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3rd Battery dead

Kokomoto

Kokomoto

Well travelled
Location
Chattanooga, Tennessee
My 3rd battery was dead as a door nail yesterday morning. I replaced the original Varta after a few months with a Yuasa. The Varta died after sitting in the garage for 10 days or so. The same thing happened to the Yuasa 11 months later after I didn't ride for 10 days or so. That battery was ruined, and had to be replaced. Now, 5 or 6 months later, this Yuasa was found dead after sitting for about 10 days. I charged it over night on a battery tender, and plan to load test it later today.

I have properly checked the parasitic draw on a Fluke multimeter with the key off on a few occasions. It showed no current draw.

I could put it on a battery tender any time I don't ride it for a few days, but I shouldn't have to. My other bikes have sat for weeks without a tender, and not drained the battery.

I'll study the wiring schematic to see what might be drawing current, even intermittently, with the ignition switch off.

This seems to be a not uncommon problem with the Hima. Has anyone been able to solve this problem?
 
Wintrup

Wintrup

Well travelled
Location
Cumbria UK
I've just bought a Yuasa after the OEM was pretty much useless. I hope someone comes up with an answer, I'd be well pissed off if the Yuasa goes dead.
 
Kokomoto

Kokomoto

Well travelled
Location
Chattanooga, Tennessee
It looks like the battery + goes to the starter relay,, reg/rec, and ignition switch with Fuses 1 & 2 protecting those circuits. I'll check the connections and components there, and put some dielectric grease on the connectors to mitigate water intrusion problems. If RE didn't use waterproof/resistant connectors, I'll consider replacing them with Sumitomo WP's.
 
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sqeeezy

sqeeezy

Well travelled
Location
Southern Spain
I've got an old Fluke 77, excellent meter, my bottom mA range is 300, so it should pick up anything over a couple of milliamps. If your meter is functional, and you're using it correctly (forgive me, but sometimes people don't) then if you don't see any quiescent current at switch off then it's either leaking across the top of the battery (possible if the surface of the battery is grimy and damp) or the battery's kaput. A few mA drawn by the ABS ECU or the main ECU, I forget which, is normal and won't flatten a well-charged battery too quickly, I can leave my bike for a couple of weeks no probs. It might be worthwhile checking you're getting around 14.4 volts when she's running. For what it's worth, which may be zilch, I've done 21,000km in 10 months on the OEM Mickey Mouse battery and it's still ok. I use the "Manual Bi-Starter" to boot up and she starts first time. That's with all the sissy emissions stuff still intact, an iridium spark plug and a home-made oiled foam air-filter but no extra bolt-on goodies like electric chairs, tv sets or vibrators. The readable schematics are in the Owner's Manual, the Service Manual ones are a bit shabby.
 
A

AK Mike

Well travelled
Location
Skagway, Alaska
Very shortly after I got my new 2020 Himmy, my OEM battery was also dead. So I splurged and got an Antigravity ATZ-7-RS Lithium Ion Battery. Since there is still a foot of snow outside with more falling, I have not yet had a chance to install and try it out. But I suspect this will be a very worthwhile upgrade (quite a bit of weight savings as well.).
 
R

Roy Gavin

Well travelled
Location
Adelaide Australia
The battery earth looked undersized to me so I replaced it with something a bit heavier.
The PO had all sorts of useless junk / bling wired in , disconnected / removed the lot.
My thinking here is that the alternator output is low, and it won't take much before the system is running most of the time close to max oiutput, something it might not be designed to do.
Gamatronics have a reasonably priced charge warning light which can be set to show either battery volts or the charge rate, and set to monitor charge rate will give an instant indication of any problems developing, hopefully before any damage is done.
 
C

ChArj_Himalayan

Well travelled
Location
Indianapolis, IN
C

ChArj_Himalayan

Well travelled
Location
Indianapolis, IN
I agree, with others though. I have had bikes I have not touched over the winter for a month-month and a half and they start right up. The Himalayan battery is not that great but seems like some tried Yuasa and had the same issue... so maybe it is not the battery...?

I leave mine on a tender whenever not in use. and in cold weather, it discharges overnight to a dangerously low level. I learned that on a trip, luckily it did actually start and I let it run for a few minutes, after riding for a while it had enough juice to keep going all day.
 
sqeeezy

sqeeezy

Well travelled
Location
Southern Spain
R.E.H said:
According to the post on this blog
https://motohimalayan.wordpress.com/2020/02/05/votre-batterie-est-a-plat/

There is a drain in the battery which is most likely because of the clock (check the comments )

It is in French so you might have to transalte it (I did :) )
Click to expand...
I've replied to your post on the other forum, so I'll keep it brief. 4mA is a very small draw on the battery. An 8 amp-hour battery would last 83 days. If you don't ride your bike much, yes, fit a battery tender, solar charger or disconnect the battery.
 
R

R.E.H

Finally made it
Location
Greece
sqeeezy said:
I've replied to your post on the other forum, so I'll keep it brief. 4mA is a very small draw on the battery. An 8 amp-hour battery would last 83 days. If you don't ride your bike much, yes, fit a battery tender, solar charger or disconnect the battery.
Click to expand...
I also replied to you on the other forum :D:D:D
I posted the link just to show that there is some battery consumption when the bike is not used ...
 
sqeeezy

sqeeezy

Well travelled
Location
Southern Spain
R.E.H said:
I also replied to you on the other forum :D:D:D
I posted the link just to show that there is some battery consumption when the bike is not used ...
Click to expand...
Fair enough, I understand, no worries! I just needed to put it in perspective. Yes, you are right to show that there is some quiescent current and yes I am right to point out that it's very low. Since I bought my Himmie, it's been my main transport as it's fun and also cheap to run and less pollution than my car, so my children won't get so ill from breathing dirty air. Also because I live in a warm place I can use my bike most days, not like the guys in Wisconsin, eeek! So I've not suffered from battery problems. But, like, 4mA is not a broken motorcycle; to my mind it's an acceptable quiescent current, and I think RE would confirm it as within normal specs. Happy Trails!
 
Kokomoto

Kokomoto

Well travelled
Location
Chattanooga, Tennessee
sqeeezy said:
I've replied to your post on the other forum, so I'll keep it brief. 4mA is a very small draw on the battery. An 8 amp-hour battery would last 83 days. If you don't ride your bike much, yes, fit a battery tender, solar charger or disconnect the battery.
Click to expand...
I commute on the Hima nearly every day, but I'm occasionally out of town for a week or two. Sure, I can put it on a BTif it's going to be sitting for a week or two, but I'm puzzled as to why it's neccessary with this bike. I'll let y'all know if find the cause.
 
Kokomoto

Kokomoto

Well travelled
Location
Chattanooga, Tennessee
AK Mike said:
Very shortly after I got my new 2020 Himmy, my OEM battery was also dead. So I splurged and got an Antigravity ATZ-7-RS Lithium Ion Battery. Since there is still a foot of snow outside with more falling, I have not yet had a chance to install and try it out. But I suspect this will be a very worthwhile upgrade (quite a bit of weight savings as well.).
Click to expand...
That's a consideration. I like that restart function if it works as advertised.
 
Kokomoto

Kokomoto

Well travelled
Location
Chattanooga, Tennessee
I posted this to the other forum yesterday...

I checked checked the parasitic draw on the battery again. I measured 4.3 mA with all the fuses in place. With Fuse 1 removed it's 0.85 mA, and with Fuse 2 removed 3.5 mA. I'll check the diagram again, but I think F1 protects the instrument panel and reg/rec circuits. F2 is in the starter relay circuit. I'll confirm. Still no smoking gun.

I should note that I've left the Hima sit for 7-10 days before with no problems.

I have a SparkBright battery monitor LED and a Powerlet socket on a switched relay, and no accessories added that aren't switched. So the only parasitic draw is from stock configuration.

The voltage to the battery is 14.0 v at idle, 14.1 v at 3,000 rpm, and 14.2 at 4,000 rpm.

After charging over night with the BT then riding to work, the battery voltage was only 12.45v.
 
Wintrup

Wintrup

Well travelled
Location
Cumbria UK
How far is your ride to work and back. I found lots of local trips didn't sufficiently charge the battery. A 50 mile trip there and back and days later I had juice enough to start.
 
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Shearboy

Shearboy

Well travelled
Location
USA CO
If you have ever had the clutch apart you can see that there was some thought about installing a kick start with some of the machinings that have been done inside the cover.
 
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