REALLY dead battery?

So like an idiot, I left my keys in my bike with it turned to the ON position (lights on but the run switch was to OFF) while I was visiting with family for about an hour and a half. When I cam back out and tried to start it turning the key produced a little grunt and nothing, but the light came on. I was able to bump start it and rode it for about 25 minutes toward my home. The engine was feeling pretty hot so I stopped to check it.

When I turned the key to the ON position, nothing... no lights come on, just nothing. I tried jumping it with help from a friend using jumper cables and still no lights coming on or anything after letting it sit for about five minutes with the cables in place and the car in ACC.

Has something been fried in my electrical? Possibly a completely dead battery? (it is about 8 months old) I know the charging system on my bike is fubar'd so it obivously didn't charge on the ride home, but what could cause just stone cold silence and no lights when turning it on after riding about 25 minutes? Its in some department store parking lot right now and I am just pacing the floor : (

 

I may be wrong, and if I am, Rick or one of the older model xj wizards will correct me, but if you know for sure there is something wrong with your charging system, the battery would more than likely be one of the last things I would take to replacing.

I'd track down the issue with the charging system first. Then install a new battery. I'd pull the pld battery out, test it with a multi meter (12.5V idle) fully charged. If it isn't sitting there, put it on a trickle charge. Keep an eye on it.

You say you jumped if off a car. The car was in ACC mode. You can just use a car battery with the car completely shut off. Don't EVER jump a bike off a running car. Not unless you want to replace a bunch of things and have a royally grand time prying fused connections apart.

Is your fuse box replaced? Could it be something in that area? How long have you had the bike for? I'd check the alternator (the bike term escapes me right now) and clean it out. Check, clean, and use dilectric grease on any and all connections on that bike (it's a pain, but it is worth it for piece of mind, I don't know how many 'serious' problems I thought I had with bikes I found by just cleaning connectors).

There are electrical wizards on this board. Rick is one and there are many others. Listen to them, follow their directions and you will be up and running. Hell, Rick even talked me through some stuff on the phone. This is a fantastic forum, and you are more than likely going to find your answer here provided you are patient. Good luck.

 

This one should be pretty straight forward. Under normal conditions your bike runs off the battery until about 2k rpms when the generator is supplying enough power to run the bike and charge the battery.

Depending on your charging problem you could have a situation where you are running totally off the battery - it will last only so long - especially with it being near dead when you started.

Batteries that have been really drained can take forever to jump however you should have seen some lights at least. So check the fuses.

If it was mine here is what I would do

Remove the battery
Check and fill fluids as required
Fully charge the battery
Take it to a auto parts store and have it load tested.
FIX the charging system!

Until you fix the charging system you might as well flush $40+ because you will continue to kill batteries. You may get lucky and your current battery could be OK.

 

Hey thank you to you both for the ideas!I will go pull the battery now and see if any fuses are blown to account for the no headlight issue. Thats the only part of this that really bugs me! The charging system is now top of my list for piece by piece removal for inspection and possible replacment. Hopefully I can get that thing started in the next hour or so to avoid a tow! Thanks again for the advice, I will pray to the XJ gods as I head over there now...

 

check for cracked fuse holder clips, don't just look at the fuses.

They tend to break all by themselves for no reason.