New situation - nothing happening

[cbennett5199]

First time for everything I guess. I found my bike with the key in the on position after it was sitting for a couple of days. Never have done that before after long time riding. Naturally, nothing powered up at all. I figured I completely fried the battery. Before installing new one (on its way), I recharged the current battery. Checked it and is showing about 12v across the posts. Re-install it, and same thing -- absolutely nothing happens. Maybe a main fuse or something? Has this happened to anyone before? Any suggestions or ideas on what this likely is? Thanks in advance!

 

[WJBertrand]

I think the battery is just cooked. Sometimes a bad battery will show a good surface charge (and 12 volts is not that good) but be completely unable to deliver any current at all. Just switching the key on plummets if to almost zero.


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[Don in Lodi]

How long on the charger? Trickle or 10 amp? It's gonna take hours and hours at a fair amperage to get back maybe 80% of the battery. The 12 volts you saw was just a surface charge, nothing there yet. A battery tender prolly won't do it.

 

[StanBo]

I did the same to the battery on my generator. It was on a trickle charger for who knows how long with the key in the on position.

The trickle charger showed that the battery was charged.

There might be an issue where you carry the correct voltage but not the cold cranking amps to start things up.

Oh I just remembered. See if your charger has a "conditioning" mode. It can also be known as "equalize" vs the normal "float" trickle charge. That might help the battery out.

 

[cbennett5199]

I've had it on a trickle charger for a couple of days. I hope that's what it is - just a cooked battery. I do get 12 volts to all the unswitched accessories. I'm hoping that, by leaving it on, I didn't hose up the switch or something. Does it make sense I'm not getting anything - no fuel pump, no lights, nothing?

The electronics and electrics on this bike are still kind of confounding to me. I can do the basic crap, and have installed a nice fuse box to keep things organized. Compared to the bunch of bikes I've had before, I've never seen such a crammed area under the right fairing where so much of the electrical is.

Everything was working great until I found the bike dead. I should be getting the new battery shipped to me in the next couple of days. I guess I'll know for sure then. Little concerned, though, that something other than that is messed.

 

[Sierra1]

I would try to use a jump box, or cables. Put the old battery back in the bike, attach the cables/box, and see if it cranks. (if you use cables and a car battery, leave the car off) My wife's TW battery was so dead, the lights wouldn't even come on. Charger said it was good. I could get the bike started with a jump box, but it wouldn't stay running unless I kept the rpms up. Put a new battery in. . . . started right up. . . . no issues. I've left my Tenere on. . . . twice. Not to your extent, but I don't think you can hurt the bike by letting the battery die.

 

[cbennett5199]

Appreciate the info! I'll follow up and let you all know what happens when I get the new battery in.

 

[RonH]

Check your volts across the battery when the key is turned on. Most likely your 12v is dropping to nil or close to it (dead battery). No way in the world you could do any damage to other parts of the electrical by leaving the key on, so don't worry.

 

[cyclemike4]

My kids used to leave the key on all the time on our 4 wheeler's. I have found that the deposits on the plates after such an incident will fool chargers into thinking the battery is charged because even though the voltage is there current will not be generated. I would take a known good battery and put it in parallel with the dead battery then put a charger on both. the good battery will pass current and allow the charger to stay on. After some time the particles on the plates of the bad battery will break loose and start to charge. at that point i take the good battery off the charger and just charge the old battery. You can't do that with a trickle charger either. It set my charger on manual 15 amps to get the process started. It has worked for me several times. Not sure i would use that battery very long on a bike i depended on for daily use though. I kept the 4 wheeler's going an extra 2 or 3 years doing that.

 

[cbennett5199]

Well, got a new Yuasa battery in there.... and nothing. It's as though there is no power at all being switched. It acts as though there is no current from the battery, but I know there is because I have 12v getting to unswitched accessories. You know of a way to test the switch itself? Does that even make sense? I did nothing to this bike other than park it. Everything was working fine, then poof. So bizarre. Seem strange that a switch would just go bad. Anyway, I'm lost here in Virginia, so any ideas are definitely welcome!

 

[Boris]

Do US bikes have the immobiliser in the key like the UK bikes? If so, have you tried a different key?

are the fuses ok?

just throwing ideas in.

 

[Don in Lodi]

Possibility of popping the 50 amp main. Confirm positive and negative connections. Many have reversed the polarity over the years.

 

[cbennett5199]

SOLVED. 50 amp main fuse popped. Not sure why I didn't catch that before. What's the possibility of that popping as a result of leaving the bike on.?.

 

[scott123007]

SOLVED. 50 amp main fuse popped. Not sure why I didn't catch that before. What's the possibility of that popping as a result of leaving the bike on.?.

Zero.

More than likely you bumped something when installing the new battery that shorted and popped the fuse.

 

[Don in Lodi]

Did the bike start ok?

 

[WJBertrand]

SOLVED. 50 amp main fuse popped. Not sure why I didn't catch that before. What's the possibility of that popping as a result of leaving the bike on.?.

Don’t see how running the battery flat could blow that fuse but hooking up a jumper or battery charger backward could do that, even with just a momentary contact.


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[Sierra1]

The closest that I ever came to this is when I left the key in the on position in my Jeep. Came out the next day. . . . totally dead. Hooked up cables to my kid's truck, and let it charge for a while. Turned the key. . . . nothing. Dash lights didn't even come on. As I was disconnecting the battery's negative terminal, it sparked. Put the terminal back on, and it started right up. Was talking to a Jeep mechanic, and asked if there was something built in that would cause this to happen. Nope. Battery lasted for another three years. . . . even after leaving the key on a time or two. Yeah, I know. . . . I'm a dumb ass.

 

[WJBertrand]

kids killed the battery in my Wife's Rav4. They turned on the ignition to unload a CD and ran off leaving the key on. Didn't discover it until the next day when I got in the car to move it. I noticed my wife's keys were already in the ignition - dead as a doornail. Jumped it with one of those little starter packs, turned over pretty slow but got it started. That battery gave up a few months later.

 

[cbennett5199]

NOT. Yeh, probably did blow the fuse when pulling out or putting in the old battery. Hence, when I put the new battery in there - nothing. Now I have another problem - cranks but won't start. This is embarrassing. Wonder what I messed up this time. I'll go back out to the garage and hunt.

 

[WJBertrand]

Check all the other fuses? When my daughter's dimwit boyfriend (ex fortunately) connected the jumper cables to her car backward, it blew out a couple of other small fuses too, one of which was for the EFI. Make sure you're always disconnecting the negative battery terminal first and reconnecting it last.