Busa battery...the latest and greatest...CCA/reliability/etc

[BlueBacon]

Cleaned that well-oiled connection with some Q-tips and plugged her back together. Battery was trickle charged overnight up to 13.7v, but dropped to 12.4v in 3hrs. Battery drops to 10.?v when fuel primes, but rises back to 11.Xv and then the bike starts no problem. Battery stays at starting voltage (11.4v-11.8v) and slowly drops as the bike runs...no matter what RPM I hold her at. Dropped to 10.8v after a few minutes and I shut her off. Previously gross plug does get warm while the bike runs, but nothing alarming (so far).
NOTE: there is a singular audible click coming from the tail section (rectifier?) every time I hit the start button...IDK if that's normal.

 

[BlueBacon]

UPDATE: replaced the stator with a brand new one from Powerhouse and no change. Battery does not charge from the bike and slowly drains as she runs. Guess I'll have to pull off the tail and check the regulator.
I may have a battery I can borrow to swap and test, but that's not confirmed yet.

 

[SSGT_B]

UPDATE: replaced the stator with a brand new one from Powerhouse and no change. Battery does not charge from the bike and slowly drains as she runs. Guess I'll have to pull off the tail and check the regulator.
I may have a battery I can borrow to swap and test, but that's not confirmed yet.

Do you have a dvm to test at battery while running?

also check at the plug from the stator

 

[TallTom]

Just seeing this post. I'm going to say you have a bad battery. I can see you getting faked out by that connector, but I think you just describe the environment it lives in by the sprocket.

I have had batteries show a good surface charge but are in fact crap for a load. I'd go with cheap parts before expensive ones. To me all your symptoms of low voltage is battery.

I've never had an issue with my stator/rectifier but it needs a new battery like every 2 years. Them I went with L/ION and that solved that.

I can tell you I never cracked into that bike ever when I owned it. The only electrical changes were HID headlights. Which absolutely will die with low voltage.

PM me if you need to. But that's all I got.

 

[BlueBacon]

Do you have a dvm to test at battery while running?

also check at the plug from the stator

I'm dumb. What is a "dvm"? Multimeter shows battery voltage slowly degrading while the bike runs. Consistently stays at 12v...will not charge from bike period.

Just seeing this post. I'm going to say you have a bad battery. I can see you getting faked out by that connector, but I think you just describe the environment it lives in by the sprocket.

I have had batteries show a good surface charge but are in fact crap for a load. I'd go with cheap parts before expensive ones. To me all your symptoms of low voltage is battery.

I've never had an issue with my stator/rectifier but it needs a new battery like every 2 years. Them I went with L/ION and that solved that.

I can tell you I never cracked into that bike ever when I owned it. The only electrical changes were HID headlights. Which absolutely will die with low voltage.

PM me if you need to. But that's all I got.

Thanks Tom!
I figured it was the stator due to the battery accepting a charge from outside sources, but no charge coming from the bike at all. You are right about the plug location though...everything on that side was coated in grease gunk. If it does end up being the battery, I will be going Lion for sure...I was eyeing "Battery Tender" by Deltran and "Pulse IPT", but the pulse models are hard to find.

 

[Bumblebee]

I just got a new battery and after weighing all the pros and cons went with an OEM agm battery....the bike seemed to like the last one...

 

[SSGT_B]

Not dumb brother, I should have just wrote out multimeter. Dvm- digital volt meter

 

[Dopey]

UPDATE: replaced the stator with a brand new one from Powerhouse and no change. Battery does not charge from the bike and slowly drains as she runs. Guess I'll have to pull off the tail and check the regulator.
I may have a battery I can borrow to swap and test, but that's not confirmed yet.

So it's obviously too late now since you already bought one but with your multimeter is pretty easy to test the stator and still might be worth checking just to be sure a wire didn't get pinched or something when u put it back together. As far as thinking the battery most of the time if they are bad you'll see it over charging,a quick way to test that theory would be hookup some jumper cables to your cars good battery without the car running then start the bike and test the voltage. If the battery was keeping it from charging having a good battery hooked up with the cables would be the same as putting a good battery in the bike but at this point I'd say the battery is toasted anyway and needs replaced regardless. I think if the charging fuse blows it kills all the power and the bike wouldn't start so that counts that out which leaves the regulator. You can test the leads for the stator at the regulator to make sure there's not a broken wire between them but if your getting the right reading from the stator at the regulator then the only way I know to test the regulator is to replace it but aside from a bad ground which I'm doubting because it did start from what I read the regulator is the only part left. Sorry for the rambling was thinking it out in my head and writing as I went.

 

[BlueBacon]

I pulled the battery and went to two different stores. Both said the battery was fine, but was low on voltage (12.3v). I left it on the garage floor and put it on the slow charger for the rest of the night.
I went ahead and pulled off the tail (not looking forward to re-installing later). Regulator/rectifier looks good and the plug was just dusty. All terminals look great! I will put on the battery tomorrow, fire her up and see if I can get any reading at the rectifier plug.

I could have a bad wire somewhere between stator-rectifier-battery, but visually they all look fine. While I have this apart now, does anyone recommend I relocate the regulator/heatsink?

 

[TallTom]

I pulled the battery and went to two different stores. Both said the battery was fine, but was low on voltage (12.3v). I left it on the garage floor and put it on the slow charger for the rest of the night.
I went ahead and pulled off the tail (not looking forward to re-installing later). Regulator/rectifier looks good and the plug was just dusty. All terminals look great! I will put on the battery tomorrow, fire her up and see if I can get any reading at the rectifier plug.

I could have a bad wire somewhere between stator-rectifier-battery, but visually they all look fine. While I have this apart now, does anyone recommend I relocate the regulator/heatsink?

I'm sticking with the bad battery. I've been here before.

Did they load test it?

 

[202mphbusa]

there is a test for the voltage coming out of the three leads of the stator
unplug while running the voltage is supposed to be HIGH
manual not handy to know how high

anyone got theirs around

 

[BlueBacon]

Pretty sure I should have just gone with the first bits of advice and bought another battery.
Battery read 14.4v when I got home. Unplugged it from the wall and it instantly dropped to 13.3v while losing .1v every 5-7secs...I stopped watching after it hit 12.6v

I'll be ordering a L-ion tonight after some searching and I'll post up again once it arrives.

 

[Bumblebee]

Pretty sure I should have just gone with the first bits of advice and bought another battery.
Battery read 14.4v when I got home. Unplugged it from the wall and it instantly dropped to 13.3v while losing .1v every 5-7secs...I stopped watching after it hit 12.6v

I'll be ordering a L-ion tonight after some searching and I'll post up again once it arrives.

It's been my experience the battery is the first culprit to cause grief.

 

[BlueBacon]

Look like I'll be getting an Antigravity ATZ10-RS. I would like a little more CCA, but I already have a tough time fitting the seat with a regular sized battery and most of the others I found are slightly taller.
As far as a lithium charger/maintainer; I was looking at this NOCO - 2-Amp Smart Battery Charger - GENIUS2
I've seen a few folks on here with this brand, but it says that the battery must have its own internal management system and I don't thing the AG does...any advice on this?

 

[BlueBacon]

Ok! So new battery (ATZ10-RS) did jack squat...Battery was over 13v when I put it in, started bike great, and began idled at 12.8v....but was still dying. I held the throttle at 4k RPM for 3 minutes and the voltage from the battery continued to fall until the BMS from the battery kicked in and shut off the bike around 12.5v.

Bike ran a total of 5-6 minutes. Regulator/rectifier was warm to the touch , but not hot. I read .501-.502 on 4 of the 5 prongs in the regulator male plug when measuring for continuity(?), but only when negative is on the correct prong. I can read the battery voltage from the regulator female harness. No bad fuses in box or in the little housing by the battery (left side).

New battery and new stator=no changes, same problem.
Anything else I can try before blowing cash on another regulator?

@GIXERHP I am going to have to hold off on lights until this is solved

 

[TallTom]

Holy chyt. Now I'm gettin pissed about this.

Man I could have sworn you'd be happy with a new battery.

I'm definitely gonna follow this thread now.

 

[BlueBacon]

Holy chyt. Now I'm gettin pissed about this.

Man I could have sworn you'd be happy with a new battery.

I'm definitely gonna follow this thread now.

Yeah after realizing the battery was in fact bad, I figured the new one would be the answer...now I'm flabbergasted. There are only two connections (flat L-shaped bar) that go onto the battery terminals, right? I have two other wires that come down for the HID kit, but that's it.
Just want to make sure I'm not missing anything stupid simple...everything I unplugged was put back together so far as I can see (stator, regulator, battery, and a few connections under the tank)

 

[TallTom]

Yeah after realizing the battery was in fact bad, I figured the new one would be the answer...now I'm flabbergasted. There are only two connections (flat L-shaped bar) that go onto the battery terminals, right? I have two other wires that come down for the HID kit, but that's it.
Just want to make sure I'm not missing anything stupid simple...everything I unplugged was put back together so far as I can see (stator, regulator, battery, and a few connections under the tank)

Yes that's all.

So I'm thinking the next plan of attack would be pull fuses to see if there is a load pulling from somewhere. Check to see which one is the charging system fuse and pull anything that isn't required to run the engine.

Don't know what they are I'm just talking plan here.

I'm just wondering if you have some weird high draw from HIDs or etc.

 

[BlueBacon]

Finally had a break in the rain while I was home and did some tests. I believe the rec/reg is the issue even though I measured good and equal continuity from the plug.

I am getting increasing AC voltage from the 3-wire plug directly off of the stator as well as the plug that goes to the reg/rec. New stator is definitely working! The only DC voltage I get is from the battery, which runs the bike until it cuts off at 12.5V or 12.7V due to the BMS system in it.
@TallTom I removed all fuses, cleaned up the contacts with sandpaper, and reinstalled only the "main" fuse by the battery+ignition+fuel. No change, but great idea to test.

Since I paid big bucks for the lithium battery, I am looking at getting Rick's hot shot reg/rec specifically for lithium batteries unless anyone says otherwise.

 

[TallTom]

Finally had a break in the rain while I was home and did some tests. I believe the rec/reg is the issue even though I measured good and equal continuity from the plug.

I am getting increasing AC voltage from the 3-wire plug directly off of the stator as well as the plug that goes to the reg/rec. New stator is definitely working! The only DC voltage I get is from the battery, which runs the bike until it cuts off at 12.5V or 12.7V due to the BMS system in it.
@TallTom I removed all fuses, cleaned up the contacts with sandpaper, and reinstalled only the "main" fuse by the battery+ignition+fuel. No change, but great idea to test.

Since I paid big bucks for the lithium battery, I am looking at getting Rick's hot shot reg/rec specifically for lithium batteries unless anyone says otherwise.

I'd say you're on the correct path in your logic. Increasing voltage to it and nothing out. Yes sir I agree.