[saturnsc2]

i got a prestige 1983 kawasaki kz440 with 900 miles on it & the bike is mint. the battery is an agm battery 2 years old. i keep it on a 1.4 watt solar panel in the off season to maintain charge. i have not started the bike in a while so i tried it today & the bike cranked for a few seconds then started to crank slow & then totally died. nothing on the bike works now the electrical system is totally dead & i tested the battery * it reads 13.00 volts. the solar panel also works & it tests at 20 volts. i kept the battery charged in the winter since the battery was new & the bile always started right up. i'm going to check the terminal connection this weekend to make sure they are clean & tight, but for now is there some kind of fuse/circuit breaker that could have been tripped to cause this issue? just wondering.

i also got a 1978 kawasaki 200 im prestige condition which fired right up & also is maintained by a solar panel.

 

[WFO-KZ]

What is the voltage measured at the battery when you hit the start button with solar charger disconnected?

PS- 1.4 watts is not very much when it comes to trying to charge a 12 volt motorcycle battery and 20 volts is way too high a voltage. You need to get your self a good, self regulating trickle charger like a Battery Tender.

 

[saturnsc2]

What is the voltage measured at the battery when you hit the start button with solar charger disconnected?

PS- 1.4 watts is not very much when it comes to trying to charge a 12 volt motorcycle battery and 20 volts is way too high a voltage. You need to get your self a good, self regulating trickle charger like a Battery Tender.

this is a motorcycle charger & when connected it shows approx 13.5 volts on the battery. it;s just for maintaining the battery charge while not using the bike in the off season. i used this for years without issues. the whole electrical system is dead nothing works when i turn the key on it;s wierd. it initially cranked over for about 5 seconds while getting weaker then suddenly nothing. i put a battery tender on the battery & it acts like the battery is charged as it right away turns into float charge . the battery measures approx 13 volts. it seems like the battery is getting charged, but the voltage isn't going through the bike... i'm going to check the bike for a bad connection saturday, but for now is there anything that can cause this? voltage regulator? solenoid? relay?

 

[saturnsc2]

does this bike have some kind of a main fuse? i mean the battery seems to be fully charged, but when i turn the key nothing works no lights, starter.

 

[WFO-KZ]

Not to be rude, but before we move away from the battery to explore other causes, what is the battery voltage when you turn the key, turn lights on, or push the starter button.

This is important since you say the resting voltage is still 13. We need to know what happens when you load the battery.

 

[saturnsc2]

Not to be rude, but before we move away from the battery to explore other causes, what is the battery voltage when you turn the key, turn lights on, or push the starter button.

This is important since you say the resting voltage is still 13. We need to know what happens when you load the battery.

i wish i could do that but nothing works now. no lights no starter the system is totally dead but the battery shows 13 volts & it does light a 12 volt automotive bulb at full brightness.

 

[WFO-KZ]

I strongly suspect the battery. If you recharge it fully, take it to a battery shop and ask for it to be load tested. This is normally done for free and will quickly confirm if your battery is good or bad.

 

[saturnsc2]

I strongly suspect the battery. If you recharge it fully, take it to a battery shop and ask for it to be load tested. This is normally done for free and will quickly confirm if your battery is good or bad.

like i said before i have not started the bike in months but when i hit the starter button for the first time in months it turned over fine & then everything suddenly went dead & it's been dead since. i have a battery tender which i tried to charge the battery, but the tender goes into charged float charge mode like the battery is fully charged. the window mounted solar panel does a good job maintaining full charge lust like the one i had in a car i had in the past. i had hip surgery & the car sat outside for months & fired right up when i tried to start it then. the battery seems to be fully charged but i don't have a motorcycle load tester i have one for a car but it's too big to use on a motorcycle battery. i looked at the bike wiring schematic & it shows a fuse which everything on the bike goes through & if it's blown nothing will work which might be the real problem. i will check this out saturday. i wonder if automotive stores near me would have such a fuse. they are short glass fuses like the ones old cars used to have the shorter. i can order them online but it will take a week. i will post my findings here then to help other bikers with this weird problem. fuses do blow for whatever reason as i had many of them blow in cars & when replaced everything returns to normal..... even if the battery is weak it still would light up lights on the bike especially the instrument cluster small bulbs but nothing electrical on the bike works at all but at the same time the battery does light up automotive bulbs of varying wattage fine so there is some juice in the battery. it's acting like the battery is disconnected from the bike. maybe a bad ground or blown fuse somewhere. there a fuse block under the side cover & i will check that out first. if all else checks out fine then i will remove the battery & have it load checked.

 

[Kawasakian]

First, no battery, regardless of car or motorcycle, or aircraft, should be charged at more than 2 amps. That came out last year or two. Look it up. Automatic chargers pump in way too much current in the beginning and then drop voltage as the battery demands less. This destroys the plates. If your battery is sealed, and you did not have it on a charger that shut off when full, you could have trickled too much current, damaging the battery, you are then only measuring the surface voltage.. That Voltage you measure is the Voltage of the battery but tells you nothing of the current it is able to delivery. On non sealed batteries you would use a Specific Gravity Tester to know exactly where you battery is at. If all works out, or you are convinced that all works out, remove and check the grounding strap for the negative battery terminal, especially if it is mounted on the engine. The reason for this is the manufacturers at that time relied on the threads in the case to ground the battery, and that end of the battery strap was bolted to a painted surface. A corroded ground bolt could cause no ground, even though everything seems fine. Remove the bolt, if it is rusted, you could clean it with a wire brush, the grind the surface on the engine where the ground strap sits so that it sits on bare aluminum. Use dielectric grease to prevent corrosion, or spray that area with a battery terminal sealer. You can wire any same amperage fuse , even with alligator clips, for diagnostic purposes.

It really is essential to know how much the battery voltage drops when you try and start it. That test is essential.Of course, if it is completely dead and you have voltage, get out the Ohm meter and start following leads, make sure you have continuity across the fuses, and all the wires going to it. I know of nothing on any motorcycle that is put on by any manufacturer to make a motorcycle go completely dead.

 

[saturnsc2]

alright guys you were right battery is fried, died & laid to the side. battery voltage still reads between 12.95-13.00 but i put a wire across the terminals & got absolutely no spark. i hooked up a volt meter to the battery terminals when i did this & the voltage dropped to .40 volts. i guess the solar maintainer doesn't work good through a bad winter with no solar light & gloomy skies. so next winter i will use a battery tender with a timer. anyway i will now go order a new battery. i used a agm sealed battery expecting the life to be long but not so anyway i guess any battery will die with no charger on it during the off season. the solar maintainer worked well in past years but this winter was especially brutal.....

 

[Kawasakian]

I like batteries I can check with a specific battery tester. You do have to add distilled water occasionally while in storage, on a battery tender, and make sure they are always topped up, but the specific gravity tells you exactly where that battery is at.

 

[kent.forrest]

@saturnsc2 for future convenience in these situations, check out the Konnwei KW208 and similar battery testers, or higher end ones if your wallet feels so inclined.

@WFO-KZ was on exactly the right trail thinking about how the battery handles load versus status of charge.

Battery minders are great, solar is a fine source, but batteries can and do fail. Even newish ones.

An affordable tool like the KW208 will let you look deeper into battery condition than just volts at the terminals. Even when the battery is too weak for crank-testing like @WFO-KZ was smartly suggesting.

I paid <$30 for my KW208 and it's saved me tons of time by very quickly determining if an issue is/isn't the battery.

I use the KW208 as part of my routine maintenance intervals. While rapid mechanical failures can happen, most battery failures follow a steady decline. I'm watching that decline and replacing before the cranking issues.

 

[saturnsc2]

I like sealed batteries because they're cleaner you dont have to worry about acid leakage or corroded terminals or sometimes that hose comes off then the bike gets trashed. The battery I bought could have been a crappy brand. The scorpion battery in my kawasaki 200 is older and no issues. Bike fired right up after non use. I ordered the same battery for the 440 this time.

 

[saturnsc2]

@saturnsc2 check out the Konnwei KW208 and similar battery testers, or higher end ones if your wallet feels so inclined.

@WFO-KZ was on exactly the right trail thinking about how the battery handles load versus status of charge.

Battery minders are great, solar is a fine source, but batteries can and do fail. Even newish ones.

An affordable tool like the KW208 will let you look deeper into battery condition than just volts at the terminals. Even when the battery is too weak for crank-testing like @WFO-KZ was smartly suggesting.

I paid <$30 for my KW208 and it's saved me tons of time by very quickly determining if an issue is/isn't the battery.

Thanks for the info we'll check out all

 

[saturnsc2]

What really threw me off is the battery testing at 13 V but yet it was dead no spark at all With my experience with batteries even a week battery will light A light on your car or bike or maybe sound the horn but in this case it's completely dead wow weird

 

[kent.forrest]

What really threw me off is the battery testing at 13 V but yet it was dead no spark at all With my experience with batteries even a week battery will light A light on your car or bike or maybe sound the horn but in this case it's completely dead wow weird

Yep. I'm not the engineer that can explain why. But I've witnessed many times in life a battery showing full charge at the terminals, and having no ability to support a load. Is why resting voltage is only useful to me on a "known good battery."

If a battery is questionable, the resting voltage is of little interest to me. Load test is what I want to see.

 

[Kawasakian]

It's called "Surface Voltage", there is not enough current in the "Surface Voltage" to light anything. It's important to learn 'Ohm's Law" so you can better understand the relationship between voltage, current and resistance. Only a specific gravity tester can tell you the state of the battery, each plate. In a sealed battery you do not have that option, so you must use a very specialized battery tender for such batteries. You can't use just any charger, as if it keeps pumping a small current into the battery, you will burn it out. If you do this in a conventional battery, you lose electrolyte, which you replace with distilled water. I've been using the same cheap Walmart battery for 5 years in my GS750ES Suzuki because I am meticulous about how I store and charge it, cycling it the battery tender between 3 batteries like clockwork any minding the electrolyte level. I have never had any corrosion problem, I make sure the overflow tube goes way past the swing arm, and that takes care of that. I get every penny's worth out of my batteries. Specific Gravity Testers are cheap too.

 

[WFO-KZ]

Kawasakian is right that specific gravity is the most accurate measurement of a traditional lead-acid battery's health but as he pointed out, this cannot be done on a sealed battery.

Your local battery vendor however can "load test" any vehicle battery even if it is sealed. But if the kid behind the counter pulls out what looks like a multimeter, walk away and try a different vendor. A proper battery load tester, will print out the results of the test on a slip of paper that you can take with you. The best test results come from a fully charged battery, so if your battery is suspect, throw it on the charger and when the charge is done, take the battery and get it load tested.

 

[WFO-KZ]

Kent, thanks for mentioning the KW208. I went searching on their site and it seems they have a newer model, the KW210. In any event it looks like a very useful tool.

For the benefit of others, here is a link and there is a good youtube vid on how it works, just search on the model number.

-Shenzhen Jiawei Hengxin Technology Co., Ltd (KONNWEI Technology )

 

[kent.forrest]

The KW208, and I presume the updated 210, perform the type of test you mention the retailers performing; sans thermal paper print out for the customer.

These very inexpensive devices have their limitations but are useful in the DIY toolkit.

Here's how I use mine: