81 GS850GX Battery Drain Problem

[Buster-boy]

Battery Drain

Ok Dogma, I hear ya. I'll charge it over night. But for whatever it's worth, I did another round this evening and here's what I got -

Engine not running - 12.33
Engine at idle - 12.58
Engine at 5k - 13.33 (That's low, should be 14-15, but Stator is new. I'm lost there)
Drove it and it stalled. Took a reading before trying to restart - 12.30v
Tried to restart. No luck. Pushed it home
Let it sit 15 minutes or so took another reading - 11.98v still won't start
Came back two hours later - 12.01 fired it up and drove to the garage and parked it.

I'll charge it overnight and we'll do this again tomorrow night around 7:00 pm.

Side question - did these things always idle really high? When I'm driving and pull in the clutch to downshift or turn around in the street, the idle goes up to about 3k. We can address this one later on if you like, I just wanted to throw this out there to chew on for a while.

Thanks again Dogma. Your efforts to assist are greatly appreciated.

[Steve]

You know that's interesting. Since you don't have to do this with car batteries I guess I figured MC batteries were the same. ... Now, I've charged this battery a hundred times since buying it. When done charging, my voltmeter reads 12.5*v. Assuming this battery was never initialized, am I now good since I've charged it so many times, or should I get a new one and start from scratch?

Well, you really should do it with a car battery, but nobody ever bothers to tell you about it. Cars can get away with it better because they have a LOT more extra battery capacity than they really need, so when they are missing a little reserve off the top, they don't really notice it.

If your fully-charged battery is only showing 12.5 volts, you really need a new battery.
Why have you had to charge your battery "a hundred times"?
How dead was it before you charged it?
How long after it was dead did you charge it?
How quickly did you charge it? (trickle charge, about 1.5 to 2 amps or quicker, about 10 amps?)

Any of these factors will reduce the capacity of the battery. Factor in that it was probably not initialized properly in the first place, and it's actually a wonder it's still (barely) alive.

.

[81gs1100]

I'll just jump in here and say;

Do a load test on the battery, it can read 13.4 vdc and still be a bad battery.

You can take it to pretty much any cycle shop and have it tested if you do not have a load tester. If it fails the test, toss it, if it passes, start doing voltage drop tests and figure out where the problem is.

[psyguy]

i'm going through similar issues right now.

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?t=146155

that battery is likely dead. it should read over 13V fresh of the charger and it should hold the charge for at least a day.
you'll be chasing your tail trying to figure out the charging system with anything less than a good battery.

[psyguy]

or should I get a new one and start from scratch?

i'm affraid so...

[Buster-boy]

Ok, with the battery fully charged here's the latest numbers -

Engine off - 12.64v
At 5K rpm - 13.98v
Rode 10 minutes and stalled - 12.66 with engine off
Restarted without killing battery
Rode another 10 minutes, went home, turned engine off - 12.64

The numbers are a little low but doesn't look too bad.

I'm also having issues with carburation. Backfires through carb #2. When pulling in the clutch, idle goes to about 3k rpm. When starting out from a dead stop or from turning around in the street I need to play with the clutch a little bit to get going. Not 100% responsive when hitting the throttle, just a slight bogging out but when it opens up it goes like hell. Idle floats between 2500 & 3000 rpm at idle. Those are all indicative of and air leak. My next trick is to find it.

I think that's my stalling issue becasue it stalls when turning around and the r's are low.

[spyder2120]

if your battery is low you wont have enough juice for the coils to produce a good spark. youll have power loss, dim headlight beam and backfiring untill the motor cuts out. im no expert but it sounds like a couple of diff. issues. i would concentrate on the electrical first, without enough juice nothing will run right and trouble shooting the rest will be that much more difficult. good luck buddy.

[Buster-boy]

I'll take you guys word for it and buy a new battery tomorrow and we'll see what happens. What's another $50 out the window if this isn't it, right?

[BassCliff]

Hi,

Did you get your old battery load tested?

It's just that you need a known good fully charged battery to start going through the stator papers and test the rest of the charging system.



Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

[Buster-boy]

Not "professionally" load tested, just the 5k rpm test. I read the stator papers a while ago. That's what lead me to changing the stator and r/r. I don't remember the numbers from back then (about a month ago) but I can tell you they were low. This is also why I'm still puzzled as to why I'm getting these numbers now. Something just doesn't make sense.

[Buster-boy]

Battery Drain

Hey guys, I got called out of town for a few days for my job. I'll have to continue this saga next week. Thanks to everyone for throwing in your two cents. I really appreciate everything you've done for me.

Take Care! I'll be back online by Sunday.

Jim

[Buster-boy]

I'm Back

Ok guys I'm finally back. Battery drain problem has been solved. I bought a new battery, charged it full and installed it. Now things are good with the electrical system , but I have other issues. I'm starting a new thread called 1981 GS850GX Carb Problems.

Thanks for everyone's input on this issue.

Jim C.