Posts Tagged ‘battery problem’

The Troubles I Bring On Myself

Thursday, August 26th, 2010

I’ve written previously about mechanical difficulties I’ve had with my 30-year-old Honda CB750 Custom. Well, it’s happened again and this time I have no one to blame but myself.

As an aside, there is no better time than now to rave about the free roadside assistance you get if you join the American Motorcyclist Association. I’ve been towed three times now this summer and it didn’t cost me a penny. Just a lot of time waiting for the tow truck.

Charging my batterySo I’ve known I have an electrical problem, and by testing I’ve been able to determine that the battery is fine. That means the charging system has an issue. But I wasn’t willing to let it go at that and just take the bike over to my mechanic. I’m on a pretty tight budget these days and if I’m going to pay for a new stator I wanted to be sure I really needed it.

My way of confirming that the issue truly is in the charging was to ride the bike. With the battery fully charged it fires up and runs great. With no charge reaching the battery, the lights and spark plugs gradually drain the battery until the bike stops dead. This time, however, I packed up my battery charger and an extension cord, figuring that if it died somewhere I’d have my confirmation and then I could find someone who would let me plug in for a few minutes.

Gosh my plan worked well. I was on my way to the gym and it died about 10 blocks away. This wasn’t quite what I had hoped because I knew of an exterior outlet at the gym and I figured I’d limp in and then give it a charge while I worked out. But no problem, I’d get a charge from someone here that would get me to the gym and proceed as planned.

Long story short, I did find a Burger King close at hand where the manager agreed to let me plug in for 20 minutes. Oh, did I mention that I have a trickle charger? Twenty minutes with a trickle charger doesn’t do much. I sat there at Burger King for 2 hours until I could finally start the bike and ride to the gym.

At the gym I plugged in as planned and went about my business. When I came back I turned the key and pushed the starter button and got . . . nothing. It turns out that outside plug does not have power going to it, and apparently if you hook a battery up to a charge unit and there is no power flowing into the battery it drains the battery instead.

So it was time to call for a tow. And of course they never get there in less than an hour. All in all, it was not the best use of my time, especially considering that I’m now going to need to take the bike in and pay the repair bill just the same.

But oh boy, I’ll know that I really need to spend that money.

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Biker Quote for Today

If it’s supposed to move and it don’t–WD-40. If it ain’t supposed to move and it does–Duct Tape.

Day Two on My Way to Laughlin

Monday, April 19th, 2010

Biker Quote for Today

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a flat tire and dead battery.

great motorcycle road in UtahSo I put this quote at the beginning of this post, rather than at the end where it would normally go. Logic probably tells you there’s a reason for that, and it’s not too hard a guess.

There I was yesterday, ready to ride off to the Laughlin River Run, all geared up, and I pushed the starter button and the bike wouldn’t start. What’s with this timing?

Clearly the battery was dead, so I needed to charge. I recently bought a connector so I can hook my batter up to the charger without having to dig to the battery, so this seemed like the perfect time to set it up. Disconnecting the cables I found significant corrosion on the negative post and I’m sure that was my problem. So I charged for an hour and took off, bringing the charger with me just in case.

My only possible concern crossing western Colorado on I-70 was the two passes I needed to cross and sure enough, on Vail Pass the road was wet but not icy. Earlier or later in the day and it could have been ice, and that would have been treacherous. As it was, I made good time and arrived in Grand Junction around 6:30.

This photo, by the way, is of a road in the area where I’m headed now. Today I ride to the end of I-70 and turn south on I-15 to Cedar City, where I have arranged accommodations with a member of the Motorcycle Travel Network. This will be my first experience with this situation. I had also hoped to stay in Kanab, UT, on my way home with an MTN member but they are going to be gone, to a BMW rally in Moab.

So it’s on to Laughlin.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Laughlin River Run welcomes spring in the West

On The Road Again: An Update

Friday, April 18th, 2008

OK, it took a new battery to get me running again. That’s after having put in a new battery in October. That’s just wrong.

Unfortunately, all the issues did not get answered. The first question is why did this new battery go dead after just five months? Then, why didn’t it take a charge at home? Why did it take a charge in a shop but then turn up dead again a few weeks later?

I bought the previous battery from Pep Boys in October. That store closed so I took the battery yesterday to a different Pep Boys. There I was told 1) anything sold from the other store was on an “all sales are final” basis since it was closing. 2) The battery had only a three-month warranty so they had no obligation to do anything about it. 3) We’ll be happy to sell you another battery.

Thanks but no thanks.

So I went to Performance Motorcycles down the street and described the situation. The very savvy woman behind the counter said what I was describing said that the battery took a surface charge and that was what got the bike started, but why it was then dead a couple weeks later. She also said this Energizer battery was a low quality battery compared to the Yuasa battery that is OEM on Hondas. So I bought a new Yuasa. It has a one-year warranty.

Then things got complicated when I got home. First I discovered that my battery charger somehow got switched from 12 volt to 6 volt. That could explain why the battery wasn’t charging properly, if in fact it was not defective. And then I found that I did not have good contact between the cables and the battery previously. The way it works, I have the cables coming to the battery posts, and then I also have the wires for my trickle charger and my electric vest to hook up there as well. When I removed the battery in March, the first time I had the problem, I did not connect the vest wires because it’s getting warm now. But what I discovered is that that meant the screws I used were too long, and when screwed in as far as they would go did not snug the contacts up to the posts.

So between 6 volts versus 12 volts, and not a good connection, it is no wonder that I couldn’t give it a charge, or even that it went dead between rides. That Energizer might have been perfectly fine after all. Except that it had gone dead the first time. No new battery on a bike that has been regularly ridden should be dead.

That means I’ll never know what the true situation was. But what I do know is that I’m running again and went for a ride yesterday. That’s what it’s all about, right?

Biker Quote for Today

A bike on the road is worth two in the shed.

Easy Way To Confirm A Defective Battery?

Wednesday, April 16th, 2008

I was going to ride my CB750 yesterday, but it wouldn’t start. This is just like what happened a few weeks ago. The battery was dead.

The problem is, this is a new battery. I just bought it back in October. It worked fine then, it worked fine in November, it worked fine in December, it worked fine in January, it worked fine in February . . . and then in March it was dead. I put it on a trickle charge but after two days when that didn’t do any good I took it to a shop and they put it on a charge. A few hours later I took it home, put it in, and the bike fired right up. And now it’s dead again.

OK, I’m good at troubleshooting so here’s what I’m looking at. If anyone has any thoughts they’d like to offer please do.

It could be that the battery is defective. One sure way to confirm or refute that would be to buy another one and see if the problem arises again. That would confirm that it is not the battery. The problem with that is the expense, and if it turns out the battery is not the problem then I’ve got two batteries and still have a problem.

It could be a short. This is what I would expect if a second battery did the same thing, and if it is then that’s going to be a pain to track down. But I don’t think it’s a short. If it was a short I suspect the entire battery would be dead, but as it is, there’s enough juice to turn the light on and if it were a short I would expect it to have no power at all.

It could be that there’s a problem with my charger. The last time I let it charge for two days and still got no response at all when I pushed the starter button. A two-hour charge at the shop got me going. This wouldn’t explain why it went dead again but it would explain why two days of charging did nothing. Do I have two problems? There is definitely electricity coming out of the outlet I plug into–I checked that. How do you check a charger to see if it’s working?

It could be the starter. I wondered about that the first time but once I got the battery charged it fired up with no problem, so I don’t think that’s it.

It could be the fusible link, too, but I checked that and it’s fine. Plus, as with the starter, that was a non-issue last time.

This is all complicated by the fact that the shop I bought the battery from has since closed its doors. I can’t just take the battery in and ask them to test it and give me a new one if it’s defective. This is really a pain. Yesterday was a gorgeous day and I wanted to ride. Bah.

Biker Quote for Today

A good mechanic will let you watch without charging you for it.