Electrical Problem

[Anonymous]

I finally got the carbs to work right on my 450s, just ended up buying new float valves. Now I have a diffrent issue. After all the engine cranking I charged the battery at 2amps until the battery charger said the battery was charged. Placed the battery on the bike and ran the turn signals for a good while to make sure it was holdiing a charge. Started the bike let it run and checked the stator out put to make sure it was working, no problems. Charged the battery again with the charger and trickle charger and placed it back in the bike. So I decided it was road worthy again. Rode it to town parked it for about, all switches/lights off, come out an hour later turn the key to on position and nothing. No lights, No power, no nothing don't even get turn signals. The fuses are okay. What is the deal, kind acts like the igniton switch itsn't working? I messed with it there in the parking lot for an hour or so, checking all connections and such and no luck. Ended up calling a friend to come pick me up. The bike is still sitting in one of the motorcycle parking lots on campus, going to wait and load it on the trailor this weekend when campus isn't busy.

[beby99]

Battery cables nice and tight??

[Anonymous]

yes they are 1st thing I checked

[Wingnut]

The first place to start is to see if the battery is dead or not. This will decide how you troubleshoot the problem. If the battery is dead you need to determine why. Is the bike not charging, or is the bike draining the battery while turned off. Or, is the battery fine and there is a power distribution problem within the bikes wiring.

Either way, get a volt meter and test the battery voltage. Should be around 12.5 just sitting there with the engine off. Then go from there.

I had this just the other day. Elderly lady calls me because her car won't start. I go there with a volt meter. 12.5V across the battery posts. But 0V from the engine block to the positive post. The engine block should be just as good as the negetive post but it isn't so I knew right away there was a problem with one of the battery cables. Within five minutes total I clean connections, car starts, lady thinks I'm a genious and I bill her for a tray of cookies. Great day!

[Anonymous]

Troubles

Another thing we're going to check is whats called a parasitic load. Thats a drain on your battery when everything is turned off..it's like an interior light on a car thats left on..like say a glovebox light in your car ..can't see it but its' killing a battery.
Take an ohmmeter, place the leads in the meter into the one marked AMPS for red lead, black lead to COMMON, disconnect the negative lead on the battery, put the red lead of the meter to the now disconnected cable & the black lead to the battery post..with the meter set to say 2-AMPS you should have almost zero amps going THRU your meter, with the meter set higher say 10-AMPS you can turn on the ignition & you'll see exactly how much is being drawn...the display will flicker around & show you maybe six point something amps. A good way to test it out to see if your set up right. If you see some low value as you start out with it at 10 amps start turning the amp scale down 10-2-1-500mA to bring out just how low the draw is.
_______________________________________Rick......

[luc8421]

I'm not too sure what to say beyond what these guys have already said, but if you wanna avoid trailoring the thing back to your house, just bring the battery home to charge it up, then bring it back to the bike, it'll work at least to get it home.