Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech Weird Electrical Gremlin - no juice anywhere

Hey everyone.. been a while.. please excuse my absence

Maybe someone will recognize this situation. My '04 speedy sat in the garage over the winter, and now that it's spring and the flowers are popping, I pulled it out to go for a ride today. Has been and was running perfect up until I parked it a few months ago for it's winter nap. So, I go to crank her up, turn the key, and nada. Nothing. No lights or anything. Figured it was a dead battery from sitting in the cold, so I slap a charger on it.

Strange.. the charger (one of those with the current meter on the front) doesn't show any charging (zero amps). Dang, I figure the battery must have shorted a cell or something, but just to check, I threw a meter on it. 12.27V? WTF? Even if it was low, I should still get the panel lights when I turn the key, but nothing. So I unhooked the battery and connected directly to the charger so I KNOW it is getting power. Turn the key, and still nothing. Dang, I was hoping it was just the battery, but now it looks like something I am going to have to go digging for.

Maybe the switch? Put a meter on the battery and it's at 12+ volts until I turn the switch, where it drops down to about a quarter of a volt (~0.27V). Huh? Check resistance across the +/- battery cables (battery unhooked from the equation), no short, turn the key, get some resistance so it doesn't look like a direct short anywhere. Thought maybe the starter had got to a bad place and was putting a load, so I dropped it in gear and gave it a few bumps and still no joy.

Don't have time to really tear into it at the moment, but thought I'd throw this out there to see if anyone might have a clue as to the best place to start looking, or maybe ran across this situation before. I checked the fuses, all good. Check the wiring and connections and everything looks fine... no mice in there chewing on anything and it looks just like it did when it left the factory, although maybe a little bit dustier!

Ugggh.. beautiful weather and I'm stuck driving the truck.

Thanks!
Brad

I would start with checking all connections from the battery, grounds, terminals, solenoid, etc...Then on to the fuse box....

Man, I've checked every connector, plug, wire and screw I could get my hands on... and they all check out. The thing that stumps me is how the voltage drops, when measured at the battery, when the key is turned. It's like there is either a huge load or a resistive short pulling it to zero. If it were a loose or questionable connection, I don't think I would see that kind of voltage drop at the battery itself.

Cheers,
Brad

Did you look at the regulator plug?

If the battery drops close to zero when you turn the key on, your battery is probably finished. I would say it has an internal circuit that opens when any load is put on it. This is confirmed by the charger not being able to push any amps into it. If the battery internals are open it would be like holding the + and - clamps in the air....no current flow.

Try boosting your battery with a good car battery. Just don't start the car. If things come to life, you need a battery. If you still don't have any joy, continue what Ian suggested. Must be a connection, ground or positive.

Did you look at the regulator plug?

Not yet.. and I can't for the life of me find my shop manual so I don't have the electrical diagram and I'm working blind here... Last I saw it was a few years ago and it's not on the shelf with all my other ones

It's raining out and dark now, so I'll mess with it again tomorrow when I have some light. Without the diagram, I'm not sure, but if I unplug the regulator, will it isolate it and still allow the rest of the electrics to function? What I mean is, if I unplug it and turn the key on, should I get a headlight and panel lights?

Added: Hey Greg.. I completely removed the battery and hooked the cables up to the charger, so I know I had power applied. Same results, nothing. That's what leads me to believe that it's not the battery. And I was REALLY hoping it was!

Cheers,
Brad

First, I wouldn't trust a charger to power a system especially if it is one of those smart units.

Hook up a second battery to the bike and see if it comes to life. You stated that you got 12.2 volts across the battery, but when you turned on the key, it dropped to nearly zero. You also confirmed you didn't have a grounded circuit between the + and - cables so there isn't a tremendous load on the battery pulling the voltage to zero. What is that telling you? I'm guessing from my armchair, there isn't enough power/voltage to do anything.

Good luck.

Ok, I feel like an idiot and am kicking myself in the arse

I blame it being Friday the 13th

Greg, your line of thinking was identical to mine, as I've seen those symptoms a million times before. But when I threw the charger on it and it still didn't light up, that is what threw me for a loop and lead me to believe that it was something other than the battery.

Of course, I never thought to check the CHARGER!!! It was my trusty Schumacher 6/2 that I've had for a zillion years and never had a problem with. I grabbed a spare tractor battery to test the bike with, popped it on the charger to top it off, and got no amperage output. So just to make sure I wasn't going nuts, I put the meter on the charger output, and sure enough... SOB has zero output! Lots of colorful language ensued, and I threw that damn 6/2 across the garage. I broke out my other 10 amp Schumacher (and I verified it was working with the meter!!!), hooked it up to the bike, turned the switch and wham - everything lights up.

So, after all of that, it turns out that not only was the battery fried, so was the damn charger! Never again will I doubt the power of Friday the 13th!!

But man, I feel silly stoopid now.

Thanks you guys for playing along. and sorry for wasting your time on my silly misadventure. Tomorrow I'll run down and get a new battery, put the bike back together and hopefully be on the road before Monday. Maybe, since the bike is partially tore down anyway, I'll use the opportunity to give it a good cleaning which it does really need.

Thanks again.

Cheers,
Brad

Well, I've been following this thread, and at least you gave us some ENTERTAINMENT! For myself, I got Friday the 13 one day early, yesterday, when I took on a plumbing/carpentry job that should have took 4 hours and took 9! I hope that old charger FELT a few bumps before settling to the ground!

The tough days just make you appreciate the nice ones even more.

I was thinking a melted plug causing a dead short. Glad it was a dead battery and charger, easiest possible fix.

Glad things worked out for you Brad.