New batteries

[nudemetalz]

Greetings,

What's the opinion of what you do with new batteries with you guys (and gals) ?

I bought one recently for the VT from a shop in ChCh. It came in a box with the acid in the bottle. They told me to put it in myself and then leave for approx 30 minutes and should be good to go.
This I did (it's not easy BTW) and left for 60 mins just to be on the safe side.

Now that was 2 weeks ago and now the VT is beginning to have flat-battery syndrome.

Could I have stuffed up the procedure ?
Are you supposed to charge the battery first like some people on the net say ?

Tomorrow I'm going to get the charging system of the VT tested so as to see if the regulator is worn out or not.

What you reckon ?


Cheers
Chris

[Motu]

It's a good idea to put a dry charged battery on a trickle charge for a few hours after you fill it with acid,but they will work straight off.More likely a charging problem,a dud battery is fairly rare.

[Gremlin]

When I bought a battery for the ZZR from Mt Eden, they filled it up and either offered to pop it on charge for me overnight for x time or I could take it home and charge it myself.

Luckily a friend had a charger so I carefully took it home in my backpack

But yes, you need to charge it is my understanding. Also, when charging you need to take the caps out and rest them on the top to allow for the build up of gas.

[nudemetalz]

oh for sure, definitely take the caps off,
it's just more of a question of the filling procedure as I've never had to fill my own battery before and it's no fun playing around with sulphuric acid.....

I think I may have also inadvertantly overfilled a couple of the chambers, (like gone above the "high" mark) while trying to use the squeeze bottle supplied.
Would that shorten the battery life ?

[scumdog]

oh for sure, definitely take the caps off,
it's just more of a question of the filling procedure as I've never had to fill my own battery before and it's no fun playing around with sulphuric acid.....

I think I may have also inadvertantly overfilled a couple of the chambers, (like gone above the "high" mark) while trying to use the squeeze bottle supplied.
Would that shorten the battery life ?

No, but it MAY cause an overflow situation when the battery gets hot and battery acid leaking over everything.

[nudemetalz]

No haven't had that, so mustn't have overfilled by much.

[nudemetalz]

hmmm,..it's pointing to a regulator being faulty with this discussion being had.

I guess it's only a matter over putting a multimeter across and see what charge is being outputted when starting. Supposed to not drop past 9 Volts and when running be around 13.2 if I remember rightly.
Is that true ?

[zadok]

It's a good idea to put a dry charged battery on a trickle charge for a few hours after you fill it with acid,but they will work straight off.

That's always been my understanding and I usually get a good 3 years out of a battery. I go for the Chinese/Korean/Taiwan ones that cost about $100.
The last battery I got, the shop charged it for me at no extra charge.

[nudemetalz]

My VT250 one musta been dirt cheap at $30 then !!!

[John]

The last battery I got, the shop charged it for me at no extra charge.

No pun intended

[scumdog]

Just as a matter of interest, my '97 H-D Sportster is still running the original battery!!

Keep it charged and keep using the bike and you'll have minimal problems.

[zadok]

I was a poet and I didn't even know it!

[Flyingpony]

I've recently purchased a battery which also came with battery acid in tiny bottles in a box from a Chch shop as you did.

Except, the bike shop kindly asked me have I done this before and do I have a battery charger at home. No and no were my answers. They then kindly told me to return tomorrow and collect my new battery. They filled it up, placed it on over night charge at no extra charge.

[nudemetalz]

Good stuff, Flyingpony...as after this experience, that tiny bottle is really hard to put acid in and I'm not going to do it myself again.

Lesson learnt !!
BTW I'm not blaming the shop in any way whatsoever, I should have been more prudent with this.

Chris.

[MSTRS:Me]

If a bike charges the same way as a car does, then your battery needs to be near if not fully charged for the charging system to work properly. Something to do with needing electricity to create electricity. Otherwise all you are doing is using the electricity from the alternator to 'subsidise' the battery powering the coils, lights etc.