bad battery?

[Guest]

so i futzed around with my 650g, trying to figure out whether my dyna unit is good like dyna said it is last night. I managed to go from the left side causing a volt drop to both sides causing it, verified by disconnecting one side at a time by removing the male spades from the connector and installing them in the female connector one side at a time, and then both at once. but before I got to really futz around with it, I had to throw my charger on it. so I put it on the 10a for about an hour or so while I ran to get some solder and a screw, came back and had 12.3-ish volts. so after trying a lot of things, I decided to say screw it and fire the damn thing up. fired up on choke, no ether, just vroom. so after I get it to idle off choke and readjust the idle, I shut it off to connect the tank's vacuum line, since I had it on prime and I wanted to run it on run/on so when I was finished I wouldn't forget that I had it on prime and possibly flood the crank case, like I have in the past. reconnected the vacuum line, and all I get is a buzzing/clicking from the starter solenoid, and some noise from the starter, and maybe just one revolution on the starter, like the battery is low on vdc. I've seen car batteries have sufficient voltage, but insufficient amperage. could I be experiencing that with this battery? I know the battery was on its last legs, but I didn't think that it had this little life left in it. I have it on a 24-ish 2a trickle charge now, since the trickle charge is the best for the battery in the long run. also, would I be able to use my kz's battery for testing? I bought it brand new last june and it has been great since I bought it.

[posplayr]

If you look at the Quick Test all you have to do with standard loads is see how far the battery drops when you turn the key on.
turning the key on with headlamp pulls about 10 amps. No more than about a 1volt drop is all you expect and that means staying over 12.0V (no less than 11.8)

A battery can read 12.8 V and be basically worthless. The "test" is: Can the battery supply current and maintain a reasonable voltage. You can read about internal resistance. If the battery is dead it acts like it has high internal resistance. i.e. the voltage drops alot providing a small current.

If you change it (2-4 amps for 24 hours and it still drops a lot, then this is what is called 'not holding a change".

[Brendan W]

Use the KZ battery if you want. It would have enough cranking amps for the 650. 2 Amps is about the max I would ever try to fire into a 14 Ah battery. At 10 A I would expect the battery to start complaining. See what it's like after an overnight charge.

[posplayr]

Use the KZ battery if you want. It would have enough cranking amps for the 650. 2 Amps is about the max I would ever try to fire into a 14 Ah battery. At 10 A I would expect the battery to start complaining. See what it's like after an overnight charge.

2 amps and a 14 ampHr battery is C/7; looking at the chart below for 50% SOC the 2 amps is achieved with just 13.25V. That is a pretty low voltage and is well with a safety region for the battery. It really is about state of charge and the voltage on the battery. As long as you stay below 14 volts on the battery you can go for a long time indeed.

A voltmeter can be a wonderful thing

However if I ran a 14 amp-hr battery at 10 amps it would not be for long (less than 15 minutes).

http://www.scubaengineer.com/documents/lead_acid_battery_charging_graphs.pdf

[60ratrod]

well I will take a look when I get home. i'm getting ready to get off watch here in a little bit and need to go grocery shopping. worst case scenario for tonight, I end up using the battery from the kz to continue troubleshooting my ignition woes and see if this is indeed a case of a bad battery.

when I do any electrical troubleshooting on my bikes, I don't leave the key on long. just long enough to look at the gripe, see what it's doing, and trying different things as I troubleshoot and find possible solutions here on the boards. and 97% of the time the light switch is off, to reduce the load. I really like having the headlamp off switch on my 650g. problem with that is, I tend to forget that it's off unless it's dark out. I think I need to make a small written check list for when I ride her

[60ratrod]

Use the KZ battery if you want. It would have enough cranking amps for the 650. 2 Amps is about the max I would ever try to fire into a 14 Ah battery. At 10 A I would expect the battery to start complaining. See what it's like after an overnight charge.

I only use the 10a setting for short periods, 2-3 hours or less, even with my cages. otherwise I use the 2a on any battery and let sit for the night.

[60ratrod]

So i pulled the battery off the charger after i got home and measured the resting voltage, 13.73 vdc. Turned the ignition key on, kill switch and light switch off, battery voltage drops down to 12.3-ish volts, turn the lights on and wholly wow, voltage drops to 11.3vdc and keeps dropping. Try and crank, and sounds like the battery is low on juice. So looks like i was correct in thinking i need to get a new battery. I haven't tried the kz's battery yet. I had to get ready for tomorrow, i gotta be in early. One of these days i'll be able to tell them to go fack off, but i've still got too much time left before i get out to do that

[posplayr]

So i pulled the battery off the charger after i got home and measured the resting voltage, 13.73 vdc. Turned the ignition key on, kill switch and light switch off, battery voltage drops down to 12.3-ish volts, turn the lights on and wholly wow, voltage drops to 11.3vdc and keeps dropping. Try and crank, and sounds like the battery is low on juice. So looks like i was correct in thinking i need to get a new battery. I haven't tried the kz's battery yet. I had to get ready for tomorrow, i gotta be in early. One of these days i'll be able to tell them to go fack off, but i've still got too much time left before i get out to do that

Simple load test works all of the time.

[60ratrod]

pos,

i'm glad you told me about it. sure did help in figuring out that I got a bad battery. I never knew about testing like that, even on cars.