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New lights (battery drain) on Heritage Softail

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bullitt53

Member
I installed these lights last night,

Headlight - PIIA H4 Super Plasma GT-X Wattage 60/55W = 135/125W
Passing Lamps - PIIA H11 Xtreme White Plus Wattage 55W = 110W


and I am leaving for Laconia later today, 8 hour ride. As I installed each one, I turned the bike on to make sure they were working. Once installed, the wife came out to see how they looked & I turned them on again. All in total, lights were probably on minute or two at the most. This morning, the bike wouldn't start, now on the charger. Any thoughts as to maybe why the battery was drained, and if driving will keep it charged up enough for starting.
 
Bike would not start or bike would not crank. You never said if this bike was the 2009. If not, how old is the battery.
If it is the 2009, does it still have the original HD battery from the factory?

Somethings not right and it's not due to the light bulbs being changed out and turned on for 2 minutes.
Give us some info so we have something to work with.
 
Sorry, bike is 2009 with original battery. Started to turn over, but didn't seem to have enough power. Then it would just click. All lights & speedometer lights were still working.
 
Load test battery and clean and tighten connections again, I assume you had lights on and off checking each circuit many times?
 
Jack has you covered. Charge the battery until the "green light" comes on. Then load test (carbon pile) the battery. If it passes with ease, let us know & we will walk you through some tests to isolate the problem.
 
Wondering about this.......if you have a voltmeter set it to the current range and hook it in series to the battery, leave the ignition off and see if there's a substantial constant drain on the battery. If there is, I would start unplugging fuses or lights to see what's causing the current drain.

Have you ever had electrical issues before?
 
Thanks for all the info. Once the battery was fully charged, everything has been working fine (knock on wood). No problems in Laconia or since I got back. I make sure that I do not leave the ignition on for any amount of time before starting the bike.
 
Hi...My battery slowly (.01 volt per 10 seconds)discharges with ign off. alternator charges 14.28v @ 2500 rpm, voltage drops to 10.28 while cranking, alternator charges 42 amps. I checked self help area and I need to do a milliamp draw test. I have an inexpensive craftsman multimeter...here's the question...is an ammeter generally included in the Multi...?
I didn't want to start a new thread for such a lame question...
any help will do...tnx
oh, I disconnected the TSSM, bettery tender pigtail and the neg cable, but left the + cable on...battery drains on it's own
 
garystrat said:
Hi...My battery slowly (.01 volt per 10 seconds)discharges with ign off. alternator charges 14.28v @ 2500 rpm, voltage drops to 10.28 while cranking, alternator charges 42 amps. I checked self help area and I need to do a milliamp draw test. I have an inexpensive craftsman multimeter...here's the question...is an ammeter generally included in the Multi...?
I didn't want to start a new thread for such a lame question...
any help will do...tnx
oh, I disconnected the TSSM, bettery tender pigtail and the neg cable, but left the + cable on...battery drains on it's own
Click to expand...

All of them I've seen lately do include an ammeter and most are protected in case you connect it wrong. The jack for the leads are generally marked as "V" for volts, "COM" for the black lead and the two seperate jacks marked as "mA" and "xA" for current, "x" being the limitations of the meter, generally 10 or 20 amp, the red lead goes into the appropriate current, "A" jack.

Current is mesured in series, meaning you disconnect the battery positive or negative wire and connect the leads of the meter between the battery terminal and the wire you disconnected. More than one wire on the terminal, check each individually with the meter. put the meter on the appropriate range and connect the leads to the appropriate jack. Start on the highest range if it doesn't have auto-ranging. Hope this helps.
 
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