| Author | Message | ||
     Blackxb9  |
I was wondering if a weak battery can cause my XB9 to spit, sputter and backfire? It started doing it a few weeks ago and I thought I had bad gas or a bad plug, but after not riding it for a few more weeks I tried to start it and the battery was pretty much dead. The battery must have been weak to begin with. I bought the bike used in the fall and put about 300 miles on it with no problems. It has less then 3000 miles on it and ran super until this recent sputtering and backfiring episode. I'm sure one of you more educated and experienced buellers can help me out. | ||
| Midknyte |
I'd say no. A bike should be able to run on its own w/o the battery anyway (though I've never had to push start any of my bikes myself). I did think that I had a problem with my clock that turned out to be a low bat. It never dawned on me that the battery was low on charge cuz it still did start the bike (clock would reset to 1:00 on startup). Once I took it out for a long enough ride to get the battery back up it went away, and hence, I figured out what was going on. During this, I did not have any rough engine performance. | ||
| Bomber  |
it could be your batt -- they display a number of strange failure modes -- the good nes is, that it's easy to check, and easier to replace ;-} I'd check the connections, first, though, by removing the cables, cleaning em well, and re-attaching them to the german torque spec (goodntite) -- many battery problems are cured that way! | ||
| BadS1  |
Like Bomber said but if problem persists its gonna be the stator. | ||
| Reepicheep  |
I thought it should run fine without the battery as well, but tried it, and my Cyclone ran like *crap*, like it was running on one cylinder. | ||
| Jaredkuper  |
Weak batteries can cause a lot of different problems. For example: 1) When at idle the alternator could not be spinning fast enough to keep the voltage up high - result: run like crap. 2) When under a high load (acceleration) the FI and ignition system requires more juice - result: run like crap. | ||
| Glitch  |
Do you happen to smell burt gear oil after a ride, but can't find a leak any where? | ||
| Wyckedflesh  |
Yup, waiting for the dealer to come pick up the bike...burnt Mobil1 is NASTY! | ||
| Aztec12r |
Glitch.. I've smelled that before and found nothing upon inspection. Haven't smelled it recently though. What's that an indication of? | ||
| Fullpower  |
if you operate the bike with loose battery terminal connections, or a defective battery, or insist on attempting to run the engine with the battery disconnected, you will cause an overheated stator, and possibly also smoke the regulator. i strongly recommend using a fully charged battery in good condition, with clean tight connections to avoid damage/destruction to the other components of the charging system: stator and regulator. remember this simple concept of automotive electrical systems "It all starts and ends with a fully charged battery" meaning the vehicle is started with a fully charged battery, the vehicle then charges and maintains the battery during operation. any attempt to circumvent this concept will lead to problems. | ||
| Wyckedflesh |
FP you are mightily correct and it was the lack of charge within the battery that lead to the realisation of a charging problem. The smell of burnt Mobil1 lead to the beleif its the stator. The battery has been load tested outside of the bike, the terminals have stayed clean and tight since day 1. Each of the last 3 days the engine has been more and more sluggish upon start up. A full recharge and then subsequent recheck of the battery with a load tester proved the battery to be in perfect health, yet I got 1 ride home, then a ride to a meeting where I had to get help with a pushstart to get the bike home. Once home the battery had been drained to the point of just enough juice left to power everything up, until you hit the starter, then zip, zilch, nadda, nothing, not even the dash. | ||
| Captainplanet  |
Once I turned the key too far when I parked my bike (leaving that parking light on) and ran the battery down quite a bit. When I started the bike, it ran awful. After charging the battery with a charger, it ran fine again. I guess my point, is that the battery can have enough juice to start the bike, but still be low enough to cause poor running. | ||
| Fullpower |
whats a new stator cost? | ||
| Glitch |
I think it was something along the lines of $250 installed. I would have fixed it myself, but I had warranty left. 50 bucks. I also heard HD stators are crap. If you're out of warranty, you may want to look at buying a better one. When they opened my case in the service area, the smell was so bad it ran everyone out. The smell traveled into the sales room and the general manager called the Fire Dept. thinking there was a gas leak! | ||
| Reepicheep |
For the tubers, the factory part was pretty pricey (IMHO), over $100, I am thinking like $150 or so. Aftermarket ones are like $75. Don't know about the XB's, it is a different part. Based on looking at the schematic for the Tuber regulator, I have to disagree with the "discharged battery breaks things" position. It is a shunt layout, so the regulator actually gets less heat when the battery is discharged. The stator / alternator assembly generates X watts of power with each revolution of the crank. If the battery is discharged, this power gets sunk into the battery and stored (with some minor heat losses). If the battery is charged, this power gets pumped out of the regulator as heat. The design is not as stupid as it sounds, once you dig into all the pro's and con's of it. The XB's now have a third wire, and I am told they are still shunt type systems, but I have not looked at the schematic to see for sure (though I don't doubt it). That being said, don't confuse "the schematic says" with "the reality is". There could be other real factors that cause the behavior observed, if it has been observed. | ||
| Fullpower |
bill, you are correct about the 3rd wire. the xb has a half kilowatt 3 phase stator. the battery performs an extremely important, vital job of being a huge current sink, and warehouse for stray electrons. a battery in good condition has a very (vanishingly) low impedance, allowing it to absorb and supply very large instantaneous currents, even up in the range of hundreds of amperes. this low impedance constant voltage source performs a damping function in your electrical system, absorbing spikes, and making the job of the voltage regulator easier. when the battery ages, sulfates, or gets sufficiently discharged,itsinternal resistance, and therebyit s ability to accept charge is dramaticly reduced. once this condition of compomised performance begins, you get into an accelerating downward spiral, wherin the battery has some difficulty cranking the engine, accepts charge slower and at reduced efficiency, and is less able to damp system voltage fluctuations.so as it charges sloweer and less completely, short trips around town fail to charge the battery, leading to more sulfation, and even higher internal resistance. so in a very short time, maybe several days, or a week, you get a morning click click click- no start condition, then try a jump start, and / or slow charge the battery, and seems ok for a day or two or three, then another no start conditon, and a jumpstart, nad then finally instead of just the battery you needed two weeks ago, you now need a regulator AND a battery. a good strong battery "protects" the rest of the electrical system. a weak battery stresses the electrical system. really, i am not just making this crap up. | ||
| Reepicheep |
That makes sense if the battery is failing to an "open" instead of failing to a "short circuit". Didn't think of that, thanks! Come to think of it, failing open makes more sense anyway. Explains why bad batteries don't generally become bombs. |
