Instruction/Workshop Manual, Advice Please

[Ozmadman]

What I have is a cheap 6 volt 500 milliamp trickle charger that I stick on the battery for say 24 hours until it shows over 6volts (with the charger off) I then check the battery with a meter every week or so and as soon as it drops to around 5.5 volts I do the same again. I do the same with my 12volt yamaha battery

Paul

[smudge78]

Many thanks for all your help, it helps no end to know help and advice is at hand!

[Ozmadman]

Hi John
I have just sent you a PM

Paul

[Les Howard]

Don't know how handy you are with a soldering iron but if you build a small voltage regulator kit you can use your 12v charger and not have to buy a 6V one. Obviously it will need a small plastic case, wire and connectors. Just set the voltage to around 7V3 (7.3v) to fully charge the battery..or 6V2 to Trickle. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LM317-adjusta ... 337d33e0b7


I'm not trying to be picky Ozmadman but leaving the 6V battery to drop to 5.5V is strongly risking sulfation, better to keep the voltage above 6V minimum say 6V2 lowest.....ATB....Les

[SideValve]

Its good to keep the battery up but if it does get low they start very well on the emergency setting and will soon recover.
Main things is to keep the g'box oil topped up

[Ozmadman]

I'm not trying to be picky Ozmadman but leaving the 6V battery to drop to 5.5V is strongly risking sulfation, better to keep the voltage above 6V minimum say 6V2 lowest.....ATB....Les

Hi, must admit electrics are not my forte but the battery was on the bike when I got it in 2011 and the first two years I didn't even take it off the bike in the winter and it's outside!! And I never even charged it up even though the bike was not started for months. SO... now taking it inside and introducing it to a charger in the warm is a treat but to keep a battery over 6 v all the time wouldn't it need to be on the charger almost all the time?? B.T.W the battery still holds its charge and will stay about 5.9 v for ages before dropping lower

Thanks

Paul

[Les Howard]

Hi Paul...Yes some batteries do seem to get by with little charging, maybe it's because they have been kept in the cold, yet others deteriorate very quickly if left in a low state of charge. I prefer not to trickle charge as sometimes too high a trickle charge can dry them up if left on for long periods. I prefer a monthly charge to get the voltage up and the electrolyte fizzing. Even this treatment doesn't always guarantee long life. If your battery regularly drops to 5.5V it would seem some sulfation has already occured but it will keep going as the plates are obviously still solid and intact and not shorting. Most real battery problems are caused when the plates have shorted inside either through vibration or heavy sulphation that distorts the grid. Once a cell or cells becomes mechanically faulty it doesn't receive a good charge and remains uncharged even self discharging, and is surrounded by cells that have been fully charged resisting charge of the weak cell. This eventually completely ruins the weak cell/s and the battery is lost completely....ATB...Les

[Ozmadman]

Thanks Les, maybe you can answer this as well ? I also have a 12v battery which I bought for my Yamaha around a year ago. It was dry charged and sitting it its packaging until the summer this year when I filled and charged it after the new renovation was due for its M.O.T This battery will drop well below 12volts within a few weeks of charging and will drop down under 12volts within a few days of charging if not used. The bike has started with the battery down to 9 volts before. It's clean as a whistle inside being new so is it just a dodgy unit or can I do anything to get it to keep it's charge longer

Many thanks

Paul

[aobp11]

Hi Paul,

Yuasa Technical manual 2014, maybe applicable to your situation:

Batteries with an open circuit voltage below 11.5 volts may require a special charger and procedures to recharge. Deeply discharged batteries will have high internal resistance, making normal battery charging difficult. It may be necessary to use a charging voltage higher than normal to get the battery to accept a charge. The Yuasa Automatic 12 V 4 Amp Battery Charger is capable of charging at a rate of 20 volts and has two current settings.

Albert

[Les Howard]

Hi Oz...This is a puzzle. Usually dry charged batteries once filled with acid come up to 12v after the initial soak and are somewhere at 70% full charge capacity. The voltage will rise to around 14.5V with around 0.5A charge current, dropping down to a stable 12.5-12.8V when fully charged when the charging current is removed. Initially I would say you have one faulty cell, or one cell is not coming up to full charge. As Albert says sometimes to recover a battery higher voltages are required. If one cell is low you will need to drive current through the charged cells and this amounts to overcharging them long enough to lift the sleeping cell into life. You have to be carefull though for two reasons. First, the good cells will fizz madly and use lots of electrolyte so you will have to monitor the level and top up with distilled water regularly untill the charge voltage comes up to 14.5V. Secondly, the battery will start to heat up and this is very serious and causes the plates to buckle or loose their paste so try to keep the battery cool by charging it in a bowl of cold water or do the boost charge in 10 minute bursts with half an hour cooling in between.
I bought a superb (really) charger recently made by RING It has an 8 stage smart charging programme including a desulphation phase (High frequency spikes to break down sulphate crystals) and a RECOVERY stage which can lift the "dead" but undamaged batteries back to health. I got my one on Amazon (private seller) for nearly half price.
However back to your actual battery. You do have a problem and this is not what should have happened and I consider it to be faulty and would be chasing the seller for a replacement. They might say the time limit of the batteries dry shelf life might have expired and they might have a point if they don't change it, and I reckon they won't, then the information I gave above might get it working normaly.

A quick summary is to charge the battery up to 14.5V by initially overcharging. Then the healthy the battery should produce 14.5V when charged with only 0.5A of current.
If the electrolyte in the cells can be accessed with a hydrometer (the small floating coloured ball type are very good for motorcycle batteries and are very cheap) you should see the specific gravity of each cell reach around 1.270. If one remains low after all this then the cell is still faulty but might recover with a course of desulphation charging. A new battery should not need additives and that is another subject anyway...Les