bmiller Posted October 5, 2014 #1 Posted October 5, 2014 Can anyone tell me if the 12 volt faring plug is live when the ignition is off. I got on the bike yesterday and my new battery was dead as a doornail. I thought I had fixed a short with the light bar but this makes me wonder if I did that for nothing. I have one of those adapters that connect two cell phones to charge while running the bike, it has a little light on it. I left it plugged in from the Santa Anonymous toy ride the previous Sunday then yesterday dead battery. I am wondering if this adapter is what is draining the battery or if I have bigger electrical problems. Just ordered a Battery Meter after checking out some of the threads in the Tech Talk section but that does not solve my problem right now. Thanks in advance for any and all input. I am out the door so will be checking back later today,
slowrollwv Posted October 5, 2014 #3 Posted October 5, 2014 The plug in the fairing should be cold when the switch is off. Do you have anything hard wired that may be hot all the time? I had my GPS plugged into an outlet and it would drain my battery.
Sailor Posted October 5, 2014 #4 Posted October 5, 2014 I had a problem with batteries going dead all the time. I discovered that if I had the tape deck or radio on and just shut the bike off the battery would go dead, if I shut off the tape or radio before shutting off the bike I had no problem.
Flyinfool Posted October 5, 2014 #5 Posted October 5, 2014 Since your charge adapter has a light, if the light is on with the key off, you have power to the outlet. A single LED will take about 2 months to pull down the battery. But the rest of the charge adapter may pull more power whether it is charging or not. Get a small 12V bulb, a 194 like a dash bulb is perfect. Connect two wires to it. take the negative cable (and any other wires connected there) off of the battery. connect one of the bulb wires to the battery negative, connect the other bulb wire to the cable(s) that came off of the batt neg. With the key off, if the bulb lights, even if it just glows a little, then you have a draw on the battery. Start pulling fuses one at a time untill you find which circuit has the draw. Don't forget to check any hard wired inline fuses that may have been added.
M61A1MECH Posted October 5, 2014 #6 Posted October 5, 2014 bmiller, when get around to hooking up your battery monitor, if it is one of those LED ones like Kuryaken sells, check out item 2 on this classified ad post, easy and basically plug and play. http://www.venturerider.org/classifieds/showproduct.php?product=5049&title=plug-and-play-electrical-jumpers&cat=35
spear Posted October 5, 2014 #7 Posted October 5, 2014 Whilst on the subject of the 12 volt outlet, let me run this one past you. I have a solar panel trickle charger that plugs into a 12 volt outlet - car, truck or bike. If I decide to plug it into the RSV to top up the battery it produces gremlins. If I don't turn off the radio prior to shutting down the bike, after a while the radio comes on by itself. I have to unplug the solar panel to shut it off. If I remember to turn off the radio, shut down the bike and plug in the panel - no problem. I'm wondering if there's something else that might be cutting in without me knowing? If there is it's not affecting the battery. The trickle charger keeps me topped up all winter. Mind you it helps to have a damned good battery - MotoBatt. Love it! ~ ~ ~ Long weekend Monday holiday here down under and summer has kicked in. In my town we're expecting temperatures in the mid-30s (high 80s F). Time to ride methinks. Stay safe folks.
Neil86 Posted October 6, 2014 #8 Posted October 6, 2014 Spear... where exactly are you plugging in the charger....into the cigarette lighter style plug on the fairing?
bmiller Posted October 6, 2014 Author #9 Posted October 6, 2014 The plug in the fairing should be cold when the switch is off. Do you have anything hard wired that may be hot all the time? I had my GPS plugged into an outlet and it would drain my battery. Chuck, the controller for my heated gear is hard wired. I am pretty good at ensuring it is off after riding using the gear. It is the first thing I checked when the battery was dead. Both control switched were off so should not have been the cause for the draw.
bmiller Posted October 6, 2014 Author #10 Posted October 6, 2014 I had a problem with batteries going dead all the time. I discovered that if I had the tape deck or radio on and just shut the bike off the battery would go dead, if I shut off the tape or radio before shutting off the bike I had no problem. Wow, I have never heard of this but it could explain what happened. I usually shut all the radio, cb, etc off prior to getting into the complex I live in. I am not so sure I shut it down last Sunday, mmmm something to keep in mind for future use.
spear Posted October 6, 2014 #11 Posted October 6, 2014 Spear... where exactly are you plugging in the charger....into the cigarette lighter style plug on the fairing? Neil86. I have a 3x 12v + 1x USB adapter mounted on top of my front brake master cylinder and THAT is plugged in to the 12V 'cigarette lighter style' socket in the fairing. It is that adapter into which I plug the trickle charger. Having said that I've unplugged that and plugged the trickle charger directly in to the fairing socket - and same problem. Methinks my bike is happy to be fully charged and just wants to sing!
bmiller Posted October 6, 2014 Author #12 Posted October 6, 2014 Since your charge adapter has a light, if the light is on with the key off, you have power to the outlet. A single LED will take about 2 months to pull down the battery. But the rest of the charge adapter may pull more power whether it is charging or not. Get a small 12V bulb, a 194 like a dash bulb is perfect. Connect two wires to it. take the negative cable (and any other wires connected there) off of the battery. connect one of the bulb wires to the battery negative, connect the other bulb wire to the cable(s) that came off of the batt neg. With the key off, if the bulb lights, even if it just glows a little, then you have a draw on the battery. Start pulling fuses one at a time untill you find which circuit has the draw. Don't forget to check any hard wired inline fuses that may have been added. Jeff, I know the light on the charge adapter works when the battery is charged and the bike is running. I have never looked when the bike is off so don't know for sure. If I read this right you don't think it would have been enough to drain the battery. Thanks for the tip on how to test the circuits, I will give that a try and see what I find. I am not real technical with this stuff so kind of fumbling my way through. I will let you know what I find.
bmiller Posted October 6, 2014 Author #13 Posted October 6, 2014 bmiller, when get around to hooking up your battery monitor, if it is one of those LED ones like Kuryaken sells, check out item 2 on this classified ad post, easy and basically plug and play. http://www.venturerider.org/classifieds/showproduct.php?product=5049&title=plug-and-play-electrical-jumpers&cat=35 Steve, I have a set of Saddle Bag lights from SloRoll, I am guessing the jumpers would work well for connecting them. The faring plug and play is a definite, I will PM you shortly.
Neil86 Posted October 6, 2014 #14 Posted October 6, 2014 (edited) Neil86. I have a 3x 12v + 1x USB adapter mounted on top of my front brake master cylinder and THAT is plugged in to the 12V 'cigarette lighter style' socket in the fairing. It is that adapter into which I plug the trickle charger. Having said that I've unplugged that and plugged the trickle charger directly in to the fairing socket - and same problem. Methinks my bike is happy to be fully charged and just wants to sing! The aux plugs (in fairing and one under seat) are on the same wire from ignition switch as the audio. The wire (brown/black) feeds the front aux. fuse, rear aux. fuse, and the audio fuse. When the ignition switch is off that wire is disconnected to battery power. By connecting the charger you are only powering the audio, and the other aux plug. Its common on cars and trucks for the cigarette plug to be live at all times so it probably works fine on vehicles. Even though there is a circuit that is powered all the time to keep audio memory (Backup fuse) I'm pretty sure they are separate. Bottom line is I doubt your charger is helping the battery as connected, and the varying voltage into audio probably isn't the best for its components. You should look for an adapter to trickle charge right to battery terminals. Edited October 6, 2014 by Neil86
bmiller Posted October 6, 2014 Author #15 Posted October 6, 2014 Ok the consensus is no power going to the charger when the ignition is off so I have electrical problems. I will give Jeff's suggestion a shot and see what I come up with. Thanks everyone for the insights and suggestions!!
Condor Posted October 6, 2014 #16 Posted October 6, 2014 I had a problem with batteries going dead all the time. I discovered that if I had the tape deck or radio on and just shut the bike off the battery would go dead, if I shut off the tape or radio before shutting off the bike I had no problem.
Neil86 Posted October 6, 2014 #17 Posted October 6, 2014 Unfortunately you will find there is a draw. The Backup fuse circuit provides power to memory on audio, trip meters etc. with key on or off. So you would need to pull the Backup fuse for the test.
Flyinfool Posted October 6, 2014 #18 Posted October 6, 2014 That memory backup should not be pulling enough power to light a bulb. A po may have added some accessory to that circuit because it is always on and that could be what is pulling down the battery. You still need to check all circuits.
bmiller Posted October 9, 2014 Author #19 Posted October 9, 2014 So after getting all these good suggestions on what to look for, how to go about testing the circuits, etc. I chickened out (not real mechanically inclined), put the battery back in the bike and headed to the dealer. I did check and the 12 Volt faring outlet and it is indeed dead when the ignition is off (my bike anyway). The shop found the short, a bare wire running in the left side saddlebag. This is where the PO had mounted a CD player, not sure if that is standard or not I took it out when I got the bike and it has been collecting dust on the shelf ever since. Thanks for all the suggestions,and advise everyone! I sure do appreciate your willingness to share your experience.
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