Battery died - misshapen

On the way back from a ride out just now the speedo & rev counter went on the blink, kept cutting out. Everything else seemed ok so guessed it was something electrical.

Got it home, turned it off, went to turn it on again and nothing, not a thing would happen. No instrument lights, or anything. Turned the headlight off (which had been on when I tried to turn it on) and the ignition light and neutral light came on but still nothing else.

So I went to check fuses, but before I got to look at them I saw that the battery was misshapen (like its sort of exploded inside) and it smelled a bit funny. So, obviously the battery has died a death in a big way.

Ive now taken the battery out but not done anything else yet. So clearly I'll need a new battery, but ive not heard of this sort of thing happening before and wondering whether it's likely to be just the battery has gone bad for some reason (btw it was a maintenance free job), or whether its likely to be something else having caused the battery to do a self destruct job. Any ideas?

[embee]

Sounds like the reg/rec has died and it's overcharging. It's more common for them to fail and under-charge so the battery just goes flat all the time, but over-charging is another failure mode.

Don't fit a new battery without checking out the charging, if it is fubar then it'll take the new battery out as well.

Electrex are a good supplier of quality replacement parts.

[Dave20046]

Originally Posted by Beerblob

On the way back from a ride out just now the speedo & rev counter went on the blink, kept cutting out. Everything else seemed ok so guessed it was something electrical.

Got it home, turned it off, went to turn it on again and nothing, not a thing would happen. No instrument lights, or anything. Turned the headlight off (which had been on when I tried to turn it on) and the ignition light and neutral light came on but still nothing else.

So I went to check fuses, but before I got to look at them I saw that the battery was misshapen (like its sort of exploded inside) and it smelled a bit funny. So, obviously the battery has died a death in a big way.

Ive now taken the battery out but not done anything else yet. So clearly I'll need a new battery, but ive not heard of this sort of thing happening before and wondering whether it's likely to be just the battery has gone bad for some reason (btw it was a maintenance free job), or whether its likely to be something else having caused the battery to do a self destruct job. Any ideas?

look at my thread!

Originally Posted by embee

Sounds like the reg/rec has died and it's overcharging. It's more common for them to fail and under-charge so the battery just goes flat all the time, but over-charging is another failure mode.

Don't fit a new battery without checking out the charging, if it is fubar then it'll take the new battery out as well.

Electrex are a good supplier of quality replacement parts.

Exactly, check/fix the reg/rec BEFORE you fit a new battery.

Thanks. Reckon it'll be a bidding war for that reg/rec you got your eye on then Dave!
Only kidding, thanks for the advice, I'll check out the reg/rec before I go wrecking a whole new battery then!

[Dave20046]

Originally Posted by Beerblob

Thanks. Reckon it'll be a bidding war for that reg/rec you got your eye on then Dave!
Only kidding, thanks for the advice, I'll check out the reg/rec before I go wrecking a whole new battery then!

lol shít

[yorkie_chris]

The reg rec has failed closed and boiled it to death.

Like I've said before I don't see the point of replacing an SV RR with another SV one. The h*nda units keep a more stable voltage and by virtue of being over spec for the SV, appear to be far more reliable.

[TSM]

Originally Posted by yorkie_chris

The reg rec has failed closed and boiled it to death.

Like I've said before I don't see the point of replacing an SV RR with another SV one. The h*nda units keep a more stable voltage and by virtue of being over spec for the SV, appear to be far more reliable.

im just needing to replace one from a 01 hornet, they are way smaller than the SV ones but still prone to failing, the stable voltage comes from some of them having a far voltage sensing wire (6 wire regulator)

the one on my SV has been fine for years, totaly stable at idle and throughout the rev range nearly the same voltage.

[yorkie_chris]

Sorry I meant the CBR ones commonly used. They are a little bigger than the stocker.

[TSM]

Personaly i think http://www.bbbikeshop.co.uk are the cheepest