saboteur
Turbocharged
Totally sounds like you have a short somewhere. Good luck finding it!
Battery Keeps Dying
- Thread starter heydez
- Start date
nethound
.040 Over
I'm wondering if there might be condensation getting into a relay somewhere. I'm having trouble believing that behavior changes so radically over a 20 degree temperature change.
45 degrees and it barely cranks, 65 and it fires right up. The battery is apparently fully charged and does not appear to lose a charge when left alone.
45 degrees and it barely cranks, 65 and it fires right up. The battery is apparently fully charged and does not appear to lose a charge when left alone.
Macrider
I,m a cowboy, on a steel horse I ride.
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- Oct 31, 2010
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- Sutton ,Ontario, Canada
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- 2010 Triumph R3T Black "Darksider" imitation 70cc motorized "Harley Davidson" bicycle
battery
You need a new battery, thats all,
All it takes is one bad cell in the battery to render it useless.
It will still register 12.4 volts or whatever on a tester but it can not hold it under a load with a bad cell.
and it will not hold a charge.
Dont take the battery to a dealer unless its under warranty.
This has happened to me several times on my other bikes.
See if a new battery solves it.
You need a new battery, thats all,
All it takes is one bad cell in the battery to render it useless.
It will still register 12.4 volts or whatever on a tester but it can not hold it under a load with a bad cell.
and it will not hold a charge.
Dont take the battery to a dealer unless its under warranty.
This has happened to me several times on my other bikes.
See if a new battery solves it.
HellFire
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Mac he's got a relatively new Odyssey. They are glass-mat lead acid technology and last years. It could still be a manufacturing defect, but with the charger not indicating a problem I'd love to know what the voltage is. Probably only a shop is going to have a carbon pile load tester. He could take the battery to a pep boys or place like that to have it tested.
Either way, if he doesn't have the tools, he'll need to take it to someone who does.
Either way, if he doesn't have the tools, he'll need to take it to someone who does.
nethound
.040 Over
Yeah, the battery is new. This problem started a month after I got the bike with the stock battery. Because I didn't want to mess with the battery tray mod at the time, I went with the Odyssey PC545 after reading of someone else here on the forum having good luck with it. When that didn't work, I upgraded to the PC625, since that seemed to be the standard recommendation here. When the problem still persisted, I got the Odyssey Ultimizer charger and gave that a try. In the long run, if I can get whatever the root problem is fixed, I'm sure I will be happy to have the 625 and Ultimizer, so it isn't exactly a waste, just not real useful at the moment.
The problem has occurred with three different batteries. That being said, I guess it's possible that I've fried something with all the jump starts I've had to perform, though since the charger says the battery is good and charged I don't think that is the problem (at least with the battery). I still have the 545 I could throw back in just to see what happens, but I really think something else is wrong.
My biggest problem is that when I took it to the dealer the first time, they kept it a month and didn't do anything but try to start it every so often, which apparently it did for them. They didn't actually check anything. A month seemed like an excessive amount of time to do nothing, so I've been really reluctant to take it back to them. I have a feeling since it is kept inside the shop that the bike isn't getting exposed to the same environmental factors that it does when setting outside at my place. I did take it to another shop and paid money out of pocket for them to check the electrical system out. The only problem they found was that the battery voltage with the engine running was 13.7v, which is a bit below the spec in the manual of 14.5 +/- .5v. However, everything else seemed to have checked out. Of course, this is the first Rocket they had ever worked on, so who knows if they did things correctly.
Hopefully when I explain to the dealer everything I've done so far they will actually dig into it this time around.
Thanks for the advice, and sorry for the *****ing. I'm really wanting to love this bike, just had really high hopes for the fall riding season after getting back on my feet and I'm frustrated they all fell apart on me. I spent the summer in a wheel chair from the wreck in June, and really felt the need to get back in the saddle as soon as possible.
The problem has occurred with three different batteries. That being said, I guess it's possible that I've fried something with all the jump starts I've had to perform, though since the charger says the battery is good and charged I don't think that is the problem (at least with the battery). I still have the 545 I could throw back in just to see what happens, but I really think something else is wrong.
My biggest problem is that when I took it to the dealer the first time, they kept it a month and didn't do anything but try to start it every so often, which apparently it did for them. They didn't actually check anything. A month seemed like an excessive amount of time to do nothing, so I've been really reluctant to take it back to them. I have a feeling since it is kept inside the shop that the bike isn't getting exposed to the same environmental factors that it does when setting outside at my place. I did take it to another shop and paid money out of pocket for them to check the electrical system out. The only problem they found was that the battery voltage with the engine running was 13.7v, which is a bit below the spec in the manual of 14.5 +/- .5v. However, everything else seemed to have checked out. Of course, this is the first Rocket they had ever worked on, so who knows if they did things correctly.
Hopefully when I explain to the dealer everything I've done so far they will actually dig into it this time around.
Thanks for the advice, and sorry for the *****ing. I'm really wanting to love this bike, just had really high hopes for the fall riding season after getting back on my feet and I'm frustrated they all fell apart on me. I spent the summer in a wheel chair from the wreck in June, and really felt the need to get back in the saddle as soon as possible.
Macrider
I,m a cowboy, on a steel horse I ride.
- Joined
- Oct 31, 2010
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- 767
- Location
- Sutton ,Ontario, Canada
- Ride
- 2010 Triumph R3T Black "Darksider" imitation 70cc motorized "Harley Davidson" bicycle
electrical diagnosis chart
Thats awful, I would be upset too.
If you have a friend or neighbour or someone that knows a little about
testing electrical components ?
Here is a chart that might help.
It is more specific to japanese bikes but i think it follows all the same principles.
http://www.electrosport.com/technical-resources/library/diagnosis/pdf/fault-finding-diagram.pdf
I hope this helps? keep us updated about your bike.
Thats awful, I would be upset too.
If you have a friend or neighbour or someone that knows a little about
testing electrical components ?
Here is a chart that might help.
It is more specific to japanese bikes but i think it follows all the same principles.
http://www.electrosport.com/technical-resources/library/diagnosis/pdf/fault-finding-diagram.pdf
I hope this helps? keep us updated about your bike.
albertaduke
former airline pilot without the big bucks
nethound
.040 Over
Thanks for the chart Macrider. I do have the service manual which shows the checks to perform, though it doesn't look as thorough as that chart. I supplied it to the shop I took it to so they at least had some idea what they were looking at.
I have the tools and am fairly good with electrical stuff, but without a shop or a garage to work in and only limited time to commit to it I just haven't gone very far into it myself.
Right now though, I'm really leaning towards a problem with the starter motor itself. The battery shows fully charged but now doesn't want to crank over the bike. Originally the starter would spin pretty good but just not start. Now it seems to be getting worse and barely turning over despite a fully charged battery. Not sure if it is just because it's colder out, or if something is actually getting worse, but it would seem the load is just too much for the battery to handle. I've heard tells of odd problems on these caused by bad ignition switches, not sure if that was fixed by the 08 models or not, but maybe that is another possibility to look at.
Either way, I've spent enough time messing with it. With it being new I'm going to let the dealer earn their keep.
I have the tools and am fairly good with electrical stuff, but without a shop or a garage to work in and only limited time to commit to it I just haven't gone very far into it myself.
Right now though, I'm really leaning towards a problem with the starter motor itself. The battery shows fully charged but now doesn't want to crank over the bike. Originally the starter would spin pretty good but just not start. Now it seems to be getting worse and barely turning over despite a fully charged battery. Not sure if it is just because it's colder out, or if something is actually getting worse, but it would seem the load is just too much for the battery to handle. I've heard tells of odd problems on these caused by bad ignition switches, not sure if that was fixed by the 08 models or not, but maybe that is another possibility to look at.
Either way, I've spent enough time messing with it. With it being new I'm going to let the dealer earn their keep.
HellFire
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At near freezing temps, my bike obviously labors to turn over. The stock battery at full charge would crank fast enough to start for around 5-8 seconds. That was not near enough time to build fuel pressure and start. The odyssey can crank the bike cold for much longer even though it's laboring to turn the cold motor.
I think that even though it's a very light weight synthetic oil, the surfaces in the 2300cc engine are so much larger than any other bike, it causes alot of drag. I don't see how you could start one at all in the cold with a heavy weight oil like 50w.
But it does sound like a starter motor problem if it REALLY, really labors all the time.
Let us know what the shop comes up with, I'm curious what they find.
I've gotten in the habit of turning the bike on and off a couple times in the cold to build fuel pressure prior to cranking the motor in the hope of reducing the crank time. I don't know if it works or not, just sounds logical to me.
I think that even though it's a very light weight synthetic oil, the surfaces in the 2300cc engine are so much larger than any other bike, it causes alot of drag. I don't see how you could start one at all in the cold with a heavy weight oil like 50w.
But it does sound like a starter motor problem if it REALLY, really labors all the time.
Let us know what the shop comes up with, I'm curious what they find.
I've gotten in the habit of turning the bike on and off a couple times in the cold to build fuel pressure prior to cranking the motor in the hope of reducing the crank time. I don't know if it works or not, just sounds logical to me.
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