Dead Battery - Where to start - SOLVED

Ok, so I just got my seca on the road, first time for me,and first time for it in years. It had a walmart everstart battery that came with it. I've been using it for tune up, and felt that I couldn't trust it, however, I took it into advanced autoparts and they load tested it twice and said it was fine. My bike started up this morning without a problem, but after I stopped and went into a store, the battery was dead.

I was able to bump start it and keep the revs high, but then I let them down again and it died. My wife came to help me out with a car jump starter, and I was able to start the bike with that. Keep the revs high (3-4k) I was able to limp along (and got LOTS of stares). However, if I let the revs drop for just a moment, the bike died. Coming home, I was just blocks from my house, revs high, when the engine just quite and died.

The question: I know my battery is suspect because of it's age, and I didn't keep it on a trickle charger all winter in my garage, but should I also be looking for a short? I thought that if I kept the revs high enough the bike would have kept running regardless of the battery. I know that I had to pack all the wires into a tiny headlight that the PO put on...so maybe the heat of the headlight melted some insulation (I'm going to look right now). My charging system checked out (14V at 1.5-2k, and the same past 5k) so I don't think that's the problem.

 

Re: Dead Battery - Where to start

Ok I don't see any melted insulation in the headlight bucket, everything looks fine in there. The battery is on a trickle charger. I took it off after a few minutes and measured the voltage across the terminals. I got 12.3x volts...but then saw the voltage drop by about 0.01 volts per 2-3 seconds. So I guess the battery is gone.

However, should an xj750 seca be able to run with a dead battery above 2k rmp? I just don't want to kill another battery if I have another problem

Also, after putting it on a charger for 15-20 minutes, the bike started right up and I was able to ride it up to the garage.

 

Re: Dead Battery - Where to start

Sounds like a dead cell in the battery..

 

Re: Dead Battery - Where to start

These bikes need a strong battery to run properly, your battery sounds like it has a dud cell.

 

Re: Dead Battery - Where to start

Alright that's great! I got another one, it's charging now, so hopefully I'll just have to slap it in and problem solved. Now...ironically...I need to make my battery bypass sensor, which is where I got stuck, at Radioshack, getting the resistor.

 

Re: Dead Battery - Where to start

Well apparently the battery wasn't the only problem. I retested the voltage and got no increase with RPM. I guess when I checked my brushes, I didn't put the alternator cover on correctly, and EDITED I severed some or all of the WHITE wires that come out of the alternator. How do I fix this?

EDITED: I actually have a spare that came with the turbo seca. If if ohms to spec...will that work?

 

Re: Dead Battery - Where to start

Alright, I checked chacal's parts listings and the XJCD, and the 650s and 750s have the same alternator, so I put it on, routed the wires, and made sure the grommet fit right this time. It output 14.5 ish V at 2k RPM, and didn't go above 15 V past 5k. So problem solved! Maybe my lack of charging system killed the battery.

 

I guess since I have this thread opened, what should I do to repair the wires from the left over stator? I noticed there is a cloth internal sheath and a plastic outer sheath, so I was wondering what materials I need and if it is doable. I hate to throw out a perfectly good stator just cause I f***ed up the wires coming from it.

 

That'll do it very time!

We do have the correct cloth-sheathed wire and connectors available, drop us a PM and we'll get you set up.