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Battery Question

PA-Fatboy

PA-Fatboy

Member
Hey all, Question for you guys. I can not remember when I last replaced the battery in my 2003 Fatboy. I know I did it once.

I've been riding regular this summer and am planning a 4 day ride in August.

I went out to go for a ride on Sunday, and the bike would not turn over. I plugged in the battery tender (have it in all winter) and it fired right up.

Would it be safe to assume it's time for a new battery? (btw: it just came from the shop getting a 20K service performed)
 
Batteries on average last 3-4 years, after that you should consider a replacement. Check the battery terminals , remove clean and reinstall them.
 
One other thing, check if you have "leakage current" that may be discharging your battery. Did you add an accessory or mod that may have affected the wiring? Just in case...hook up a DMM in series with the main fuse or battery (deactivate your alarm before doing so) and check that the discharge is in miili-amps (1/1000ths of an Amp) using a DMM starting on the 10A scale and working your way down. The only draw should be the security system (the battery backs up the internal clock/memory battery in the TSSM and ECM).
 
NEWHD74FAN said:
One other thing, check if you have "leakage current" that may be discharging your battery. Did you add an accessory or mod that may have affected the wiring? Just in case...hook up a DMM in series with the main fuse or battery (deactivate your alarm before doing so) and check that the discharge is in miili-amps (1/1000ths of an Amp) using a DMM starting on the 10A scale and working your way down. The only draw should be the security system (the battery backs up the internal clock/memory battery in the TSSM and ECM).
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Just for my own knowledge, what is an acceptable current draw level? On a car, the rule of thumb is anything over 500ma is considered a parasitic draw.
 
I would think that much over 1/100 the ampere hour rating of your battery would be a concern. So if your HD is 250A-H unit, the battery draw should be in the 3-5mA range...thinking that you are only backing up the clock/flash memory devices, everythng else like "back biased" diodes have very low leakage levels normally. Autos typically have 1000A-H or 1500A-H which could tolerate higher drain levels, with certainly more accessories these days.
 
It depend on the use.
If you use your motorcycle each day along the year and not only for a short ride, the battery can live much longer (7 to 9 years)

If you don't use your motorcycle, recharge your battery minimum once a month durin 1 hour at 10% of the full capacity(better twice - each 15 days)
Example battery 25AH, recharge one hour at 2.5A or 2 hours at 1.25A if you prefer.

A battery lost 1% of is charge each day without any connection.

On the motorcycle, the alarm, the clock and sometimes the electronics injection use the capacity of your battery.

Normally if you check with an ammeter, you mesure some mA (10 - 50 mA) is acceptable depond on the number of component in inactivity.

If you have 500mA, it's really to much and you need to remove the fuses one by one to find which circuit is "broken".

When you'll find the fuse and the bad circuit, you must check all the components on this circuit.

It's not difficult, but you can spend sometimes before find the trouble.:(
 
glider said:
Batteries on average last 3-4 years, after that you should consider a replacement. Check the battery terminals , remove clean and reinstall them.
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my bike is a 2003 and still has the factory battery in it lol i can't beleave it still fires the WG up with no prob i thought about replacing it but then thought i'm just gonna see how long this thing will last lol
 
If you let sit in cold it will cause the battery to drain quicker causing more sediment in the bottom of the cells. We went through batteries in our cars every three years in the UP of michigan.
 
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