Starting Problems 90'ZXR250A

[qldzxr250a]

Hey all,

Just bought my first bike, my baby a 90' ZXR250A. , but am having issues with the battery system. bought a new battery today and is currently on charge so havent been able to try it. but here was the problem:

Bought the bike and it had been sitting in a garage for 8 months due to the previous owner scaring himself stoopid on it . Put the old battery on charge and waited till charger gave me green light. Bike apparently has new alternator.

Bike Started and away i went . Got home and stopped the bike and came out 10mins later for another ride. it wouldnt start.

Charged battery again but this time wouldnt start. put on multi meter and would get to 14volts fully charged and about 27amps. is this right?

as soon as battery was back in bike and i hit the starter wouold kick over maybe twice then fade faster then an old pair of levis.

Is the old battery cactus?
Will the New Battery Fix all my Problems?
what voltages should i be seeing??
am i in for an expensive repair????

any help would be appreciated beyond belief. cheers.

[FlyingDutchMan]

If its been sitting round for while, drain all the petrol out (and don't forget the carbs) and put fresh stuff in. It will love you for it. You've probably fouled the plugs as well, so take those out and clean them up. You can buy new ones, but they'll be hideous exspensive ($18 each). With the battery by itself it sould be reading 12.8 - 13 volts. You shouldn't be measuring the current like that, and in general you don't need to measure the current, so don't bother. When charging the battery, you did do at no more than 3amps for 5 hours or 1amp at 10 hours I hope? The old battery is probably dead... Inaction (I mean a lack of action) kill them faster than anything else.

After you've done all that and its going again, it'll probably like a oil change (if colour=black, change it), chain clean & lube and general maintainence.

[DingDong]

... and before you do that... just to be sure, start the bike (push start if need be) disconnect the battery and see if it still runs, if you have a multi-meter check the voltage from the generator.

If its good then your battery is rooted, if its bad then your battery is still rooted and your generator too.

Im not familiar your bike or how it works... but that would be my first point of concern if my bike did the same thing.

Good luck

[qldzxr250a]

forgot to mention bike has been running since sitting idle for like 6hours all up over about 2 weeks (had limited access to it.) and has had a fresh tank of 96 in it and almost due for another. seems to run ok.

as its my first bike i know sweet FA about where things are located. will simple tasks like checking plugs etc be easy for a newbie tard like myself???

again your help is greatly appreciated.

[stocky]

so you have a multi meter?
test the voltage when cranking should not drop below 9 volts
if it does battery is knackered
and running the bike without the battery in there is not wise the alternator is not designed to do that an can screw them... the battery is needed to act like a shock absorber for the current produced by the alternator and to act as a stockpile of "energy"
hope this helps

[R6_kid:Me]

when i put my bike on the road it had been sitting for the best part of two years. The battery would lose almost all charge after one start. Got a new battery, new plugs, tuned, new oil+filter, took a week to clear out. Might pay to some small stones in you tank (like 3-5 pebbles) with about 500ml of petrol and shake the fuck out of your tank. Then drain all out the top of the tank, making sure the pebbles come out... might have a rustyish tank...

[qldzxr250a]

well 20 hours has passed and time to try new battery.....no luck. new battery drops to 4volts when cranking called kawasaki and said it rooted. arguing with them now telling them to come and get it as i cant get there due to bike not running.

trying to tell me it my fault . i could have connected the battery charger wrong way...etc etc...

1) im not colour blind
2)i aint stupid
3)i just want my bike......

thanks for all the useful advice. will keep u posted.

[BNZ]

I think its because you live in the wrong country.

[qldzxr250a]

well after a very wet day i finally made it to kawasaki who surprise surprise said nothing is wrong with the battery it is my bike.

load tested and said it was fine. did it infront of me and from my observations made it into the yellow zone for weak.

now im no genius but i would have thought that was a bad thing???
he said it went to 9volts under load? but in my bike while cranking it drops below 4.

is there something wrong with bike or does it sound purely battery realated.

can anyone please shed some light on this as really taking me to wits end.



p.s just consider me western suburbs

[loosebruce]

I have roughly the same problem with my 89 A nodel as well but i haven't really looked into it, i'm too cheap to buy a battery to see if thats the problem, as i have a few other bikes to keep going, so i end up push starting it all the time, looks hard case at the servo or anyhwere really, but it does the trick and gets easier once its warmed. Only trying to start it after a few weeks of not riding it with wet roads at 3am really sucks, as the back doesn't hook up enough to crank the engine over.
This proberly isn't an ideal solution for you, gets you fit though.

Hope you can get it sorted soon mate, and start enjoying riding a bit more, sorry but the electrics side of things aren't big on my brain.

[qldzxr250a]

seems weird now bike wants to kick over but typical flat battery sounds now . charging battery and everythings seems normal. kicking over 4 -5 times now no problems and only been on charge for like 20 mins....

so again time to play the waiting game.........

*fingers crossed please all!*

[Bartman10]

Batteries get killed when the sit around very quickly by way of a process called sulfonation. The chemistry of a charging battery goes something like this

2PbSO4 + 2H2O ------> Pb + PbO2 + 4H(+) + 2SO4(2-)

There are 3 factors that contribute to the distruction of a battery

1) Sulfuric acid gets consumed in the reaction process. The bubbles you see when you charge the battery is hydrogen. Measure the density of the battery acid it should be 1.2 g/mL or more at 25 degrees C
2) When a battery sits for a long time the lead sulfate builds up on the electordes and forms a precipitate, coating the electrode with an insulating layer, preventing the conduction of electrons through the battery acid.
3) Cold batteries don't work becasue of the increased viscosity of the electrolyte solution prevents the migration of the charge carrying ions through the solution, retarding the electrochemistry.

Once sulfonation has built up to a significant level theres not much you can do. Some people sugest rinsing your battery out and filling it with a dilute sodium hydroxide solution and putting it on charge for a while. After that you refill the battery with fresh sulfuric acid, but I've never had any luck with this method.

I've posted a link to a ZXR250 manual on this site. If you cant find it PM me.

Cheers,

Mark

[qldzxr250a]

For those that are interested.

Clutch started my bike this afternoon after much swearing and cussing cause my bike wouldnt start after hopeful signs from the previous night.

decided it was time to take it to someone in the know so off i went to Pro Power (Nerang on the Gold Coast if anyone crosses over that puddle that seperates us ) really good guys there took off seat and probed battery with multi and confirmed that no charge going back to batt.

as alternator has been changed in lasst 6 months he said prolly be the rectifer or the resonator(cant remember exactly) due to local flooding here he couldnt look at it till monday so he just d/c my lights to allow me to get home as battery was already @ 10volts.

got about 5km up the road b4 it died....

but a short phone call soon had them on there way and picked it up 4 me and took it to workshop.

nice guys no bs so far.....

so back to the waiting game for me.

to be continued...

[qldzxr250a]

Well after 4 long days my new regulator has arrived and hardwired into charging system bypassing the loom(so mechanic says). so that takes care of that problem..

Now The Starter motor is playing up . so of to mechanic shortly to see what the go is but getting closer to being on the road...if only 1 step at a time.

just keeping u posted

to be continued......... op: op: op: op:

[bumsex]

yeah...seems to be an inherent prob with zxr250s. My little brother wanted to buy one a while back, so into the dealership we went. It started fine then would not start again (was a '93 zxr250). According to mechanic: charging system on zxr's faulty and battery needs to be at optimal charge in order for things to work. He was trying to start the bike with jumper leads and still would not go... finnicky things. Good luck...