07 990 ADV battery issues

[Buggles]

Originally Posted by StumpyFingers

A battery will drain over time, it is designed to.
Constantly pushing it up is likely to cause premature failure.
I use a Solar charger that trickle charges during daylight hours but allows the battery to discharge slightly at night as it would under normal use.
I thought the optimate was supposed to do the same with it's charging cycle.
I would first try checking all your wiring for loose or corroded fittings.
You could try a high wattage lamp connected to the battery to give it a large drain and see if the battery holds up to it, that or get a battery tester and force a discharge to check the condition.

The optimate does, if the battery is low it will discharge completely before filling up. In this case, because the battery was only at 11V after trying to start a few times, the Optimate tops up the charge and leaves it.

According to the Optimate the battery is fine, it gives me a green light after running through the testing cycle.

I'm going to examine the draw on the battery when alarmed (making sure there are no irregularities there) and try to check the connector. But it's wedged so tight that it's a bugger to get at. I'd have to undo all the wiring to get at it, unless there is a way I can undo the entire block that the solenoid is attached to.

JB

[StumpyFingers]

Have you tried another battery?
Does it start when you jumpstart it?

[Buggles]

Originally Posted by StumpyFingers

Have you tried another battery?
Does it start when you jumpstart it?

I don't have another battery, unfortunately...

I have jumpstarted it, first time it happened. The bike ran happily for the rest of the day.

A week or two later, when out on a ride, the bike stalled at a traffic light after riding for about 5 minutes, and I had to push her 3 miles home...

Another tip I got was to check the load across the battery when trying to start, if that dips really low, it's shot. We'll see. Tonight I'll measure the draw and we'll take it from there.

JB

[Yeti]

Originally Posted by StumpyFingers

.............. force a discharge to check the condition.

I'm sure there is another term for that kind of behaviour!

[Buggles]

Ok,

So I've measured the draw on the battery, no more than 2 mA, within spec.

I've managed to get at the connector, the blades were a bit green, so I sanded them down.

Over the past week, the voltage of the battery went down from 12.8 (fully charged) to 12.55, without the alarm on. And 12.55 isn't enough to turn the engine. I can hear the starter click, so that's not the problem.

I'm pretty convinced it's the battery...

Stay tuned

JB

[Chad]

Originally Posted by Buggles

Ok,

So I've measured the draw on the battery, no more than 2 mA, within spec.

I've managed to get at the connector, the blades were a bit green, so I sanded them down.

Over the past week, the voltage of the battery went down from 12.8 (fully charged) to 12.55, without the alarm on. And 12.55 isn't enough to turn the engine. I can hear the starter click, so that's not the problem.

I'm pretty convinced it's the battery...

Stay tuned

JB

my moneys still on the big black connector block on top of those low down electrics,,the mechanics at jim aims had to strip this block down and re-build with new connectors as they didnt have one in stock. the symptoms were so much like yours its uncanny

[Lutin]

Glad to hear that you have discounted the alarm as being any source of trouble.

Not sure that the battery is the problem though. If you can hear the starter solenoid "click", this just means that power is getting to the starter solenoid. It does not necessarily mean that power is getting to the starter motor.

Can you do a resistance test across the solenoid contact terminals? It should be close to zero (especially with a cheap multimeter) if the contacts are good.

Hint: the connections you want are the ones with the big feck off cables going to them.

[Buggles]

Thanks for the tip Chad! I was hoping that with cleaning the connector (the white one) I'd be there.

It didn't look too good when I took it off:


I tried to take the black one off, but it didn't seem to want to move. I'll try harder today.

Lutin, is that test just a matter of putting one lead on one connector, and one on the other. Do I have to try to start the engine, or does that work without the engine running...

Charged the battery, it went from 12.96V to 12.69V overnight, being OFF the bike.

So that probably means it's shagged as well. So at the very least I need a new battery. Medium scenario is battery + solenoid (or the connector block), worst case battery + solenoid + rectifier...

As long as I can get this all sorted before my landlord kicks me out of the house (March 5th), I should be fine

JB

[Chad]

Originally Posted by Buggles

Thanks for the tip Chad! I was hoping that with cleaning the connector (the white one) I'd be there.

It didn't look too good when I took it off:


I tried to take the black one off, but it didn't seem to want to move. I'll try harder today.

Lutin, is that test just a matter of putting one lead on one connector, and one on the other. Do I have to try to start the engine, or does that work without the engine running...

Charged the battery, it went from 12.96V to 12.69V overnight, being OFF the bike.

So that probably means it's shagged as well. So at the very least I need a new battery. Medium scenario is battery + solenoid (or the connector block), worst case battery + solenoid + rectifier...

As long as I can get this all sorted before my landlord kicks me out of the house (March 5th), I should be fine

JB

the reason you struggling with the black block is its supposed to be watertight but the connections in this are what was causing the charging issues ive seen your post on the ktm side and the lads are covering the issues i highlighted,,if you dig through my posts you will find my thread on this subject

[Buggles]

Originally Posted by Chad

the reason you struggling with the black block is its supposed to be watertight but the connections in this are what was causing the charging issues ive seen your post on the ktm side and the lads are covering the issues i highlighted,,if you dig through my posts you will find my thread on this subject

I'll take the block off this afternoon and give it a good clean.

How'd you clean the female connectors on the white plug? I could get the blades of the male one out (insert screwdriver to lift up the lip holding them back) but the blades of female one won't come out...

Can I use coppergrease for the connectors once their clean, or should I use something else?

Learning a lot tinkering with the bike though, so all in good fun! And to think, if you hadn't showed me how to work on Tiger, I wouldn't be tinkering today...

THNX!

JB