Parasitic Battery Drain 1999 RSV

[pcnorb]

Hi all.

I have a 1999 RSV and have been fighting a parasitic drain on my battery for a few months now.

The issue first exhibited itself as I was on a ride with a friend, where suddenly the lights dimmed, radio started fading in/out and finally the bike died. This was a new battery purchased from a local auto parts store, so I took it back where they tested it and said "everything was ok with it". They did, in good faith, replaced the battery as my bike was stranded and the batter was less than a week old.

Went back to the bike with the new battery, started it and tested it while running by removing the positive terminal and the bike stayed running. Figured that was the end of it.

Last week was planning to take the wife on a ride, and it wouldn't start. I usually have it on a battery tender but it had sat for about a week, and couldn't crank over.

I have tested the Regulator/Rectifier using this method where everything seems good: https://venturers.org/Tech_Library/?action=article&cat_id=002007&id=400

I also pulled out the multimeter and started testing the Amp draw with the bike turned off ( =no keys in it ) by putting the meter in-line, checking both Pos/Neg separately. I've discovered that with all fuses pulled, except for main fuse, there is NO DRAW on the battery. As soon as I plug in the Back-Up fuse (responsible for keeping your CB/Radio/Trip info in memory) it draws .52 mA on the positive side, .31 mA on the neg side. ( I tested both sides ).

This seems exceedingly high to me...does anyone have any advise on helping me track down the culprit? Could it really be the radio/cb? I've not updated or added any additional capability to the radio, so no additional CD changer, etc.

TIA

[Marcarl]

I don't think the draw is an issue, seeing as your bike died on the road, with a new good battery. I really think you have a charging issue.

Put your multi-meter on your battery posts, check the voltage. It should be around the 12.6v mark. Now crank the engine and watch the meter, it will dip to about 10v or so. With the engine running check the voltage, it should return to around 12.4. Now crank up the rpms to about 2000 and the stator should kick in and give you over 13v. If it doesn't, you have a charging issue. Then we can dig deeper.

[cowpuc]

My gut tells me it sounds like a cooked stator issue. What can happen, at least has happened to me on several occasions, is the laminate on the stator coils get fried and loose their resistance to current flow across the windings ending the ability for the stator to do its job effieciently..  It is not uncommon,, again IMHO, for this to become more relevant as the stator warms up as the engine runs.  My 1st Gens all had the OEM volt meter built into the dash and they were always appreciated as I could monitor my stators condition at all times while traveling cross country..  At idle the volt gauge is suppose to read battery voltage only (sayyy,, 12vdc) but just off idle I always like to see 14.5 vdc appear suddenly and solidly.  This testing can also be done quite easily by watching your headlight change when throttling up which is how many of us really really old timers did for years before we could afford a $5 meter from Harbor freight.  With a little bit of trial and error over a period of years I am now amazed at how accurately I was able to predict a total loss of our stator on Tweeks recently..  When she got warmed up real good I started noticing voltage drop and told Tip that I was going to have to replace the used stator that @Squidley had installed a few miles back, probably had about 3000 miles left in it . Sure enough,, exactly 3000 miles later it failed.. @pcnorb, if I were in your shoes and having the gut feeling that the RSV's do not have a built in volt meter,, I would grab a cheap volt meter (something that didnt matter if it splatted on the road), attach its leads to the battery posts semi-permenantly and take the bike for a ride while monitoring the voltages being produced.. If you have good numbers when cold and bad numbers when warm I would be looking forward to installing a stator.  You can also ohm out the stator and check each leg of its 3 phase windings to ground too but if you do this I advise you do so with the engine fully warmed up..