| Author |
Message |
    
Thanatos0801
| | Posted on Sunday, September 01, 2013 - 12:18 pm: | 
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I went for a short ride a few days ago and everything worked great. Parked in the garage. Today I went to take it out again and it won't start. The battery seemed low, so I plugged in the maintenance charger until it read full. When I press the starter button, the tach gauge needle pushes up and I hear a clicking, but the engine doesn't even TRY to turn over. Within five minutes, the battery is dead. Did my battery just suddenly kick the bucket or is this some kind of wiring short that needs fixing? |
Akbuell
| | Posted on Sunday, September 01, 2013 - 12:37 pm: |
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First on my suspect list would be the battery. Take it out, charge it up, and take it to an auto parts store and have them load test it. Sounds like a cell has shorted internally.
Pls let us know how it goes. Dave |
Thanatos0801
| | Posted on Sunday, September 01, 2013 - 01:07 pm: |
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Thanks for the suggestion! I stuck the battery back on the maintenance charger, so as soon as it's charged up I'll pull it out of the bike and drag it over to my local auto store. I got the bike 3 years ago and it's the same battery the last owner had in it, so I'm not sure when it was last replaced. I'd far prefer that it be a battery issue than something else. The battery I can replace painlessly. Other wiring shorts, not so much.  |
Voltage
| | Posted on Monday, September 02, 2013 - 05:12 am: |
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try to jump it with battery cables and a car. if it works then most likely the battery. especially since you hear clicking. i had a prob with my petcock a few years back. i hit it with starter fluid it started rt up. then i rigged a hose and water bottle filled with gas. started up and ran find. then replaced the petcock and everything was good. please update the solution so if anyone else has this problem they can find the solution. |
Thanatos0801
| | Posted on Monday, September 02, 2013 - 03:23 pm: |
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Will do... but it'll be a little while before I have time to diagnose. The battery on this bike is only really accessible if I pull the body apart, and I don't have jumper cables with the standard dual-clip on the wires, so I'll have to rig something up to hook it to the car. Might be faster to just pull the battery and have the auto-store test it. |
Midnight_rider
| | Posted on Monday, September 02, 2013 - 06:39 pm: |
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make sure battery cable is tight at the starter |
Thanatos0801
| | Posted on Sunday, September 08, 2013 - 04:49 pm: |
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OK. I finally had time today to pull the battery and take it to an auto store. The battery was holding 12v steady, but failed the load test immediately. The voltage dropped to 1v under load and then quickly deteriorated from there.
So.. dropped in a new battery and it started right up. Thanks for the help with the diagnosis all! |
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1998 S2T suddenly won't start