At wits end

[ediddy]

I keep having a problem with my battery going dead. I rode my bike last thursday and didn't get to ride it this weekend because of the weather. I went out this morning to ride it to work and the battery is dead. A couple of months ago my dealer kept it for 2 weeks and checked everything on the bike and determined the recifier was bad so he replaced it and my battery under warranty. Now it's dead again. Man this is frustrating. I guess I better get back to the dealer as my warranty expires 9/3.

[Marcarl]

You do have an issue,,, could be:

An electrical leak, can be determined by taking the positive off the battery and seeing how many amps the bike draws vs what it should draw and then start removing fuses to decide where the problem is.

A second bum battery, or maybe it wasn't so new as expected.

A not so good charging system yet, maybe some loose connections or a weak stator.

I would start with:

Charging the battery to full capacity, let it sit for 12 hours and check to make sure the voltage is at least 12.5 volts, anything less and you have a problem in the battery department.

If you have a spare power source, you can check for electrical leaks at the same time. You'll need either a charged battery, or a charger, trickle charger will probably do, hooked up to your bike and then you can determine where the draw is going, just by unhooking things as you go along.

[Eck]

I'm guessing to say it is your ignition switch shorting out..even though the dash lights don't come on, electricity is by-passing if you left the accessory switch turned on..

 

Have him (or you can) pull the gas tank..with meter on battery, check voltage draw with key in the off position, then just unplug the ignition switch, do not touch the key, and with meter check voltage draw again..

[FutureVentures]

I'll be watching this one, as I have the same problem, frequently.

 

Put the bike up on Thursday, went to ride in this morning and the bike almost didn't fire up, very close to being dead.

 

This has happened a half dozen or so times over the past few months. If I leave it sit for more than 4 days, it's dead, totally.

[1BigDog]

Eddie, have your dealer pull apart (seperate) the molex plug that plugs into the rectifier and inspect the wiring. Bet you find some burnt/corroded connections in there. Those plugs do go bad...mine sure did and it caused numerous electrical problems for me.

[FutureVentures]

Eddie, have your dealer pull apart (seperate) the molex plug that plugs into the rectifier and inspect the wiring. Bet you find some burnt/corroded connections in there. Those plugs do go bad...mine sure did and it caused numerous electrical problems for me.

 

What and where is the rectifier?

[gibvel]

What and where is the rectifier?

 

Black block mounted just in front of the oil filter.

[V7Goose]

I keep having a problem with my battery going dead. I rode my bike last thursday and didn't get to ride it this weekend because of the weather. I went out this morning to ride it to work and the battery is dead. A couple of months ago my dealer kept it for 2 weeks and checked everything on the bike and determined the recifier was bad so he replaced it and my battery under warranty. Now it's dead again. Man this is frustrating. I guess I better get back to the dealer as my warranty expires 9/3.

Well, you are sure right up against the time limit on that warranty! Glad you found the problem was not fixed in time to report it. Unfortunately, you seem to have dealer of questionable mechanical ability, but you do not have much choice but to take it back to them (or another Yamaha dealer if one is available).

 

The bad news is that we cannot pinpoint a most-likely problem for an easy fix, since there are just too many things that can cause this problem. But the good news is that it should be relatively easy to isolate it and fix for anyone who knows what they are doing.

 

The first step is to verify the battery is fully charged (minimum 12.9 volts), and that it will hold that voltage for several days while disconnected from the bike.

 

Then you need to know how many milliamps the bike is SUPPOSED to draw with the key off. Hopefully that is in the shop manual somewhere, or else you will have to measure the draw on a good bike. Using a milliammeter, disconnect the positive lead from the battery and place the meter in-line to verify that the bike is actually drawing too much current with the key off. CAUTION!!!!! Never turn on the key when using an in-line milliammeter in any circuit on the bike! That will smoke the meter.

 

If the first test at the battery terminal verifies that the bike has an excessive drain, then you simply reconnect the battery and use the same meter in place of each fuse (starting with the main 30A fuse) to identify which specific circuit is causing the drain. When you find it, it should be a relatively simple matter to trace out the circuit and isolate individual components.

Goose

[Condor]

I keep having a problem with my battery going dead. I rode my bike last thursday and didn't get to ride it this weekend because of the weather. I went out this morning to ride it to work and the battery is dead. A couple of months ago my dealer kept it for 2 weeks and checked everything on the bike and determined the recifier was bad so he replaced it and my battery under warranty. Now it's dead again. Man this is frustrating. I guess I better get back to the dealer as my warranty expires 9/3.

 

 

You're kinda running out of time, but you might take the battery hot side (red) off and let it sit over night. If it doesn't go down any, you have a dead short somewhere on your bike. If it does go down it's the battery.... Then get it documented with the dealer so that even if the warantee runs out while working on it you're still covered.... You might also make sure the dealer is going to be open sometime between now and the 3rd...

[FutureVentures]

Wow, this thread has a TON of great info. regarding this:

http://www.venturers.org/Tech_Library/?action=article&cat_id=002007&id=400

[LilBeaver]

A quick way to identify any extraneous leakage is to measure the current in the system as described above (with the ignition in the OFF position either with an ammeter IN-LINE between the positive terminal on the battery and the cable that pluggs into the battery OR pull the main fuse and properly probe the fuse holder with your ammeter). Then, leaving the meter connected pull the 'back up' fuse (don't worry reverse will work the same as it did before) and note the drop in current. It should drop to 0 mA. That is Zero, nada, zilch.

 

As Ruffy mentioned above, check the rectifier/regulator plug - and if it were me, I would pull the plug myself and look at it, take pictures, THEN take it to the dealer (especailly if I found any corrosion or 'burnt' signatures on the connectors). It is a ~10 minute job to remove and reinstall the regulator/rectifier.

 

Other items, which may or may not have been mentioned - but since I am writing this:

1) check resistance of stator - method outlined in shop manual along with the resistance tolerance -- the white plug is a little difficult to find since it will be covered in road grime, but if you were to be able to drop a weighted string almost to the bottom of the bike from the bolt that holds the tank on under the seat, you would hit the connector.

2) check for wires that pass through the triple tree (especially if you have passing lamps) look for any bare wires or pinched wires

3) .. I'll stop here for now since there is already plenty of good info here.

 

:080402gudl_prv:

 

 

for what it is worth, you broght this issue up while you bike was under warranty and the problem was evidently NOT fixed. So I wouldn't worry too much about your bike NOT being covered for this issue come next week. Now, I suspect it might not be fun to deal with afterwords, but, there you go.