltage regulator\rectifier.)

I stripped off all of the electrical tape and then discovered there was 2 wires that were crimped with a brass clip, crimping 3 wires together, 1 coming from the RED wire of the VRR, 1 coming from the wire that goes to the fuse and then to the POS post of the starter relay and another that went off somewhere up into some more electrical-tape-wrapped wires. I cut off the connection with the 3 wires and soldered them all together then put new electrical tape wrapped around them all.

Before and after all of this, I checked the start up and it seems to be back to starting right up on the first crank, but the diagnostic tests I was told to run, where I get the voltage from the POS post of the starter relay and the RED wire of the VRR, is still yielding huge jumps. So because of this, and after doing the above where I redid the solder connection at one spot (as well as before doing this actually), I just tested the voltage from the POS post on the starter relay and then only to the other side of the fuse, furthest from the NEG lead of my DMM and it was doing the same thing. Is it the fuse that is causing all of this? All that's between the 2 DMM leads at that time is a piece of wire, 2 crimped on connectors that have the fuse snap into place and a fuse, that's it.

The fuse is a 15A fuse. That shouldn't matter though as it'll just allow too little or too much current through before blowing, or blow too much, depending on current.

What else should I check? Like I said, the bike is starting back up like it should now for some reason (it did before I did anything today) and I never even did anything except take the motorcycle battery out and then a couple days later at most, put it back in.

[posplayr]

Yeah, cause it's a very short distance.

No because solenoids do not often short out and if it did it would probably run the starter into the ground and not burn the harness,

Anyway, I checked out the wire and chased it down, it goes from the POS (RED) battery terminal to an eyelet-like, copper connector that goes onto the POS post of the starter relay, that same eyelet-like, copper connector has another wire come out of it and crimped into it and that goes to the fuse, then to a little plug type connector with a plastic sheath over it and then it goes into some electrical tape and then into the VRR (voltage regulator\rectifier.)

I stripped off all of the electrical tape and then discovered there was 2 wires that were crimped with a brass clip, crimping 3 wires together, 1 coming from the RED wire of the VRR, 1 coming from the wire that goes to the fuse and then to the POS post of the starter relay and another that went off somewhere up into some more electrical-tape-wrapped wires. I cut off the connection with the 3 wires and soldered them all together then put new electrical tape wrapped around them all.

Before and after all of this, I checked the start up and it seems to be back to starting right up on the first crank, but the diagnostic tests I was told to run, where I get the voltage from the POS post of the starter relay and the RED wire of the VRR, is still yielding huge jumps. So because of this, and after doing the above where I redid the solder connection at one spot (as well as before doing this actually), I just tested the voltage from the POS post on the starter relay and then only to the other side of the fuse, furthest from the NEG lead of my DMM and it was doing the same thing. Is it the fuse that is causing all of this? All that's between the 2 DMM leads at that time is a piece of wire, 2 crimped on connectors that have the fuse snap into place and a fuse, that's it.

The fuse is a 15A fuse. That shouldn't matter though as it'll just allow too little or too much current through before blowing, or blow too much, depending on current.

What else should I check? Like I said, the bike is starting back up like it should now for some reason (it did before I did anything today) and I never even did anything except take the motorcycle battery out and then a couple days later at most, put it back in.

For a sanity check do the "Quick Test" to see what is happening. Put the test leads directly onto the battery posts (I/e/ stab the centers of the posts)

It sounds like you probably chased down any stray corrosion/resistance if you cleaned all those connections. Remember the connector/pin crimps are the worst so hopefully you used something like naval jelly instead of sand paper.

Fuses don't last for ever and the voltage tests are the best way to detect issues. It only takes 0.1 ohms with 10 amps to get a 1V drop. That means instead of charging at 14.5V you are charging at 13.5V (I don't know how many times I have given this example).

Do you have more than 0.1 ohms in all those connections?

[incarceration]

For a sanity check do the "Quick Test" to see what is happening. Put the test leads directly onto the battery posts (I/e/ stab the centers of the posts)

It sounds like you probably chased down any stray corrosion/resistance if you cleaned all those connections. Remember the connector/pin crimps are the worst so hopefully you used something like naval jelly instead of sand paper.

Fuses don't last for ever and the voltage tests are the best way to detect issues. It only takes 0.1 ohms with 10 amps to get a 1V drop. That means instead of charging at 14.5V you are charging at 13.5V (I don't know how many times I have given this example).

Do you have more than 0.1 ohms in all those connections?

I'm assuming you're talking about the connectors connecting to the fuse, to the starter relay, and the plug connectors and where they are crimped into each connector? I didn't do anything to them after inspection, Are you suggesting to do something to those connectors and/or replace the fuse?

[posplayr]

I'm assuming you're talking about the connectors connecting to the fuse, to the starter relay, and the plug connectors and where they are crimped into each connector? I didn't do anything to them after inspection, Are you suggesting to do something to those connectors and/or replace the fuse?

Any resistance (greater than 0.04 ohms) between the R/R(+) and Battery (+) or R?R(-) and Battery(-) can be detrimental to charging voltage at the battery. It sounds like my assumption is making an A$$ out of .......... You need to clean the connections and probably replace that fuse.

I also suggested doing a "Quick Test"

[OldVet66]

You seem to have a pretty simple system. Why don't you just replace the battery cables and all the connectors mentioned while posplayr still has some hair left to pull out. He probably knows more about this than most people on dozens of forums. Forget you think you know anything at all about it and just do it. There are hundreds of people on this forum who owe their functioning electrical systems to posplayr including me. I will admit that my electronics training was on 35 year old Destroyers in Vietnam, and I was an electrician later before I retired, but Posplayr has still taught me a lot and as a result I have no problems with my modernized electrical system. http://www.z1enterprises.com/ListIte...Battery+cables