Battery charging? whats killing my battery.

[czac]

Ok, brand new battery beginning of this winter in my Yamaha 225 DXN. and yesterday it was stone cold dead. So much so that the neutral light wouldn't lite up even with the trike running unless I punched the throttle. I did notice that the last time I rode it, it did sound like it was turning over a bit slower than usual. What charges the battery when the trike is running? funny though, the head light / tail light works when its running. but I guess the battery isn't charging up. what do I check? is there a type of alternator?

[NeverLift]

Go here and download your manual. It will walk you through what to test and how.

http://www.oscarmayer.net/atc/manuals/

[jb2wheels]

A manual would answer these questions.

I'd start by putting the battere on the trickle charger or battery tender for a while to fully charge it.

Then, with the battery charged, fire up the trike and check the voltage at the battery and various RPMS.

Should be near 14V to charge the battery.

If not, check condition of all connections, then troubleshoot to figure out if voltage regulator/rectifier is bad or alternator.

How long does the trike sit between rides?

Do you ride it long enough to charge the battery?

How's the water level of the battery?

Got a warranty on the battery?

[Flyingw]

Take a multimeter and set it to DC. Remove the negative battery cable. Put one lead on the negative battery post and the other lead on the negative battery cable. What is the meter reading. This will tell you if there is a current draw on the battery. This is done with the ignition off.

[Thorpe]

I would load test the battery itself too... Lots of poor quality batteries being sold these days

[fabiodriven]

The charging system is different from the lighting system on the DR. I've had nothing but problems with mine. That's one point on the side of the SX vs the DR. On the SX, you have one charging system that charges the battery and then all the lights and accessories run off of that. With the DR the setup is inferior IMO. There is a lighting coil on the engine that runs the lights while the engine is running. I don't know how much power it puts out, but the factory lights suck. There is also another charging system (I think) that is dedicated to charging the battery. Either that, or the power is divided somehow. As you can tell electrical isn't my strong point sometimes.

In my case, I wasn't getting any power to my lights. At this point I had just gotten the machine and didn't know about the weird charging system yet. I had 12+ volts at the battery so I had no idea why my lights weren't working after chasing wires and checking connections and switches. It didn't make sense to me. What I ended up doing was running a wire with a toggle switch directly to the battery for the headlight. It worked, problem solved. Or so I thought. After running it for a bit the battery started to get lazy on startups. The bike had just been gone through and the battery was brand new. After a couple days (we were at Trikefest) I was back to pull starting. I didn't feel like messing with it while we were gone but I looked at it when we got home. I found a broken wire under the seat near an inline fuse or something. Looked like a common place for them to break to me. I fixed it and it started charging again like it was, but it still wasn't charging enough. The light would draw more than the system was putting back into the battery. That's when I finally figured out about the lighting coil and (I think) another charging system. As you can tell, I didn't investigate it too far. I was planning on it but then I passed it off to my brother who owns a bike shop. It's in his hands now.

My solution for the bogus lights on the DR are going to be LED's. They draw nothing and are crazy bright.

[Scootertrash]

No matter what the people at the store tell you, you should always charge your battery before you put it in any vehicle or machine and you should have 12.8 or better volts after a charge.

Download your manual at the link above

Check all of your connections and clean them if needed. A little dielectric grease on the connections after cleaning and reinstalling will help prevent them from corroding.

Make sure the battery is fully charged. Load test the battery first, this should tell you if the battery is good. No sense in running thru a bunch of tests only to find your battery is toast in the first place. A battery can read proper voltage but still not be able to handle a load.

Do the test that Flyingw mentioned above.

If you have to use the troubleshooting process in the manual, follow all of the steps in order. If you start jumping around and over some steps because you think something is good without testing it, you'll end up right back where you started and/or buying parts you don't need, and electrical parts are non-returnable. ;)

[shortline10]

If you have no meter the old redneck way to tell if a battery has a draw while the ignition is off is to disconnect the positive lead to the battery turn the garage lights off or do it at night and touch the positive lead to the battery looking for an arc , no arc no draw on the battery . I say in the dark because it will be easier to see a spark .

[Blown 331]

The charging system is different from the lighting system on the DR. I've had nothing but problems with mine. That's one point on the side of the SX vs the DR. On the SX, you have one charging system that charges the battery and then all the lights and accessories run off of that. With the DR the setup is inferior IMO. There is a lighting coil on the engine that runs the lights while the engine is running. I don't know how much power it puts out, but the factory lights suck. There is also another charging system (I think) that is dedicated to charging the battery. Either that, or the power is divided somehow. As you can tell electrical isn't my strong point sometimes.

In my case, I wasn't getting any power to my lights. At this point I had just gotten the machine and didn't know about the weird charging system yet. I had 12+ volts at the battery so I had no idea why my lights weren't working after chasing wires and checking connections and switches. It didn't make sense to me. What I ended up doing was running a wire with a toggle switch directly to the battery for the headlight. It worked, problem solved. Or so I thought. After running it for a bit the battery started to get lazy on startups. The bike had just been gone through and the battery was brand new. After a couple days (we were at Trikefest) I was back to pull starting. I didn't feel like messing with it while we were gone but I looked at it when we got home. I found a broken wire under the seat near an inline fuse or something. Looked like a common place for them to break to me. I fixed it and it started charging again like it was, but it still wasn't charging enough. The light would draw more than the system was putting back into the battery. That's when I finally figured out about the lighting coil and (I think) another charging system. As you can tell, I didn't investigate it too far. I was planning on it but then I passed it off to my brother who owns a bike shop. It's in his hands now.

My solution for the bogus lights on the DR are going to be LED's. They draw nothing and are crazy bright.

It could be set up like the street legal Honda 70's from the 1970s. The headlight runs off AC voltage and only comes on with the engine running. The rest of the lights are DC and come and when you turn the key on, and run off the battery. No idea why they are like this but they are. One charging system but the power to the the headlight does not go through the rectifier and is on its own dedicated circuit, everything else is rectified to DC and shares the same wiring as the battery.

[fabiodriven]

It could be set up like the street legal Honda 70's from the 1970s. The headlight runs off AC voltage and only comes on with the engine running. The rest of the lights are DC and come and when you turn the key on, and run off the battery. No idea why they are like this but they are. One charging system but the power to the the headlight does not go through the rectifier and is on its own dedicated circuit, everything else is rectified to DC and shares the same wiring as the battery.

Yup, that's the setup. Thanks for the info. That would also explain why the headlight sucked. If it's supposed to have AC voltage and I was giving it 12v DC then it would be dim, no?

[Blown 331]

I'm not 100% sure on this, but I believe on the Honda's I'm referring to there are 3 wires from the charging side of the stator. One is ground. Another feeds the battery and the DC system and the other feeds the headlight. If you are not making use of the wire that is supposed to feed the headlight I think you are only using half the stator. Again, not 100% on this.

[brd812]

Check your dash lights and the connection to to the ignition. Those buggers always get crossed up and mangled. I had warrior that switch appeared to be correct and turn off the bike and pull the key and the neutral light was faintly on. You could only tell when it was dark. Replaced the switch and it was all good. I guess it was like my old mustang back high school, pull the key and kept runnin.

[atc007]

All great info here. So to review. Verify a perfect battery. Then the parasitic draw test.

[czac]

Thanks, now i have something to look at! Lol i didnt know where to begin. The battery was bought brand new this winter when i bought the trike. All charged up and ready to go when i got it. Ill look and see if theres a draw on it first, to see f something is staying on when shes shut off. Thanks!