| Author | Message | ||
     Natexlh1000 |
My 2008 useless had a dead battery today when I tried to start it. It's less than a year old. It was replaced under warranty from another year and a half battery. Meanwhile, my X1 still chugs along with its 4 year old battery. Are the newer H-D batteries crap now? Are they a new supplier? My Xb12X has a kuryakin LED thing and it's been two green LEDs all along. | ||
| Torquehd |
How long has it been since you started and ridden both of them? I bought a fancy shmancy Shorai lithium battery for my 1125r, i even bought the next size bigger than the website recommended. Then I let it sit for 8 months or so (I'm a terrible badweatherbiker), and the thing was deader than a doornail. | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
I ride them a lot less than I used to with the twins. The last time I used the bike this time was Friday though. I mean from Friday to Monday? Perhaps my fancy new IDS ECU eats juice when it's off? | ||
| Zac4mac |
My 09 Uly is losing the battery war. It still starts but the IC resets time and trips. My 08 1125R is down but battery seems good. My take thru 3.5 years as a parts guy was the 12Ah batteries lasted 3-5 years - mine are all WAY past that. I'm happy, HD has Good batteries, better than most for the price. Z | ||
| Pwnzor |
One of the many electrical things that was wrong with my XB was the fact that it would eat batteries if I didn't ride it for 8-10 days. It got to the point where I had to leave it on the tender all the time, even if I was just going away for 3-4 days. | ||
| Reepicheep |
I had some really good HD batteries, then a couple of really bad ones. To the point where I had to toss one of the new ones, and went back to the "mostly dead" old one that I replaced, and ran it that way for longer than the new one lasted. Maybe a fluke, maybe something going on with the supplier that got better, maybe a one way change for the worse. | ||
| Ducbsa |
The battery in my '07 XB lasted until 2014, with spotty battery tender use. I was happy to replace it with one from my local HD dealer. | ||
| Tq_freak |
One thing I learned is you dont need to buy them from H-D Deka Makes them for Harley. Same Battery except for a gray case rather then a black. And a good bit cheaper then H-D. And for the record I get about 4-5 years out of a bike battery with spotty battery tender use and sometimes sitting for weeks at a clip. | ||
| Ourdee |
I got good results with HD batteries and bad results with Deka. Maybe it is just a crap shoot. | ||
| Sifo |
I've had good luck with my HD batteries. The last one though, from spring of 2015 won't start the bike without the instrument panel resetting itself though. It gets freshened up every couple of weeks on the tender in the off season. I'm hoping it gets me through this season. | ||
| Steveford |
Why give money to a company which couldn't wait to shut Buell down when Yuasa is still in business? They've always made a good product and are priced competitively, too. | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
Well I just went out there and measured my XB12X's leakage current when off. It was 15mA. Then I measured the X1 and it was .5mA. Hmmm. also, the XB12X terminals had star washers and were tight as F@#$ with clean contact surfaces. Meanwhile, the old Xwing that always starts has the terminals almost finger tight, no washers, corroded surfaces. So I guess it is a leakage issue with killing the batteries over and over. Is this a normal amount of "Off" current? | ||
| Reepicheep |
I consider it because I want a battery and HD made a good one that fit well for a fair price. But you are right, and like I said, I had a bad experience with one of the HD ones. Can you dig up the right Yuasa part number, and a source, and post it in a new thread in the knowledge vault where I started a topic for alternative replacement parts? | ||
| Reepicheep |
15mA seems high. That's enough to run an LED. It would take weeks to kill a battery at that draw, but it still seems high. | ||
| Froggy |
Deka is the manufacturer of the OEM battery, so if you want to get an OEM one without stepping into a HD dealership, look for a Deka EXT14 That said, I've not been happy with the OEM batteries as of late, I've found them not holding up and then crapping out just outside of warranty on multiple bikes. I had some last 5+ years, current ones are struggling to get a year out of, so I'm running Duracell batteries from Batteries+Bulbs. Cheaper, real 2 year warranty, but it doesn't fit as perfect as the OEM battery. | ||
| 1313 |
I've had H-D gel batteries last as long as 8 years (religiously using a battery tender when in the home garage), but then again the first (known not so good) H-D gel battery in my S2 lasted about a month or so. That was replaced as it was known that the early ones were not so good and it lasted a typical lifetime. But my - somewhat recent - experiences with my Ulysses XT are the reason I am scribbling this info right now. Follow along with the following details: - 2012-10-10 New H-D gel battery 41,829 miles - 2014-06-11 H-D Battery workie no more ~ 54,000 miles - replaced with Battery Tender brand Lithium Iron Phosphate battery as I presumed that H-D batteries were then shit as they last less than 2 years on a battery tender - 2014-06-24 Battery Tender brand Lithium Iron Phosphate battery is FUBAR - work with company purchased from and got a free replacement - 2014-07-20 Install free replacement Battery Tender brand Lithium Iron Phosphate battery - 2014-09-21 Voltage Regulator shit the bed 56,831 miles I expected the Battery Tender brand Lithium Iron Phosphate battery to be a better battery capable of starting bike/turning bike over easier, but I've found it will take 2 stabs at the starter button to get the bike to start on cold starts. The reason I decided to go with the battery I did was because of my experience with the Shorai battery in my 1190RX, but the Battery Tender battery sure didn't live up to my expectations and I now wish I would've just bought a replacement H-D battery. Yeah, all you electron-wrangling or electron-rustling folks out there will probably chastise me for not doing a 239-point electrical inspection when the battery first 'failed' as it might have picked up the voltage regulator condition being substandard, but I prefer to Keep It Simple Shorty and, besides, everything seemed fine after battery replacement. Because of my experiences, I wonder if I jumped the gun in assuming the H-D batteries were no longer as good as they were... Just my personal experiences - YMMV... 1313 | ||
| Reepicheep |
I am a certified electron wrangler, and I can assure you that after a long history of very happily using and recommending HD AGM batteries on my M2, my XB9SX, and my Ulysses, I got two successive replacement HD AGM batteries that were lousy. Even new they lacked the cranking power the old ones had, and one failed completely in less then 2 years. When it died, I went back to one of the "old good ones" I had semi retired (and put long term on a smart charger where it recovered well) and ran that for another year. The new bad batteries went on the same "smart charger long term life support" program and never did come back well enough to start a Buell, though one of them did do OK on a KZ-400 for a while. Could be bad luck, but there is an awful lot of it. (Message edited by reepicheep on September 07, 2016) | ||
| Two_seasons |
I bought an HD battery for the 2000 X1 Lightning less than one month ago. Got 10 years and 5 months out of the last battery in there. The parts guy offered an extension of the one-year warranty to a two-year for an additional 10%. Never had them proffer that before. Did not take it. | ||
| Griffmeister |
I bought the Duracell for a number of reasons. The two year warranty (full replacement I believe) was one, 220CCA was another, recent date codes was a third and lastly the convenience of a store that's open for normal retail hours. I did have to top mount the terminals to fit under the seat, but I like it that way. Ten months old so far, got my fingers crossed. | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
Anyone have the capacity specs handy for the stock batteries? | ||
| Reepicheep |
Even if they did, I would take them with a grain of salt. It would be interesting to bench test new freshly charged ones from different brands, I bet most specs are misleading. | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
Yeah most people only really care about cranking amps. No one really cares how long you can leave the lights on before it won't start. | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
OK more poking as prompted by the nice folks at IDS: I measured the current drain at 12.5mA (set the meter to a better range) I swapped the old ECU back in there and it was the same. I then unhooked the ECU so there was no computer at all and the damn thing still drew the same 12.5mA!!! I then disconnected the fuses one at a time and the only fuse that changed the draw was the BATT. I'm thinking the regulator is my phantom leak. | ||
| Torquehd |
unplug the regulator from the wiring harness and check mA draw. Let me mentally reach back to my 2002 MMI electrical class...You can also, with the key off, unplug the stator, and using an ohm meter, put the black lead on the neg batt terminal, then put the red lead on any of the three pins where the stator plugs into the rectifier/regulator (on the regulator side, obviously). You shouldn't have any VDC showing (or at least, practically 0). If you do, the rec/reg is faulty. IIRC. | ||
| Reepicheep |
Really interesting Nate, thanks for posting your progress details. Let me dig out my schematic and noodle it. | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
YEP. dead as a stone this morning. I left it on the charger for 48 hours. It measured fully charged with no load. Push the funbutton and it just kills the clock. Luckily, I taped the receipt to the battery from last time. I hope the warranty gets me somewhere. | ||
| Reepicheep |
One would hope. If they give you half a refund for a battery that didn't work well for even a year and that was a lot of hassle to replace and debug, that's annoying. | ||
| Reepicheep |
OK, pulled the schematic. BATT disconnects everything but the starter from the battery. So all you really verified was that it isn't the starter or starter relay leaking electrons. From there, it looks like the only paths are through the Ignition fuse and the Key Switch fuse. So try pulling those one at a time to narrow down the problem. It also connects to the "key switch relay", which I assume will go through some convoluted sequence of clutch lockouts to the ignition key. Ah. Now I am on the charging circuit schematic page. You are right, that battery fuse goes straight to the voltage regulator then stator with no additional fuses. So it could be the regulator. The ECM schematic shows the ECM connected through the ignition relay. So I think I agree with you. VR or related wiring is a good place to start hunting. | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
Well battery first then I'll see what's next. I ran the battery on the charger out on a table while I was at work. When I got home, I put my crappy harborfreight load tester on it with my fluke monitoring the voltage. Took no time to drop to 10V. so a dead cell for sure. The question is if the 12.5mA drain gradually killed the battery over the course of a year. | ||
| Reepicheep |
Seems unlikely that a 12mA draw would be much of a factor, unless it sat for months at a time in really cold weather. | ||
| Steveford |
YTX14H http://www.yuasabatteries.com/battery.php?bID=B198 &vID=84 | ||
| Reepicheep |
$116 from Yuasa. Even better, $85 from Amazon Prime (free shipping). That's nice. Reviews look pretty good. Most negative reviews are "it didn't fit right", only one "it died soon". It may not have the terminals set inside the body of the battery like the factory batteries do. I'll need a new battery after I rebuild my 07 uly this winter. I'll get one of these and give it a review. |
