Interesting twist on RR failures

[lhanscom]

So last night on my way home my bike dies, no juice, the dreaded charging issue. So my wife comes and picks me and the bike up and head home, where I print off the stator papers and start looking into things. I'm getting no current to the battery, but the stator checks out, so I pop off the RR, and what do I fine? at some point my battery dripped a bit, putting acid on the back of the RR, eating a nice big hole, oddly enough, it no longer works. The hose that goes on the battery had come off somewhere along the way I guess. So anyway, I put on my spare RR and all is well.

[tfb]

Yep, that's a strange one! I'm sure the acid made short work of the aluminium. Once it gets splashed somewhere it does its rotten work for a long time.

I once had an XJ550 which had somehow gotten acid into the ignition block; the first thing I knew was riding home one dark night up a narrow dirt road, and suddenly the lights, engine, EVERYTHING cut out and made life a little interesting for a moment there. 8O

Mike.

[Jethro]

Sounds like a good time to make the switch to a sealed battery.

[lhanscom]

Yeah, I bought one of those about a month before I sold my 700. I just bought a new battery for the 1150, that isn't sealed, because I needed it before I could ride, it was a nice day out, and walmart was open. You know how it goes. I'll stick with this battery for at least a year, I did put a hose back on though.

[Bolder Biker]

Once, when re-installing the battery and re-attaching the over-flow tube, I got the tube pinched in a routing clip. This effectively closed off the tube and sealed in the gases as my bike ran. Next time I checked, the battery had swelled up like a balloon from the built-up pressure.......who'd have thought the battery case was so flexible?

Well, the battery was fairly new, and I can be very "thrifty" , so I wasn't about to replace the mis-shapen thing because of a little unsightly swelling around the midriff. I removed the battery, clamped it between two wooden boards and set it out in the sun on a hot day. Guess what? It resumed (approximately) its former shape, and went on to function for a total of 6 years.

BB