Charging - Help, Battery

[Doofer]

I'm having some trouble with the SV battery, but could do with having the bike up and running tomorrow.

Sourcing a replacement battery could take anything up to a week around here and may well be easier through wemoto.

In the meantime, can I use a 12v8ah battery in place of the required 12v9ah or will the difference in ampage cause problems, the batteries are the same physical size and the terminals are the same polarity so it will fit the bike fine, I just need to make sure I'm not going to fry the battery or the bike's electrics and still have sufficient charge in the battery to start the bike if I need to stop anywhere on route. I intend to use it for a 150 mile round trip.

Doof

[carrots]

Hi doofer, the issue is no the Ah but the max Amperage output... as long as the bike starts reasonably quick you should not have a problem!!! If the bike doesn't start easy then the smaller batt might run out quicker that is all!

[Doofer]

Thanks Carrots,

I didn't think it would be a problem, but needed to make sure I wasn't likely to boil it dry by overcharging or anything daft like that.

Doof

[Tigger]

Hi Jen

As Carrots said the Ah rating is for starting purposes and as a short term measure should be ok. As long as there is no heavy load on it should perform as normal.


HTH

Matt

[speighty]

I agree with the consensus.

I'll check the battery type online and see if any of the local suppliers in Notts have any, as we do have at least one battery specialist round here.

Although if you see this, post the type and save an old man's brain cells. :-)

[CD]

Many batteries get scrapped when all they need is a kick from a conditioning charger.
If you can get hold of one, try an Optimate on the old battery.
The batt might even be quite new, but if it's been over-discharged at some time it will never hold a charge. Unlike normal chargers, the Optimate can recover this and tell you if the battery is worth keeping.

Regarding the Ah... Ideally get the biggest that will fit, but in the real world an 8Ah instead of 9Ah will make little practical difference.

[bobh]

Typical Suzuki false economy fitting a tiny battery to a V-twin that must need a far bit more effort to turn over than a four.

[Doofer]

Thanks guys,

Sorry I didn't post the battery type and save your brain cells Speighty.

I left the house this morning with the battery off one of the Divvies, tools to get access to the one on the bike and a set of jump leads in my panniers just in case.

I picked up a new battery whilst visiting my friend today, filled and fitted it before I returned home, I also picked up a set of plugs to fit once I can work out how to get access to the front one. I dried out the electrics as best I could and gave them a good coating of silicon spray to help keep water out, but the bike does seem to be misfiring a bit on one cylinder, chances are its probably a tired plug, but that won't help matters any. It turns out that the SV and the Divvy use the same battery and plugs, so using the spares I already had would not have been a problem.

Dave, as I have used the bike every day since I bought it a month ago I doubt there is much an optimate can do for the battery, its not as if the bike is left standing, although I appreciate that is has been prior to my ownership. Because I tend to use my bikes very regularly I don't often have battery problems but when I do I tend to find that it is better for me to replace the battery than to try to recover it and risk finding myself stranded.

If I hadn't been with Reaper & the gang yesterday I wouldn't have known where I was to tell the breakdown recovery people despite being less than 5 min walk from an area I do know. Even then the breakdown recovery company had trouble locating me and rang me several times to confirm my location :S

Doof

[beeblemaster]

I wouldn't have fancied your chances trying to call for recovery at Wetton Mill

[Doofer]

Me neither Beebs ,

No mobile phone reception for miles

and

I've tried mapping my sat nav to the place for future reference and can't seem to find it to do so. I'll remember to store it into my sat nav while I'm there one day assuming that will pick up a signal

Doof

[Doofer]

Well, I found the cause of the misfire

I've been making some daft remarks about the bike not running on 'all four' thinking this was just me taking time to get used to a twin again (well it has been 8 years since I rode one). On Sunday it had seemed especially vibey even before the rain found us.

It took me an hour to work out how to get access to the front spark plug, but once I did I discovered a couple of problems, firstly there was obvious water damage to the plug, this I expected, plug was changed for a new one and the drainage channel was cleaned out, however when I went to replace the plug cap I found myself with a plug cap in my hand that was not attached to a HT lead, luckily the lead was long enough to trim and refit the plug cap, but these would explain the misfire and problems with water ingress.

I suspect the misfire was reducing the output from the alternator, so the battery would not have been charging correctly, sitting at tickover marking a junction probably put just enough drain on the battery to prevent it starting the bike.

The bike runs much more smoothly now that I have replaced the plug and re-attached the plug cap, so I am hoping that this has cured the problem. Apparently water ingress was considered a problem with the early 650 and fitting a fender extender helps enormously, but I have a fender extender fitted anyway, I suspect that a combination of badly fitted plug cap and the incredibly heavy rain was just too much for the poor beast.

It looks like I may well have a perfectly good spare battery now, I think I'll fit that to Yoda (Turquoise Divvy) and use it.

[beeblemaster]

Jul 3, 2008 11:52:04 GMT Doofer said:

It looks like I may well have a perfectly good spare battery now...

Should have listened to CD

Glad you sorted it out. It's true what they say, you like getting dirty ;D

[darren]

its not the only twin that had a problem with the british weather, the cruisers had the same problem, including the virago that I had, I ended up making a smale plate that i attached to the fins to stop water getting to the plug

[CD]

Take a close look with a mirror there might be a drain hole from the sparkplug area that's got clogged up. Alternatively, it might be worth drilling a suitable hole(s), but carefully - could end up draining more than rain water.