[dawgfan]

Hi.
I have not ridden my Bonnie for a few months now due to changing jobs and not having health insurance. Recently, when trying to crank'er back up I learned the battery had died.

I ordered the YUASA batter charger that charges and then maintains the battery for storage. Upon hooking the clips to the terminals and plugging the battery charger in, I get a red light showing that there is AC power but the light for charging does not come on. I have verified that I have a good connection to the nodes and have positive and negative done correctly.

The directions stated that if I have a severely discharged battery the charger may go into some "mode" and eventually charge. I have left the charger connected overnight and still no light for charging.

Has someone experienced this or know what I need to do to get my YUASA batter charger to charge my YUASA battery?

Thank you in advance for your help.

 

[5bassman]

Take the battery to Autozone and get it checked for any dead cells and then I would use a standard 12V CHARGER to get it charged back up and use the YUASA battery charger as a trickle charger once every few weeks.

 

[dawgfan]

I will take it and get it tested. My only question is whether the Yuasa charger I have will charge it as I have no other battery charger?

Thanks.

TC

 

[5bassman]

On 2007-01-07 19:45, dawgfan wrote:
I will take it and get it tested. My only question is whether the Yuasa charger I have will charge it as I have no other battery charger?

Thanks.

TC

Which model is it?

 

[dawgfan]

I would have to go out and look but it is basically the charger that goes into the AC outlet and is about the size of half a red brick. On the front of the "brick" the face is yellow with lights for: AC Power, Charging, Maintaining (something like that, basically a trickle charge).

It claims to be a charger first, battery maintenance second.

 

[5bassman]

Maybe others will chime in but I don't believe that one is large enough to recover a completely dead battery, but get it checked first and see what's going on.

 

[GrayMitchell]

I have a Battery Tender Jr. and I have used it to fully charge batteries. It just takes a little longer, like overnight. Do you have the negative connected to the negative terminal on the battery or grounded to some metal on the frame, if not, try grounding it on the frame, worked for mine.

 

[2522]

Try attaching the charger to your car battery. If it comes on , this should indicate the charger is working. If not, and you know your car battery is good, you have a duff charger. If after testing successfully on your auto battery it still refuses to charge your bike battery, your bike battery might have an internal fault.

 

[dawgfan]

Thanks for all the help. I am going to take the battery to get it tested. The AC Power light does light up on the charger so I think the charger is OK.

I have tried grounding the neg elsewhere and it did not work.

The manual to the charger mentions that it has some internal process that souns like it basically shuts it down if used on severly discharged batteries.

Hopefully a trip to AutoZone soon will tell me I can charge this one and not need to purchase a new one.

 

[jquattro]

Not sure if this applies, but on my charger, it requires the battery have at least 3 volts in it in order for the charger to detect it and generate the charge.

If the batter has less than 3 volts in it, the charger will not go on.

 

[357Bob]

If you have any jumper cables then jump it with your car. Start the car & let it charge for awhile. Gas is only $2.10 a gallon. But I suspect the battery has went South. A lot of battery's go down there. To Texas. The worse thing that can happen to a lead acid battery is for it to go dead & remain dead. I have had a lot of trouble charging car battery's that someone let stay dead too long. That is what deep cycle battery's are for. But it may come up enough after charging with the car for your trickle charger to take over.

 

[ohiorider]

On 2007-01-08 12:51, jquattro wrote:
Not sure if this applies, but on my charger, it requires the battery have at least 3 volts in it in order for the charger to detect it and generate the charge.

If the batter has less than 3 volts in it, the charger will not go on.

You make a good point. Several years ago, BMW supplied chargers with all their bikes. The latest versions had a 'start' switch you could use to get the charger to begin charging a nearly dead battery.

Bob

 

[Brooksie]

I am a great beliver in Battery Tender, which the pigtail hook up. You can leave the battery in the bike and just hook it up in the garage. If your battery has shorted out, there is not much you can do. Great advise from these guys, as usual.

 

[dawgfan]

On 2007-01-08 13:42, 357Bob wrote:
If you have any jumper cables then jump it with your car. Start the car & let it charge for awhile. Gas is only $2.10 a gallon. But I suspect the battery has went South. A lot of battery's go down there. To Texas. The worse thing that can happen to a lead acid battery is for it to go dead & remain dead. I have had a lot of trouble charging car battery's that someone let stay dead too long. That is what deep cycle battery's are for. But it may come up enough after charging with the car for your trickle charger to take over.

I did not know you could do this...!

I have cables.

How long should I let it charge via my car before I disconnect the jumper cables?

Also, if I can get it to "come up" and then charge via jumper cables, will the battery ever be back to normal where I don't have to worry about getting stranded?

[ This message was edited by: dawgfan on 2007-01-08 15:33 ]

 

[mjtool]

I think about ten minutes on the car jumper cables should bring it back enough for the trickle charger. then if the trickle charger never takes the battery to the float stage I'd say the battery has bought the farm. time to bite the bullet, buy a new battery an hook up your maintainer and use it for long battery life. good luck



mike

 

[dawgfan]

I hooked it up to the truck for about 5 minutes and then hooked it up to the charger and got the yellow "charging" light.

It is charging as we speak.

Thank you all for the help.

Quick final question.. Is it bad to leave it charging if I am not home or should I not sweat it?

We are going to watch the National Championship and I would hate to have to disconnect it before it hits the "trickle" stage of charging.

Thank you to all!!

 

[GrayMitchell]

I leave my Battery Tender on all the time. Even when im out of town for a week or so.No problems here.

 

[dawgfan]

A bit of a followup to this post. I have since been charging the battery for a few days and even yesterday took the bike out for a very short ride.

As of now, with the charger hooked up, it still shows that it is in the "charging" phase.

The three lights are "AC Power", "Charging" and "Storage"

I would have thought that I would have hit the "Storage" phase by now but I have not.

The bike fired up good yesterday after riding it and turning it off but I am a bit concerned about doing a long trip and leaving the bike off for a while.

Is is bad that the charger has not moved on to the "Storage" phase of charging?

Sorry to bug ya'll with this but part of me thinks the battery is not fully taking a charge and hence not going into the maintenance mode of the charger.

Thanks.

 

[5bassman]

I would get the battery checked before anything else. If you need a new one then get it and get riding.