Triumphrat

TonyD · 05-06-2008, 02:47 PM

I know that battery/ignition problems have made appearances here many times, and I have read all the threads I could find, but I've not hit on a solution.

I replaced the battery on my T'Bird after the original failed and left me stranded last autumn. The replacement, an 'MF Super' sealed maintenance free, worked fine thereafter, but I have had the bike laid up since November. I removed the battery at that time and in the intervening months put it on a bike specific trickle charger about once a month.

Put the battery back in today and turned the ignition. No 'click', no idiot lights, no horn etc. Tested with a multimeter - 13.75v no load, dropping to 3.5v once I turned the ignition key (hadn't pressed starter button). Took it off and hooked it up to a bigger charger with a built-in charge indicator - tells me the battery is fully charged (its an 11 amp charger so I don't use it to actually charge the bike battery).

Put it back on the bike, turned ignition key, got weak neutral and oil lights, pressed starter, nothing. Tested again with multimeter, same story as above - full voltage showing until turn of key (but this time, as first time, no idiot lights).

The terminals on the bike battery cables are pristine, so the connections should be fine. I have checked the connections from the ignition switch and also the fuses - they look fine, too. I put the battery back on the trickle charger, but notice that I can hear it gently gurgling away within a few minutes (which I have always taken to be a sure sign that a battery is or is getting close to fully charged).

So what do you think - is the battery duff, is it possible that it is undercharged notwithstanding the reading off my main charger, or is it likely the problem lies elsewhere?

denny · 05-06-2008, 04:09 PM

Sounds like the Battery to me. Do you have a way to get it load tested?

Wombat · 05-06-2008, 06:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TonyD

put it on a bike specific trickle charger about once a month.
<snip.
Took it off and hooked it up to a bigger charger with a built-in charge indicator - tells me the battery is fully charged (its an 11 amp charger so I don't use it to actually charge the bike battery).

Tony,
Sounds to me that the battery is just flat.

How long did you leave the battery on the trickle charger?

Using the charge indicator on your charger is not telling you that the battery is fully charged...just that it has a surface charge on the plates.

Hook EITHER charger up and leave it on for at least 12 hours and then try to start it again.

cpallen · 05-06-2008, 09:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wombat

[snipped]Hook EITHER charger up and leave it on for at least 12 hours and then try to start it again.

DO NOT charge your motor cycle battery with anything with more than a 2A supply!

jimmyj900 · 05-06-2008, 09:54 PM

A battery with diminished capacity can show up as fully charged but have no useful reserve capacity which seems to be the symptom you're describing with the battery voltage dropping to nothing when a load is applied. It simply can no longer supply sufficent power to maintain the voltage.

Was this a gel or AGM battery? I've been kind of curious about the life expectancy of these.

Also, get yourself a 'smart' battery charger with a 2-amp charge limit setting. You should only charge a battery at a maximum 10% of the amp-hour capacity but an occasional 2-amp charge won't hurt them.

Trickle chargers are fine for maintaining a battery once charged but most aren't designed to charge a battery that's seriously depleted.

Jim

Woody1911a1 · 05-06-2008, 10:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jimmyj900

Was this a gel or AGM battery? I've been kind of curious about the life expectancy of these.

Jim

i'd be curiouse too . my experiences with agm , which is completely different than gel , has been nothing short of stupendous .

beginning of last year i put one in my wife's buell , she rode it maybe 3 times i rode it once . after sitting for 2 months i needed to put it away in december because a storm was coming . it was below freezing and i cranked it for waaaaaaaay to long before it finally started , but the battery just kept going and going !

took the battery out and put it in the garage . no charging nothing ! then last week after a post questioning the agm's i said f*** it . and instead of putting it on the charger first , i just put it back in the bike and .......................... again took a few but the battery just kept cranking away til it started .

hell yea , AGM's rule as far as i'm concerned . put one in my adventurer this january and killed it once by leaving the ignition on .5 days dead . put it on the tender . next day vrooooooom .

agm technology was developed 20 years ago for the military . the only downside is they don't like high temps , but i haven't been able to find what high temps they mean .

gell's are very critical to charging rates and normally require special regulation .

just my 2 cents worth from experience and research . google em . ;_)

ohhh and what i read time and time again in researching was that they self-discharge less than any of the other batteries . good thing for a motorcycle . :-)

TonyD · 05-07-2008, 03:04 PM

Thanks for the input, guys. Much appreciated.

Definitely the battery (which is simply described as a sealed lead acid battery - think that means its an agm rather than a gel type, but there's nothing on the case to indicate either way). I had a guy who works with my wife bring his T'Bird round to our place earlier and we swapped batteries - my bike fired up first time on his, while we couldn't get his bike started with mine.

I had been trickle charging it once a month for 8 hours or so - but I had it on trickle charge for 12 hours last night and it appears to have made little difference. Maybe, as Jim said in his post, the battery is so depleted the trickle charger can't get it back up to strength. I don't want to risk the 11amp charger for the reason cpallen (and others in previous threads) gave. Or maybe its just a dud.

Anyway, back to the dealer with it!

threepot · 05-07-2008, 04:27 PM

A tip for ya all....... When using a trickle charger,when it shows green(charged) switch it off then back on. This puts it back in charge mode(does on an Optimate anyway) Do it several times. I was ready to bin a Yuasa till I tried this. Worth a try eh?