[sk66]

Ok, I seem to have a short. ('99 900ssie) I get 8.5v draw to ground with nothing turned on. I managed to "isolate" it to the 3v fuse next to the ECU (the draw drops to 200mv or so with the fuse pulled). I haven't been able to track it further. Best I can figure from the manual the fuse is to protect the injectors. The bike starts and runs fine (or did before the teardown this winter) Is it possible to have a "bad injector" that works fine? What else can/should I look for?

 

[jack]

Do you still have the problem if you replace the fuse? Have you looked for a chaff or break in the wiring that leads to the 3A fuse? Can you run it the garage when it's dark and move the wire harness around to see if there is a break or short in the wiring? Just my 2¢.

 

[st2lemans]

What do you mean by "8.5v draw to ground"? (draw is measured in amps, not volts)

Tom

 

[sk66]

What do you mean by "8.5v draw to ground"? (draw is measured in amps, not volts)

Tom

Connect the volmeter between the battery and ground cable shows 8.5v. (or between the pos terminal and pos cable)
I can't find any apparent issue to cause this.

 

[jbarnsey]

Do the same test with the meter between bat pos terminal and bat pos cable and tell us what mA reading it shows..
Currant draw is measured in Amps....

 

[sk66]

Ok, measures at .6mA....Is this a non-issue? I started looking because I'm putting the bike back together for spring and last fall it kept going dead, but since then I "reconditioned" the battery twice and then fully charged it. The "reconditioning" is something my charger can do and is seperate from charging. It took twice before the battery would charge fully. I'm using an Odessey Gel Cell.

 

[NCRick]

Sounds like a bad battery. If the voltage goes that low at such a low draw, no doubt about it. Make sure the terminlas are clean? My 99 IE has the factory batt. and it is on it's last leg right now.

 

[sk66]

Sounds like a bad battery. If the voltage goes that low at such a low draw, no doubt about it.

??? 8.5v was the voltage from terminal to cable with nothing turned on, not battery voltage.
Battery is at 10.8v after running some lights etc during trouble shooting...I think I'm going to recharge it and see if the charge decays just sitting unconnected...How much drop would be "normal/acceptable" in how much time?

 

[st2lemans]

0.6mA is a non-issue.

BUT 10.8V battery voltage!? A good battery measures at least 12.5V when charged. You can try to recondition it (I have left my lights on overnight and been down to 5 or 6), but if it doesn't measure above 12.5V after a full charging (and a rest period of a few hours), it's dead.

Tom

 

[jbarnsey]

Time for a new battery mate...
0.6 mA is next to no currant draw.

 

[smegtheprez]

I just replaced both batteries in my bikes this year. If I can get 3 years out them I'm lucky (cold weather starts) I got almost 5 and 4 so I consider myself lucky. A bad or not properly functioning battery will cause all kinds of problems.

 

[sk66]

Yeah, when I checked it in amps I kinda figured it was not a short in the wiring. I have a "kinda bad cell"...It will "recondition" and be ok for a short bit, but load it and it shorts again.
Thanks for the help everyone!

 

[Stick]

0.6 mA is not a huge drain, but stresses the need for a trickle/float chrger (battery mantainer). The 0.6mA is called a parasitic drain, and if ignored over longer periods of non-use, it tends to discharge the battery and make it suseptable to sulfation (the whitish creepin'crud that "grows" on the battery plates.

I think my ST2 is closer to 2mA of parasitic drain.

Also, I recall reading where some older DUCs in the 1990's had a rubber boot that held the starter solenoid that needed to be trimmed back from the + wires because the rubber was impregnated w/ carbon, and was conductive, and was adding too much to this drain amp #. So you might want to glance at that, too.