battery discharging

[wie1086]

one of my Warriors (2001) keeps draining the battery. Yes, the battery is good _ I swapped them and it did it to both.

Are there any common places to start my hunt?

 

[jasonp]

First, check charging and static voltage at/to the battery... should be around 14v or so running and off around 12.5v. If you don't have this there you either have a problem with the stator or voltage regulator.

 

[wie1086]

thanks, will check those. I was thinking about checking the voltage with the key off and start unplugging things until the current stops (assuming that there is current). I haven't heard of this issue on a Warrior, but figure I am not the first.

 

[jasonp]

You'll be able to tell... the stator provides ac current to the regulator which basically converts that to dc voltage to the battery.

 

[customyota]

The easiest way to find an electrical drain is to use a multimeter or test light. disconnect the positive battery terminal with the engine off and check to see if there is any current by touching one wire to the battery terminal and the other to the battery cable. if there is, your light will come on, or the meter will register it. then start unplugging different electrical items one at a time until you no longer have any current draw. once that happens, you've found your current draw. I've used this method to find a bad speedo on my buddies 600 gsxr. not that a speedo would be your problem, but it works anyway.

 

[wie1086]

effen machine -put the tester on it and all looked good, even on millivolts and ohms. Thinking OK, maybe it is a battery issue. Dead again. I think I need to retire my analog tester and get a digital. It is a weak drain that the analog isn't picking up on. About 3 days til dead. Wish there was room to put a switch at the battery -cure that problem real quick

 

[customyota]

the analog reader should work fine. it took my buddies gsxr 4-5 days to kill the battery and the current maxed out the scale on his analog meter. the millivolts and ohms settings aren't going to do you any good in this situation. ohms doesn't measure current, it measures resistance to electrical flow. you should set it up for a DC current, most common meters have a setting around 200 milliamps. this is where you should set it because your current draw is most likely to be something around that range.

 

[customyota]

The simplest way to do it is with a cheap $3 test light. there are no settings to mess with. if the light comes on, there is a current draw, if it doesn't, then there's not. if it's a really really weak draw, the light might be dim, but it should still come on, it doesn't take much current to power those little christmas lights that are used in the tester.

 

[oddy]

yea in the meanwhile if u cant get it fixed just pull the fuse out thats under the left rear fender when your done riding so it wont be drained by the atv...lol i had to do so once

 

[akbnkb]

if its not the battery, i would bet money its the regulator. when they start going bad they will do that. the regulator is basically a bridge rectifier to turn the 3 phase ac in to dc.a bridge rectifier uses diodes to only allow electricity to move one direction when they fail they will allow electricity to go both ways, witch means electricity is going back to the stator.if u had a digital multi meter i would say to go start it, put the multi meter on ac and see if it read any ac power at the battery.if it did that means ur regulator is bad. just my $.02

 

[yamarider]

if its not the battery, i would bet money its the regulator. when they start going bad they will do that. the regulator is basically a bridge rectifier to turn the 3 phase ac in to dc.a bridge rectifier uses diodes to only allow electricity to move one direction when they fail they will allow electricity to go both ways, witch means electricity is going back to the stator.if u had a digital multi meter i would say to go start it, put the multi meter on ac and see if it read any ac power at the battery.if it did that means ur regulator is bad. just my $.02

+1, good advice here

 

[akbnkb]

thanks