Battery Issue

[tg11285]

I have a 2006 gs like most of you guys do. My problem is whenever I leave my bike out overnight it wont start up at all. the battery is draining overnight , im thinking its a short in the circuits somewhere, but i honestly have no idea. Any ideas?

sidenote- my gauges arent working either and i tried to the the connections but no luck just yet.

another sidenote  - Im wanting a custom paint job done on my bike should i have it done professionally or try it alone??

I have alot of questions but i dont wanna make this OP too long lol

[darealestspigguh]

Well as far as your battery problem, mine was dying too so I had it on a tender. One night while I was drunk I knocked it over while still on the charger.  It stayed like that all night and i woke up to a puddle of brownish liquid. I thought I had ruined it, but it held a charge much better after that.  I can leave my bike for weeks and it still starts right up. May have something to do with the acid level.  Aparently US assemblers like to overfill everything on these bikes.

I also did my own paint with Duplicolor cans and it looks good enough. After all, we don't own show bikes. heres mine:

[darealestspigguh]

Well it seems here in the US we only have an EGR:exhaust gas recirculator, which doesnt work the same as your carbon based emissions device.  An EGR simply cools the combustion cycle using non-combustible exhaust gasses there-by reducing NOx emmissions.I said bye-bye to that guy . Europes version seems to be electrical and carbon based, thats all i can tell, probabaly a little more strict in the UK.

[tg11285]

darealestspigguh
`the first post helped out not sure about the second though
btw i replaced the battery and after having to buy a charger and i did the same as you "accidently" tipped it over and woke up to the same puddle of light brown liquid.. long story short buying a charger worked out the best
and the paint looks great on the bike

[darealestspigguh]

I'm starting to think you need to leave these things plugged in whenever they're not in use, even if you ride daily. The battery seems to only accept a trickle charge which doesnt seem to be enough to keep up with the bike. I am using the battery light to guage and it seems that at idle there is no battery charging going on (battery light flashing becomes more frequent) especially if the brake light is on.  At about 4000 RPM it seems that a trickle charge starts (this is about where the red light turns off).  The problem is if you start with anything less than a full charge it will take about an hour if not more of engine reving at 4000 to get that battery anywhere near a full charge.  Anything less than a half hour ride will render your bike uncrankable.  Also, i would imagine since i havent done it yet that a very long stop and go ride, say in rush hour traffic would put a serious drain on the battery since most of your time would be spent under that 4000 mark.  I dont know much about stators and rectifiers but i would imagine there is some sort of tuning or upgrade i can do to remedy this issue.  I hate wire testing, but it looks like i might have to bring out the old voltometer eh?  Any advice or similar symptoms please reply.

PS if i didnt live on the second floor, it wouldnt be such an issue, but its difficult to find a spot to plug my bike in every time i park, i usualy have to wait till night to steal some 1st floor power.

PPS I also am in talks with a local HID provider to get an HID which i beleive the install turns your high beam switch to a "no beam switch" which should help my battery out durring the day anyway.

[z250gs]

Just reading that comment re 4000rpm mark being the minimum revs to start charging sounds exactly the same as mine when the rectifier connector was unplugged. After i removed the seat one day i had somehow left the connector plug undone or partly unplugged. I then went for a quick drive and noticed my red charge light was on all the time at idle and didn't really go out until the engine revs were up -about 4000rpm. I knew this was way too high so i rechecked under the seat. Thats when i found the connector was unplugged.
In any case, even if u ride with headlight on, the charging light should go off at closer to 2000. Apart from when i had the fault, i've never seen the charge light come on above 2000rpm. Otherwise it sounds a lot like a fault in the charge cct.

There's a website i found that may be useful if you decide to test for faults in the charge cct. It's at this link: http://www.electrosport.com/

[darealestspigguh]

Thanks for the link, and the info, i will check my rectifier, it could be bad, i've never unplugged it, so im pretty sure thats not the case.  I just finished installing my HID and HOLY HELL what a difference.  I have visibility, lol.  best 50 i've spent on my bike so far.  It doesnt turn my switch to a blackout though, instead it's got a seperate bulb for low which seems to be halogen and puts out about as much light as the old setup did.  I'm happy with that, but i'm still having to charge my battery.  Right now, i am also trying to get my jetting right which has proven to be pretty damn difficult...

[darealestspigguh]

 Well its worse than i thought, after letting it get a full charge and with HID's there is no charging going on, i've narrowed it down to the Battery, Regulator, or Rectifier, and im leaning towards the latter two. 
 The battery is new but I have no experience with electrolyte filled batteries.  I followed the directions the best i could, but i have trouble seeing the levels.  Would low electrolyte in the battery exhibit syptoms like not taking charge from the battery.  It seems to hold a chrage fine as i can leave it for a couple days and it will still crank.
 I rode today and it didn't seem to charge at all.  Towards the beginning of my ride, the battery light would shut off unless i had the brake held or something, It progressively got worse until i couldnt get the light to turn off.  It still cranks for now, but im sure i'll have to plug it in again soon.  

I  also got a damn ticket for no eye protection.  Bitch ass cop knew i was blocks from my house and still wrote it out.

[darealestspigguh]

So im going with regulator rectifier, and i dont feel like testing it cuz i dont know how.  I already inspected the stator, and it looked to be in tact and pretty well magnetized, but again, i dont know for sure.  The symptoms seem to lead to the rectifier though.  When i bought it, the seller used his turbo diesel pickup to "jump start" the bike, i imagine that could have done damage to this low er wattage, lower voltage system.  I think i heard somewhere that you should never use a car to jump start a motorcycle battery.

[darealestspigguh]

cant tell you guys how much fun it is posting replies to my own posts, but if anyone wants to jump in, feel free...  I put a 28 dollar rectifier on the bike and im still not getting it to charge the batt, i also re-did some wiring that looked loose or faulty.  I didnt change anything, just strengthened one or two damaged blade recievers.  I am going to replace the stator next, but if that doesnt do it, i may just sell it and cut my losses, i  cant do much commuting with a bike that wont charge a battery...

[kristifer]

I would help you out, but I have no real knowledge of electrical systems on motorcycles.  Best thing I could do is get info out of the maintainance manual (which sucks btw) and get wiring diagrams.  Sorry.