| Author | Message | ||
     Rwven |
'08 XT, 7500 miles, has been starting hard of late. This morning I took it off the battery tender and when I started it rattled and bucked and flashed the panel lights and relit the check engine light. Its only this bad first start of the day. On the way into work I fueled up and on restart it did better but just doesn't seem to have the quick turnover and fire up it did a few months ago. Did I get a bad battery? Should I attempt to warrantee this or would that be an exercise in futility? I have checked the terminals nd they are tight. The bike runs fine otherwise though I did notice that my speedo seems a bit erratic this morning (jumping up and down 3-4 mph at a steady speed). In general the battery seems to work fine in run mode but weak under heavy load. | ||
| Rwven |
Meh, I ordered a Big Crank ETX14, I had good luck with one of these in my previous bike, I'll let y'all know how it works out in this one. 60.95 + 7.23 shipping from BatteryMart.com | ||
| Johnboy777 |
Rwven, Is the Big Crank ETX14 a perfect fit - or does the tray, etc., need to be altered? John | ||
| Rwven |
John, My tape measure says it's a perfect fit. I'll know for sure tomorrow or the next day. Ron | ||
| Reepicheep |
Thats way early for a battery failure. But batteries are a big chemical experiment, so they sometimes just die. Intermittent gauge and dash lights sound more like a bad ground, bad terminal connection (clean in addition to tightening) or a nick in a wire harness somewhere (the S bikes sometimes nick them around the battery terminal if you route things wrong). | ||
| Rwven |
Reepicheep (The Courageous Mouse!) They only flash on startup when it's actually cranking, other than that no problem. The speedo thing this AM may have been perception as the tach and other displays were just fine. If the new battery doesn't do the trick I'll simply have to dig in deeper. Symptoms I've read of others with less than adequate batteries lead me to suspect that I am on the right track though. Ron | ||
| Xbimmer |
Is the Big Crank ETX14 a perfect fit - or does the tray, etc., need to be altered? Perfect fit:  If I'm not mistaken the Big Crank ETX14 is made by East Penn, the batteries are relabeled by various distributors.  Mine works great and the extra terminal positions are handy. $25 less than a new stocker and made in USA. | ||
| Dio |
Last I knew East Penn made OEM Harley batteries. | ||
| Rwven |
"Last I knew East Penn made OEM Harley batteries." In that case I got a $99.95 Buell battery for $68.00. | ||
| Johnboy777 |
""Last I knew East Penn made OEM Harley batteries."" Now that's funny. . | ||
| Electraglider_1997 |
Rwven, I notice that you mention using the battery tender. Anyway, I've got over 16,000 miles on my 06' and I'm on the original stock battery. Maybe that battery tender isn't as good as advertised. To be honest, once in awhile I do put it on this marine outboard charger that I bought over 20 years ago ( I owned a fishing boat for awhile) and they are still available for under 30 bucks http://www.batteryservice.com/products_final.aspx? Manufacturer=Schumacher&ModelNumber=SE-1-12S# During the winter, if I haven't ridden our bikes for awhile because of snow and ice I'll connect and move that Schumacher from one bike to the other every day or so. My Harley Electraglide's battery has to be over 6 years old and going strong. Anyways, there are other devices besides that Battery Tender out there that seem to work quite well. The Yamaha Radian's old Walmart cheapo battery was COMPLETELY dry of fluid so I filled the cells with distilled water and connected the Shumacher charger and lo and behold it came back to life and my boy rode that bike with that once dead battery to Buell Homecoming and that battery still is working fine. | ||
| Rwven |
New battery in, turns over like it was new. EG1997 if I develop a problem using this battery I also have a larger Schumacher charger with a 2A setting. I'll give it a try. The Battery Tender seems to work well on the Garden Tractor so it should be OK for the bike. | ||
| Roostre |
I had to push start mine to get home from work the other day! It's a real trick to do with all the luggage on this pig. The cold weather seems to be the battery killer for me. I went with the Odyssey 545MJ. I saw a write up on here about making it fit. Pretty easy job. I just moved the ground to the opposite side of the frame, bent the bottom tray rail down, and presto... a bigger battery that fits. I did lose the little space where the Buell tool bag fits between the battery and fuse box. Went out and tested her this morning and she fired up better than new at 37F. (Yeah...37F; its supposed to snow tonight..already a little in the mountains.) |
