Right folks, how do I test my battery.

If I don't get out on the bike for a week, the battery seems to lose its charge. The only thing it is powering is a clock but it never seems to have a great charge in it, unless I give the battery a recharge.

How can I confirm that it is the battery and not the charging system.

a simple test would be to charge the battery fully(check the acid levels) and allow the battery to stand for 24hrs
you need a test meter, set the meter so you can get a 12v reading
check the battery voltage it shoud be 12.5v no lower than 12v
with the meter on the battery turn the bike over(if you can with the kill switch off) the voltage should stay above 10v cranking over for 10 seconds, any less the battery's ill, if any cells bubble its fecked

hope that helps

Id say it was shagged anyway. It should hold a full charge for ages if it aint doing much but powering a clock drawing a few milliamps.

Do what woodz says and if you can stick a vlotmeter accoross thebattery when the engine is running and rev it to usually five thousand revs and hold it. The voltage should be up around fourteen or fifteen volts. At rest the battery should show around thriteen and half volts if its perfect but as woodz says under load it may drop to about ten or so .

Briefly, the battery obeys ohms law and its capacity is measured as the current it can supply through a load at twelve volts. If the load increases and the current stays the same then the voltage drops. A shagged battery cant produce the current required through the load and collapses the voltage. You could also stick a current meter in series with the charging circuit ( maybe between the charge circuit and the live terminal on the battery) but a word of caution, most bikes charge at maybe twenty five amps so dont get your fingers in there and make sure the current mater can it ( most handheld fluke type meters only take ten amps).

Ignition off....

ignition on....

Tickover...

2500 rpm....

3500 rpm...

ff

Bd you could try some bat aid.

they're little tabs that you drop in the cells, they can revitalise a flagging battery. get em at motosave.

I may well give it a bash, Ima. I'll check out the battery first though.

Flash git FF! Yours beeps! Nice test leads too - Job lot of two core mains lying around the house!

cheaper way than that all you need is 2 bits of wire & 4 crocidile clips

attatch clips to either end of wire

attatch one wire to + one to -
attatch other end to






































your toungue




















sorry could not resist

feck womble!....................
















have you worked for auto electrics Darlington too?

good method for testing the ht circuit that, and you also get the added bonus of the amazing disco grin

Anyone recall Bros's advice on finding gearbox fairies?

Peed myself reading that!

Basically, for those who never saw it, it was a thread on bikenet where he reckoned if you run the engine to two thousand revs and remove the oil filler cap and insert you finger you could diagnose a gearbox fairy problem with the bike. Apparently if your finger comes out all chewd and bloody where the fairies have gnawed at it.

Oh well it was much funnier the way Bros told it!

Ill get me coat.................

Nice pics Dave. Looks like yer battery is fooked IMHO.

BTW see that DO NOT OPEN label, it's there for a reason.

As far as I know BatAid tabs won't do much for gel battery,
only sloshy old lead acid ones. You could try the old charge
discharge cycle a few times with the battery out of the bike.

Give it full charge then discharge it by connecting an indicator
bulb across it. When the light goes out recharge and repeat
several times.

Mind you, that's never worked for me either.

Go on, don't be such a tight scottish git. Buy a new one.

B.

Unless its a nicad or similar the excersing technique wont do much and deep discharge will knacker a bike battery eventually.
If you do want to excersise the battery then put a current meter in series with the bulb and when the current drops to about 65 % of the intial current recharge it.

If in doubt suss if the charging circuit is doing its job in the ways mentioned and pictorially advised by the fast fitter and if ok just replace the battery. At least you ll know youve got a decent battery then and will have confidence in it. Still, dont they take the piss over the price of bike batteries? Have a word with Keith from KLIKTRONIC he may be able to sort something or give the most in depth battery science youve ever heard!

You know it makes sense


Wonderful stuff if twin core. I've got loads of leads made up with different ends/croc clips on for a variety of jobs. The boot of my car looks like a scrap yard.

that reminds me of a guy i had the misfortune of knowing.....

cockney andy...i think he considered himself a bit of a Del boy, duckin n divin, dodgey deals, but in realitly he was a prat and everyone else thinks he was too! and i've got to say a poor advert for smokin the weed

he managed to convince a local taxi firm he was a mechanic, (BS comes to mind!) and he's messing around on a ford transit with the engine running.... a REAL machanic comes alone and sez" you don't wannabe doin that so close to the fan............... in reply andy sez(insert cockney accent) "its ok... its a Viscose fan!", so to prove his point, he stops the fan with his finger.............. but guess what, it doesn't stop and he loses his finger end! i got got by a RC airplane prop once and believe me its painful! and v messy, but andy was so loved no one could do anything to help because they were laffin so much

I can vouch fer that, it was full o' stuff lastime I saw it

There's a funny story about that, I'll tell you when I've had me cheese on toast

Mmmmmmm, that were nice wi a bit o' Worcester sauce

Me and one of the fitters were coming out of a National Grid substation the other week. I keyed in the code to re-set the alarm and the electric fence that's fitted inside the main unclimbable fence.

Fitter says to me 'what voltage are those fences then?' so I says 'Let's find out'

So I got my nice digital v/m out and set it to max - 300 volts ac. Touched one probe on the electric fence and the other to the earthed main fence. Nothing happened for a couple of seconds, then there was a sharp 'crack'. Nothing showed on the meter so I kept it on and again there was a sharp crack.

Still nothing so I withdrew the meter and set it to 'buzzer'. Strangely, it started buzzing even though I hadn't got the probes touching each other. So I re-set it to 300 v ac and tried it in a wall socket - nothing.


It turns out that these fences pump out 5000 volts It's a very short pulse so it won't kill you unless you've got a pacemaker, but it's enough to make you jump!





And it's enough to fry the insides of your posh multi-meter

never mind, you can get a new one for Christmas..

Eh! what month is it....