Eletrical Gremlin on my bike
 

Electrical Gremlin - I have gone round and round with my battery going dead on my 99 honda shadow ace tourer. I have replaced it with a new battery and have put it on a battery tender which i bought new also.. Light will go from red to green after a few hours so I believe that it is charging it..If you take it off and try to start it and it just clicks and not enough to start the bike. The bike has sat on the tender for about 3 weeks..

Something to add to the mix..I am running power to garage on 15 gauge extention cord and then put on a 6 outlet power strip which had a ground fault light which is lit.
older house with only 2 prong outlets in the house..
If I put the battery on a jump box charger it will charge it up also or if jump it with my truck it will start.
where should I start????:confused:

Sounds to me like you are trying to burn your house and garage down....:eek:

Jump start the bike and check battery voltage with it running. If it is charging probably 14 volts then your battery is bad or you have a draw on the bike that is killing the battery

it is 13 -14 volts when running but when the bike sits a while( few days) it drains the battery ( 10 volts ).. even if it is on the battery tender..:confused:

it a new battery, old battery was doing the same thing and got a replacement so this is battery # 3....

lol well a i do need to run electric to the garage ( wire need to be 80 foot )but that can be price to get 220v out there to run a welder and air compress power tools and charge all my batteries and such...plus only have 100 amp service coming into to house...build in 1954..

I think u answered your own issue here... U have a draw somewhere pullin your battery down and it sounds like charger doesn't have enough ass to come the draw with the ****ty extension cord... Take the battery out and charge it in house overnight direct from a plug in the house... See if it starts bike... If it doesn't u may have a starter issue... It could be the draw and the problem.. (I'm just thinking outside the box here) when u jump it from truck doesn't that provide a lot more cranking amps than a motorcycle battery? So if u have a weak starter with an internal problem maybe the big truck battery can overcome the starter but the motorcycle battery can't?? Follow?... Again suggestion

To find a parasitic draw, check out this post I made detailing how to do it:

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/elect...l#post14605491

Before you do any testing with a DVOM though, charge the battery up fully, and leave it disconnected and let it sit for a day or two, and make sure it still has voltage... if not then your battery is dead again and if you try testing for current drain with it you'll possibly get some bad readings.

Thats good advise. I allways hook a test light clip to the Negative cable touch the test light lead to the Negative post ( under the Negative clamp) and then remove the Negative cable while keeping the Clip on the cable and the test light lead on the post. If the light lights up you have a draw. Start pulling fuses and unplugging alternators to isolate the draw. I have had those cheap battery trickle chargers not work and just kill batterys also. I have also had brand new battery go bad within a week.

It well could be a "parasitic draw" since it has killed 2 batteries and now im on the 3rd.


I will try both test light and the meter to see what happens and pull fuses... we will see what happens...

Well I tried the test light on the neg post and wire. no light.
then took off the neg wire and clip it to the wire and touch neg post no light... so i dont think i have a draw there..

i did charge it up ( so i thought) meter said 13.1 , turned the key over and it tried to started. then I tried it again and then it it just clicked... put the meter back on it and it said 9.4...:confused:

So i took out the battery to the house and charging it up there. Battery there says 13.1 again. took it off charge and going to let it sit over night to see what the charge reading is in the morning...

the drama continues...

After letting it sit, it went down to 12.7 then I let it sit another day and it went down to 12.6 . This is off the bike and in my house..

So do I have a bad battery or is this drop normal?

Take it to an auto parts store that has a battery load tester.

try that and see... if they can test a mc battery most auto stores just looka at u and go uhhh idk..

Strip all the electrical bs off it and start kicking it like a man! :cool:

But not auto zone....lol....i took a battery there years ago and they said yup its bad" and i bought a new one and two days later they had my "BAD" battery for sale in the used battery section...bunch of theives....