Re: Dead Battery : Charging, Removal etc Newbie questions



Richard wrote:
> I've owned the bike about 5 1/2 weeks (almost 900 miles ;) ) and I finally
> did it: left the ignition on when I came in the house after riding. Three
> hours later I went out and found a dead battery (measured at 6 volts on the
> multimeter).

Oops! You just "deep-cycled" your battery. Lead acid batteries DO NOT
LIKE to be deep-cycled, i.e., discharged until they are dead. The
sulfur in the electrolyte solution in the battery will combine with the
lead in the plates, making lead sulfate. Then, when you go to recharge
the battery, the remaining electrolyte is mostly water and it cannot
penetrate the sulfated plates. If you manage to charge the battery at
all, it only gets a "surface charge", it doesn't get charged deep down
inside the spongy lead plates.
>
> The bike is '03 Honda Shadow VT750CD. The battery is YTX14-BS. The battery
> says to charge at 12v. Standard: 1.4A X 5~10h
> Quick: 6.0A X 1.0h I'm assuming the A stand for amps.

Yes, "A" does stand for amps. I have the same battery in my Yamaha. The
first one lasted for eight years.

> Questions:
>
> I stopped at the hardware store. They had a 1.5 amp charger. Can I use this
> instead of a 1.4?

Yes.
>
> The Owner's Manual says to avoid using an automotive charger. But is an
> automotive charger okay if it can be set to 1.4 or 6.0 amps?

You can use an automotive charger with those settings, but 6.0 amps
puts a lot of heat into the battery. Recharging a motorcycle battery at
6.0 amps will shorten its life drastically if you do that often...
>
> How do I get the battery out? I pulled the seats off, took off the battery
> cover (not the cells but a piece of plastic that goes over the battery
> unit), unscrewed the leads (neg first), but when I tried to pull it out, it
> wouldn't seem to budge. In the past I've had bad luck with forcing things
> and breaking them, so I try to avoid it in unfamiliar territory. Do I just
> need to give it a good yank?

Yup. It's just stuck to the rubber cushioning material. When you get
the battery out, look at the sides to see if they have bulges or a
"starved horse" look. That's bad. It means the battery has been
dehydrated and the motorcycle was still ridden and the plates will
warp. It's hard to dehydrate a sealed battery though. The caps are
*almost* airtight, and the water is held close to the plates by a
fiberglass mat so water is always near the lead plates and can reabsorb
the sulfur better.
>
> I don't have a garage. Is it safe to trickle charge a battery inside the
> house?

Yes.
>
> I do have the Owner's Manual and a Haynes, which got me this far. Any
> additional help will be appreciated. TIA

Are you old enough to remember what Ronald Reagan said about the
Russians?
He said, "Trust, but verify." Same thing with Haynes manuals. They are
often wrong. I had to spend an extra day working on my pickup truck
when Haynes was
wrong about how to support the cam chain.
>
> PS I live at the top of a hill, so I considered putting it in second,
> coasting down, and letting out the clutch to start it (as suggested here
> http://motorcycles.about.com/cs/maintenance/a/jump.htm), but thought I'd
> feel silly pushing it up hill if that didn't work. Is it likely to work? If
> so, would I have to leave it running for a few hours?

Well, push starting a motorcycle that has a dead battery may get it
started, but then the poor generator has to charge the dead battery.
It's supposed to be able to do that, but in practice, the electric
connectors that hook the alternator up to the voltage regulator may
have loose connections and the plastic shells of the connectors may
melt. Also, the alternator's copper stator windings are just insulated
with enamel and if the alternator has to work really hard to charge a
very dead battery, you could ruin the stator.

> PPS Is jump starting okay? That site also suggested it, but my manual said
> do not do that.

I would not even recommend jump starting my best friend's motorbike if
he has a dead battery. It would have to be an emergency situation
before I would jump start anything. Suppose my "good" battery is half
discharged, and my friend's dead battery is really dead. When I hook up
the jumper cables, my alternator is going to try to charge BOTH
batteries, and that's going to get those connectors hot and it's going
to make a lot of amperes flow through MY rectifier regulator.

It makes so much more sense to trickle charge a motorcycle battery
regularly
to avoid damaging the alternator.
>
> Thanks again, everyone!
> Richard

.

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