Triumphrat

bendavanza · 07-26-2007

I went out to fire up the bike today (01 Bonnie), it's been about a week since I've rode it, and it was dead. I checked the fuses, all are good, got out the battery charger, hooked it up and heard a buzz, removed other side cover and found one of the relay boxes buzzing, realized the turn signals were on, turned signal off, buzz stopped. The electrics all appeared to work, lights, horn, etc, maybe the flasher is bad, maybe it does not like the pulsed power output of the charger. The other odd thing was that when I flipped the handlebar run/off switch to run, the tach needle flips to redline. Again, this also may be from the charger's pulsating output. But why did the battery go dead flat in the first place? Could it be because I left the turn signal on when I shut off the bike? I would think that the signal's power would be cut off when the key was removed.
I disconnected the battery's positive cable and hooked it up to a battery tender (trickle charger, maintainer) and I will see what happens tonight hen I get home. This is the first time I have found it dead.
Any ideas or suggestions, insight?
-Ben

Loxpump · 07-26-2007

How old is the battery? Have you tried hooking up another 12V battery, temporarily, not the charger. Even a car battery to see if you still get all the strange things happening. If the key is off power should be off to signals and everything else. Perhaps you have a relay stuck that kept the juice on even after the key was off. Electrical snafus can be extremely hard to track down. Lets see how long before says "missing ground". Sounds funny but electrical things can act odd and even find a new path after the usual one is gone. Good luck. Where is that spell check at?

bendavanza · 07-27-2007

LOXPUMP
You are correct, after a day on the trickle this battery is still toast. Nothing.
SO I jumpered my Harley's battery over to the Triumph and everything, including turn signals and tach are functioning. Now it's off to get a new battery today.
-Ben