Battery trouble

[yorkie_chris]

Hello all.

My SV is stood in the garage at the moment waiting untill I pass my test, the battery won't hold a charge well at all, if i put it on the charger for a few hours it will hold just enough to crank the engine once, which starts it fine but if shut off it doesn't have enough to re-start.
After I take it off charge it shows about 12.5 OCV.
I have a meta alarm fitted but current drain on the battery is only around 5mA

Does this mean the battery is dead? If so, wheres a good place for a new battery, how much approximately?
If not, then are there any tricks to bring it back to life? (would consider buying an optimate/oximiser etc. if this would work)

Cheers all

Chris

Sounds like the Battery might be Fubar... BUT don't use a car battery charger you need a trickle charger... you don't Have to bother with an optimate (Although I've got one for shere laziness) places like Maplins et al will do something similar cheaper. I forget the exact charging rate....but could look it up on the web or it's probably written on the battery.

(Option C is to wire in a couple of light bulbs to your car charger to bring the current down)


Just brought a new Battery for £59 (pointy)... any suzuki dealer will do or you can buy off the Web if you've got the battery number.

oops...By "light bulbs" I mean 12v bulbs etc ......and you'd need a Meter to monitor it - so I'm not recommending option C - just including it as something I've done in the past.


Needs must etc...

How old is the battery? Bike battery's don't last that long compared to a car battery.

A car charger can work fine for you, just make sure the charger is suitable for charging a battery with your ampere/hour (A/H) rating. That's the significant bit...as well as bieng for 12Vdc units!

Remember every time you start your bike, your draining electrical energy from the battery. You really need to to run the bike for long enough to allow the bike charging circuit to replace this energy. 30 minutes was the old rule of thumb for a car battery...

If your not using your bike then leave the battery on charge for a couple days and try again. If the battery is heavily discharged, then you might not get it back, but a decent charger can sometimes rescue them if you give it time.

[yorkie_chris]

The charger I have is a halfords one with 2 switches: bike/other and standard/sealed. Seems sensible that I have it set to "bike" and "sealed"

It has a red light for charging and after a while goes onto the green light which on this means ready and maintaining. Doesn't say anything about the amp/hour rating.

I presume the battery is the original (the bike is an '02)

Check your regulator/rectifier too. See the current thread for the voltages you should be seeing.

Don't forget to check the alternator (generator) whilst you're at it.

If something has fubar'd the battery, there aint much point in changing the battery, only for it to happen again.

Just brought a new Battery for £59 (pointy)...

Brought-you mean Bought I take it.

[yorkie_chris]

Well I'll check for proper charging voltage on friday when I'm back home, as far as i can see from other threads:

when running 5000rpm, voltage should be between 13 and 14.5v
Is this correct?

If this is within spec then where can I find a battery for a little cheaper than £59?

Cheers

Originally Posted by Sosha

Just brought a new Battery for £59 (pointy)... any suzuki dealer will do or you can buy off the Web if you've got the battery number.

How much?

Christ, they must have seen you coming from a mile off. I just bought a Varta battery for my pointy - 36 quid from a local car parts emporium, and I thought I'd paid through the nose.

[yorkie_chris]

While we are on the subject of these here electricals, I have double headlights fitted, so the 2 wiring connectors, one black and one green IIRC, are on display below the lights, which I don't like the look of so am going to try and move them to inside the frame.
Can the wires be removed from these connectors to splice in some different lengths?
Where to buy small amounts of various coloured braided wire? What gauge to use?
And also where to buy heatshrink tube to seal the connectors?

Apologies for double post and the question barrage.

Chris