Total Motorcycle Community Forums

I am thinking I have to replace my motorcycle battery I just bought less than a year ago, and I even bought Yuasa... the battery was reading 12v a few months ago, then the winter hit (I don't have a garage here) and thus it died so I tried to recharge it but the charger says it's 6v and won't charge it. The other battery I have (in Andrea's bike) reads 12v on the same charger (same battery brand).

I took it out of the bike and brought it inside to warm up (incase a cell was frozen or something), I let it warm up and still it reads 6V on the charger.


So, should I:

A. Buy another battery (YTX12-BS)
B. Buy another battery charger (manual one vs the automatic one I have now)
C. Buy a multimeter to verify. (I didn't bring mine here)
D. Pay the cost and bring the battery into a garage and have them test and charge it.

Usually I have all my tools here to try different things but I don't.

Suggestions?

Thanks!

Mike

A normal 12V battery that is at near 0% state of charge would read somewhere in the mid to low 11s. A battery that reads that low might be damaged beyond repair....or not because it is a fairly new battery as well as a quality brand. Weather-wise are you able to ride the bike? If so what I would do is to jump it from a car battery but without the car engine running. It should start the bike. Ride it around and see if the battery charges.

HYPERR wrote:A normal 12V battery that is at near 0% state of charge would read somewhere in the mid to low 11s. A battery that reads that low might be damaged beyond repair....or not because it is a fairly new battery as well as a quality brand. Weather-wise are you able to ride the bike? If so what I would do is to jump it from a car battery but without the car engine running. It should start the bike. Ride it around and see if the battery charges.

Good suggestions... I could always try bump starting it as well. It sucks being away from my garage tools (which are in Canada at the moment in storage). I didn't think about the jumper cables, I think the car we have has them in the trunk, I'll have to check... The battery might be beyond repair, I guess if I got the bike going and the battery didn't hold a charge (damaged) it wouldn't split (hopefully).

To clarify about the 6V, that is what the automatic charger I have reads (It only has 2 lights to detect what volatage the batter is, 6 or 12... I wish I could just manually switch to over to 12)

Thanks for the suggestion thus far.

Mike

totalmotorcycle wrote: To clarify about the 6V, that is what the automatic charger I have reads (It only has 2 lights to detect what volatage the batter is, 6 or 12... I wish I could just manually switch to over to 12)

Oh I see what you are saying. It sounds like an overzealous protection circuit on the battery charger. I bet your actual voltage is probably in the 11s. The jump start from the car battery should do the trick.

Yeah I'd try bump starting it, ride it for a few hours, and if it's still down then I'd go buy another one. Not even worth testing at that point.

Thanks guys! Much, much appreciated!

Here is an update (thus far). Today I checked for jumper cables in the car (none, drat), so tonight I took the battery to a friends and he put it on a 10A manual charger (ya, 10A isn't ideal) and it brought the battery (in the time I was there) to 50-75% capacity, I got it home and it's on a 2A trickle charger charging (the same charger that detected it as a 6v battery now says it is a 12v) and it's currently sitting a 75-100% capacity. I'm hoping it will go full 100% and it will keep the charge (I'll know tomorrow and will post the results).

Looks like you called it right on the charger...

Mike

Worked! The battery is now reading 100% and at 12V. I will have to install it in the bike when it's a little warmer outside.

Thanks for the suggestions and the help.

Mike

Yay! Now get out there and ride!

This is clearly an old thread, but the discussion here is where I need it to be to ask my question:

According to my charger, the battery was reading around 4.5 volts after I left the headlights on overnight. I've done this a few times, and it keeps happening that it reads lower than 4.5 volts. So the charger thinks it's a six volt battery, charges it to six volts and then won't charge it anymore. This is a healthy battery, though. Unless I leave the headlights on overnight, it never fails me.

So my question: Is there any way I can force my charger to recognize it as 12 volts? Is there some trick I could do to make my battery temporarily read as 8 volts or more so the selector doesn't automatically default to 6?