Electical questions

[Tyrone ORourke]

My bike is running on a 6V electronic ignition system that works well, and charges even if the whole thing is rather weak, and the battery drains very easily with the engine off, making me think maybe the battery is dieing. Anyway I whippped out the multimeter to check the voltage from the battery

With the engine NOT running, the battery registers a 1 Volt drop when the pilot and rear light are turned on, with full headlight and rear light it drops 2V, ie the multimeter reads 4V over the battery terminals...

Is this type of voltage drop normal with a battery, or is the battery bad, or is something wrong with the wiring somewhere?

Thanks

Tyrone

[Stratus311]

How old is the battery? Have you tried putting it on a charger over night? Sometimes a battery can be charged but not to full capacity which could cause a voltage drop. Some drop is normal.

[Tyrone ORourke]

Battery is 2 years old. I have often put it on charge, but never for more than 6 hours. I guess I could do it overnight one time, im just always a bit worried that it might blow up and spread acid all over my garage which has the car in it at night...

[niterider]

When charging a bat that small you will need a charger that will put out a small charge. Use a trickle charger or a batt charger that will put out a 2 amp current for your charge.