battary
 

Was wondering if charging system is good. Battatty shows 14 v when running with key on only13v. When I start the bike goes down to 12 v,My concern is that the bike turns over slow not like my other bikes. Now its a new battary and does the samething any concerns I should have thanks

Didnt understand the first part, but under load (like when starting) voltage will drop a bit, usually a few volts.

If its showing around 14v with engine running and lights on, everything should be okay in the charging system.

Cheap and old batteries often have low crankingpower, eventhough the capacity (sustained draw on the battery) is still there.

Sounds okay with those numbers.

'Usually' on a motorcycle battery, if the voltage stays above 10V while it's cranking then the battery is okay. But it's just a rough test.

I bought a auto zone attary that is maintence free and I don't like the sound as she starts . It is getting colder out here now and its a 1990 xt 600

Is the starter still good? If you charge the battery up and then crank the bike over does it still do it slowly?

Yes alittle slow but it still starts. She doesnt start real fast.However she starts on 2 revolution. How would I check the starter without taking the whole starter out? The connections are good

It has to come out to test right. It isn't a bad idea to disassemble it and clean it out and put a little grease on the bearing and back in the cap bushing along with some new brushes.

is it hard to get out What rare your suggestions? thanks

If the bike used to crank over quicker in the past I'd have a look at the main battery cable connections. Not where they go on the battery - they're usually ok, but at the other ends - both bolts on the solenoid, at the starter motor and at the frame end of the earth cable.

You might also check the mounting bolts or whatever earths the starter are not showing signs of corrosion.

I've had starters go bad inside before but far more often it's the connections that are at fault.

The speed your XT turns over is the same as kickstart model it came from. TBH I would rather press the button on my '91 XT600E and hear the starter motor lope about turning the engine over than have my leg do the same work with a kick start.

Mine always sounds slow, but it always starts (sometimes eventually). While it continues to do that job I don't worry.

That you are getting a 2V drop while it is turning over suggests a possible resistance in a connection somewhere or that all is fine. When coils go in starter motors they usually drag the volts down very low (like to 7V or even 5V).

Remove and clean the starter motor terminals. Like said, you could have high resistance in the cable going from the relay to the motor.

Do you know how to do a voltage drop test ??

Your motor could also be be tired. Worn bushes etc.

But if it's ALWAYS been like that then it just could be your imagination. Unless it's actually turning a lot slower than a previous time.

It has always started alittle slow. I put a new solonied in and a new batary in 3 months ago. Its cold here and noticed that it turns slow a she cranks. Again I am used to hear a fasr crank on bikes. Iwill take off the coveron the side and check connections and see. I was wondering if any other 1990xt 600 have this problem with slow cranks thanks again for your help.

You could try connecting another battery to your additional one with jump leads and see if it makes a difference.

On the XR-L some have used 2 batteries hooked through relays so the starter gets 24v but the rest gets only 12v, it helps for cold starting and high comp ect.. I have no idea about starter longevity, some have had it like that for a few years, I wonder if the Yami starter would hold up also, maybe using smaller batteries and disabling it for summer?

Shouldn't be needed with a stock motor and good starter & battery though other than extreme cold, even then doubt it. I'd do as Ted stated and first try/borrow a good ,plenty big(higher amp/hr) battery and see if it differs. Rebuilding or even just cleaning the starter is a wise thing either way just to make sure it is in good order and not going to crap out sooner than it should. It's fairly easy to do.

24V ??

I don't know this mod (I have a 650L).. I would have thought putting them in parallel would have made more sense giving an increase in capacity (AH), not voltage...

But hey ho !

No no dont try this connection two batteris and end up destroy your starter, yes you can paralell two battery and get twice the amp. But you dont get 24V, thats if you connect them in series, dont see any point doing this. I have never had problems starting engine even if its winter and cold, buy a good battery and problems gone.

I agree, 24 volts will increase the current thru the starter a great amount. Brushes will arc more and the starter will take a hit on longevity. Paralleling 2 makes more sense. The actual starter voltage will rise under load and a volt or so more makes a huge difference in starting power. Will not hurt the starter and will actually make it last longer as it will be working better in its design range.

Way back ( I know I am dating myself) hey I'm 65. It was pretty common practice in the early 50's to change out a 6volt battery in a car with a hard starting engine with an 8 volt battery. You had to re-adjust the regulator so it would charge, put a "voltadrop" going to the tube type radio or change the vibrator I think, hey I was a kid but I paid attention. Everything else was fine. A couple more volts made the starter much more efficient. 1955 or so, 12volt batteries showed up. Kind of makes you wonder how the 6 volt point and coil could make a spark at all under tough starting conditions... I expect Jumper cables were the norm....

Here's the info, not mine but is what has been done and do successfully run 24v through the starter. Unless a person physically tries something ,any guess as to what will or won't work is just that, A GUESS. I personally wouldn't do it unless absolutely necessary and only after trying a parallel setup, then have at least one extra starter waiting to be replaced.

It looks to me like this is 12V battery, the charging is 12V. And they are hooked up for paralell giving 12V, sure he didnt mean to get twice amount off AMP to startermotor and the normal for the rest? Honestly i cant find any good reason for making all this, just connect two battey in paralell and thats it you have all the amp you need.

Ya it does look to be a parallel setup , never really looked at it close, just put it in my "possible fixes" folder for how they had it hooked up. Although I think with the extra relays when the starter button is hit it switches that system over to series. It does that so nothing is 24v otherwise and both batteries get charged.

I had remembered about it with my new bike and its need for more juice. One high amp/hr battery solved it but had to go with the new tech. One thing I can say is through the years I've done a lot of stuff that people insisted just won't work only to find it works great and solves a big issue, not whats needed here though.

My battery is 9Ah, it fits and gives enough power. I have 55W headlight, heated grips, LED rest of the bulbs. Most importen thing with battery is maintence and charging, check you charging and give the battery external charging now and then. Use a good charger that will max it.

If i dont recall someone wrote about lithium beeing low on amp, thats not correct. You can buy them with 18Ah same size XT use, give us feedback how it works out with charging system on the bike after a year thanks. And dont forget you need special charger for lithium battery if you want charge it at home.

The setup on the drawing is a parallel-setup when relay#1 is deactivated and series when relay#1 is activated..

It's "common" in system where you have increased volume and compression. The reason to do it is that torque increases with voltage. It will also spin faster when cold.

The starter doesn't get supplied with 24V but far less, typically 16-20V, current will also increase which might burn your wires...


The starters tend to last for a while, but on a standard engine I would rather have fixed the problem.

Edit:
Two batteries in parallel is not a good solution. The worst battery will always discharge the better one, and guess what happens if a battery gets an internal short....

Great way to destroy the startermotor, it was never built for this. Many ways getting thing to work, how long it last is another question..

Well, the starter-motor will probably make it for a while. Increasing voltage is a common way to increase torque - usually for a limited time.

In many cases it will be better for a motor to run on higher voltage for a few seconds then to struggle on max torque and low/no speed for 30 seconds.


If you are really interested in "what things are built for" you should not install a battery with a lot more CCA then your ordinary battery. Your wiring and starter are not designed for it and you might have enough current available to fry it.
Remember that unlike most other electrical motors the starter have no protection (overcurrent, overload, temperature, etc).

But again; I would not have done this on a standard bike. This comment was to tell that some people use 2 batteries in series without issues.

http://unitedhoisting.com/wp-content...tinguisher.jpg

Mezo. :blushing:

It's not the voltage that kills you!
 

My old night-classes-in-electronics lecturer used to demonstrate this very well; he took an old 12V battery and simply put a wire across the terminals holding the ends of the wire in contact with two insulated pliers.
The red glow turned to white hot and, pretty soon after that, the wire melted.
This was his demonstration of how a fuse fails, thereby performing as per its' purpose and design.

'Elf and safety freaks avert your eyes, but I very much doubt that such great demos of fuses are done in colleges nowadays.