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2004 Fat Boy Battery Discharged

You say battery was measure at 345 CCA when it was a 310 CCA battery. Are you sure test was performed properly and load was applied for at least 15 seconds. With a battery load tester, apply a load equal to one half of the CCA rating of the battery for 15 seconds. (Recommended method). I do not understand how battery gained more CCA's while under load. And what was the recovery rate after test.:eam
 
Park your bike with kickstand on wooden block or rubber mat overnight after charging and see if it drains when it is not grounded at the kickstand.
If you have a small direct short the current is grounding at kickstand. The trick is finding the short. Sometimes when the stator goes bad it will short to the case even though still showing its charging through the rectifier. You can pull the stator plug and do an ohm test also.
 
badbmwbrad said:
The bike wouldn't crank over sufficient to start the engine 24 hrs after having removed 6 oz. oil from the tank. It turned over and stalled on the piston's compression stroke. This time, it definately sounds like the battery doesn't have enough power to operate the electric starter. The lights dimmed when it tried to crank. I am at my wit's end trying to resolve this problem.
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Might this be what compromised battery:

Homelite EHE4400 No Power --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I fixed it! Wired in series with the faulty 120 VAC receptacle, a broken 20A circuit breaker was discovered (miniature button-reset type). I replaced it with an equivalent circuit breaker. This restored both 120 VAC and 240 VAC.

This generator also has electric start. I put a Harley-Davidson battery in it; now it's good to go.
 
That's my generater all right! I put my bike's 5-year old Harley Davidson battery in it. The old battery is an OEM Harley Davidson battery which was replaced last November with a new DEKA ETL20L battery. My understanding is the HD battery is a private-labeled DEKA ETX20L.

I'm tempted to put that old Harley Davidson battery back in the bike to see if it too will exhibit the same symptoms as the new DEKA battery. The other thing I plan to do is to check the bike's positive battery cable connections at the electric starter and the starter solenoid.

One of the symptoms which makes me conclude the DEKA battery is discharged is that after the bike is started (using a portable battery booster), the horn function is degraded.

dbmg said:
Might this be what compromised battery:

Homelite EHE4400 No Power --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I fixed it! Wired in series with the faulty 120 VAC receptacle, a broken 20A circuit breaker was discovered (miniature button-reset type). I replaced it with an equivalent circuit breaker. This restored both 120 VAC and 240 VAC.

This generator also has electric start. I put a Harley-Davidson battery in it; now it's good to go.
Click to expand...
 
I've had good luck with Deka AGM batteries. I've got their Intimidator series in one of my trucks, and that thing takes a beating sometimes.
 
Yesterday, I removed the rectifier's electrical connector and attempted to check for reverse current flow through the diodes. The test results were inconclusive in that there were more wire conductors coming out of the alternator than expected.

I removed the battery from the motorcycle, fully charged it with a Deltran Battery Tender then let it sit on the bench overnight without the charger leads connected. The next day, 27 hrs later, the battery had self-discharged to 12.37 volts. Its CCA was 258 amps. The battery load tester reported the battery needed recharging because a full charge should yield 310 CCA.

I shipped the battery back to the supplier and await their response.



 
The battery exhibits a high self-discharge rate; even when it's not installed in the bike.

Separately, when I described the bike's speedometer behavior to a local mechanic, he indicated he's never seen a Harley speedometer which hummed and deflected it's indicating needle when it was powered up. I have a Softail service manual from HD and it doesn't explain why a speedometer would hum when it's powered up.

dbmg said:
So is the concern in this thread still valid or do you think the lack of power in battery was causing erratic operation????

2004 Fat Boy Speedometer Hum - Harley Davidson Forums - HDTimeline.com
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Further evidence which supports the failure cause (battery high self-discharge rate): The old HD battery (it has ~200 CCA capacity) was re-installed in the bike last Wednesday. After the bike was stored for 6 days, the old battery got the engine started.
 
Update - The battery vendor fully charged the battery then let it sit for a week before they load tested it. After one week, the battery had full voltage but no amperage so they're going to ship me a replacement DEKA battery.
Lesson learned - Just because a battery is new, don't think that it is not failed.
 
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