A question about batteries

[Oldseadog]

Do batteries just quite. Today I came home from work, shut off the bike and went into the house to pick up something and when I returned the bike wouldn't even turn over. I put my trickle charger on it for few hours and it started right away. I phoned around for a new one and got a price of $150, but they were out of stock. The Harley boys bought them all. They are going to call me tomorrow with a price for a Odessy. I only have a short time left of the riding season, I was hoping to have the battery last.

[az1103]

You are lucky! At least it quit suddenly! Just get a new one! It's worse when they starp slowly dying and letting you down over and over. But why $150 Last I looked you could do well for half of that!

[k7mdl]

The batteries can go quickly, sometimes caused by internal shorts that build up (dendrites if i recall?), or chunks that fall apart due to vibration and fall across the plates. Other fail modes, punch-through between the plate insulators, internal resistance rises that cause it to not accept a charge from the bike, chemical changes (low on water, impurities). Lots of potential causes.

 

If it is several years old, probably just the battery gone. But something else to keep a look out for is a charging system failure. While riding you could have been running off the battery at times for who knows how long. After your trickle charge, check it the next day to see if it maintained the charge. Also check the water level. One failure mode is overcharging (charging failure again) and that can be seen sometimes by feeling a hot battery case and low water levels, maybe sign of moisture in the overflow tube or on the floor, or on the top of the battery around the vent plugs.

 

If you can, measure the battery with the key on and key off (engine not running). If the voltage is under 10.5 something is wrong. A better number to see is 11.5 to 12VDC under light load and 12.5 Volts key off (both +/- .5).

 

- Mike

[cowpuc]

In my experience its pretty uncommon for a battery to just fail. Usually they will get weak and let you know that they are dying.. I have tried to explain to people MANY times that when this happens (battery starts getting weak) it is extremely important to replace it as low voltage is the main cause of electric motor failure - lots of starters are toasted because of it.. Sadly not many people listen to this counsel and I end up replacing a few starters every year because of it..

Pull your battery, toss a charge on it with a battery charger. Clean your battery connectors while apart - clean the contacts on the main fuse. Its been awhile since I have done the following so you might want to start a new thread about the following to check my accuracy but: coming out of the cover on the left side of the engine behind where your shift lever is are three white wires that lead to your stator - on the Venture I believe they exit the stator cover and are routed under the cover that your clutch slave is under.. Anyway, because of its need of high output Yamaha uses a 3 phase system for charging. Follow those wires up to a connector - as I recall its located under the plastic side cover that would be under your left leg while sitting on the bike. Unplug that terminal from the harness. There us a resistance check that you do that checks the stator windings - I cant remember what the resistance is across the stator windings but it should be easy to find out if you want to do this correctly.. More importantly thought is to just shoot a resistance check across the winding and make sure they are all pretty much the same in resistance - just hook your ohm meter up on one lead and test it across the other white leads. Now check each white lead to ground by touching one lead of your meter to the frame and the other to each white lead. If it reads continuity the stators gone or if you get a variance between windings its shot..

The Early XVZs had stator problems because they were not cooled properly.. Yamaha had an upgrade for the system that amounted to getting more oil on the stator. A small splash plate was installed in the stator cover and a sqirt hole in the nut on the end of the crank did the squirting.. Your bike may or may not have this upgrade (your sig line didnt have year of your bike so I am assuming its an early model).

I say all this because it is VERY common for a stator to just fail (not like a battery).. When this happens your bike will be running on the battery, the battery doesnt get charged and it can give the rider the impressioin that its bad..

I have bought bike batteries from Auto Zone for wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy less then 150 bucks, take care of them and they last just fine!!!!

Oh yea, another possibility is a funked voltage regulator - actually less common then the stator but still a possibility..

 

FIX IT CAUSE AINT FUN

'Puc

[Venturous Randy]

I just got an Odessy from Summit Racing for $131 delivered to my door. It was charged up and ready to go.

I think it is summitracing.com.

One suggestion on the Odessy batteries is to put a rubber pad under them that will absorb some of the bump. I have heard that several people have had a problem with the Odessy because of them being jarred around. I know that it REALLY helped my slow starts. I used to be anxious when turning the bike off when it was hot when I knew I was going to be starting it again a few minutes later.

RandyA

[wild hair 39]

low water,will kill a mc battary about as quick as anything,distilled water only,i buy WW bat,can get 3 or 4 ,for the price of one odessy,the life is fair to good,the best i have ever got was about 1 1/2 yrs,maybe 80 to 100000 mls,use a tender,if bike sets for a week or more

buy yourself cheep volt-ohm meter,check the voltage,i ckeck mine thru the bat tender leads

the voy,will not start,below 11.6 volt,it will turn over,but wont start

my ventues wouldn't start,below 12.2 volts,wouldn't even turn over

 

for you guys[girls]for a 12 v outlet rig a outlet to plug in to the bat tender lead,thorw, it in the settle bag ,then you can forget to take with you:rasberry:

[skydoc_17]

Hi All,

I posted this once before, I have no connection with this company, It's just a good place to buy batteries that fit the VR's. The Koyo has the sensor hole. The Odessy is $123.00

I thought that was a pretty good price.

 

http://www.bohannonbattery.com/html/motbat/18lbs.html

 

Hope this helps,

Ride Safe,

Earl and Jean

[cmiles3]

Check the electrolyte level. Mine, I have to pull the battery out to see the level and fill it properly. Just did this.

 

I get 2 or 3 years on a WalMart battery. Last one died when I twisted the post off while checking the electrolyte.

 

If the electrolyte wasn't low, it's the battery or your charging system- stator, regulator... also check your ground connections. This will prevent your battery from charging, and will destroy your battery after a while.

[gunboat]

hi

yes batteries do just die or start not holding a full charge. i did a group buy for a oddesy pc545 on this site back around january of this year. condor set it up and did a great job. i had no problems with the battery. till i went to the 08 international rally in kitchner, did a numbers of stops enroute. on the 2nd day of the rally my battery let me down. end result after a lot of troubleshooting found out the battery lost a cell and only putting out 11.5 volts. i had to pay $173.00 cdn for a regular wet cell battery to get me home. i have a accumate trickle charger that i have been using from my other bike. when i was a goldwinger the saying was to replace the battery every year, cheap insurance to keep from being stranded on the side of the road. i belive freebird has had his oddesy batt for at least 5 years and has never had any problems. all i can say is i have a new replacement oddsey battery setting on my work bench. will put it in the scoot when the wet cell battery goes south. i'am going to get my money's worth out of it first. i plan on installing one of those volt meter's on the scoot soon so i can keep an eye of the battery & charging system.

best reguards

don c.

[Venturous Randy]

i'am going to get my money's worth out of it first. i plan on installing one of those volt meter's on the scoot soon so i can keep an eye of the battery & charging system.

best reguards

don c.

 

I am still getting my moneys worth out of my old battery, when I replaced it with an Odessy, I put the old battery in my lawn tractor.

RandyA

[Skid]

I have been using an Interstate battery and I've been getting 4- 5 years at least out of the last two. Interstate makes a battery which is an exact replacement with the probe and all. All you need to do is unplug the old probe and plug in the new......