Slash 5 key and battery drain

[vespajg]

I offer this up for the electric specialists out there, of which I am not one. Can leaving my slash 5 key in the bike drain the battery? I'm not talking about the key being all the way in as if I was starting the bike; rather I'm talking about leaving it in the first position - the first click so to speak. Just wondering if this practice can slowly drain the battery. I routinely leave my key in that position and have experienced a weaker battery at start up from time to time when I haven't ridden for a couple weeks. Battery is a relatively new Odyssey and the temps dipped below 40 recently. Sunny cold day today and it wouldn't turn over...lights lit up and it made an effort to turn the crank but to no avail. Started swimmingly two weeks ago. Bike still has stock points.

Thx in advance.

[Duane Ausherman]

Not if the switch is working correctly. Not even close.

What is your charge voltage? That is a far more fruitful avenue to persue.

[Chuey]

Would this be a good place for an add-on question about battery drain? I have a bike with a clock and the fairly new Odessy battery loses its charge faster than my other (very similar) bikes. Is there a way to test for drain?

Chuey

[Garnet]

Is there a way to test for drain?

Chuey

Do you have to flush twice?



Most cheap multimeters have a 0-10 amp scale. Disconnect one of the battery cables and hook the multimeter to the battery and the battery cable. DON'T TURN ON THE KEY! Turn the multimeter to the amp scale and observe. If there is no draw, it will read 0.0. If the clock, or anything is on it will show the draw in amps. Anything over .2 of an amp is too much for a motorcycle battery unless it is run daily.

[vespajg]

Chuey...do you put your Odyssey on a battery tender?

And how does cold influence these old machines? Stated another way, could the recent dip in temperature cause what was formerly a well charged battery to have difficulty turning the engine over?

[hal]

40 degrees F equals 4-5 c. That should not cause any pain. Think you have a battery / charging / drain problem.

[Duane Ausherman]

I must tell you that .2 amp drain will totally empty the battery overnight. Start the measurement as described on the highest scale for current. Then switch down to a lower scale. You will probably end up at the scale that measures the smallest amount of current. From memory, I think that the clock draws only about 10-15 miliamps. That is .010 amp. Even that small drain will empty the battery over time. Is the time a couple of weeks, or more than a month? An actively ridden BMW with that original clock will not get drained.
This test is one that everyone should make from time to time. Same as the charge voltage and fuel flow out of the petcock. These are just simple and fast checks that help find problems so that you may keep the bike working.

[melville]

Even modern automobiles with computer memories that must be maintained should draw 30 to 50 milliamps at most, and they have big honkin' batteries to handle this.

The voltmeter should have nearly no draw, and what Duane said about the clock.

[vespajg]

Updated status and some questions. Charged the battery to full charge with my battery tender plus, then went out on a 30 mile ride, mostly at highway speed. Bike turned over just fine and ran like a top. Got back home and plugged it back into the tender and it was fully charged again after a couple hours. At first, the charger only registered a solid red light, but went to flashing green and then indicated a full charged a couple hours later when I checked. It seems to me that the battery should not have drained that much after the 30 mile-ish ride and that maybe an indicator that my charging mechanism is not fully sound? I'm not electrically knowlegeable, so am looking for input. Is that a normal drain on a stock r60/5 with no additional electric equipment? I also don't have a voltmeter to answer all of Duane's questions. Some advice on what to buy and how/where to use one would be helpful.

[Kurt in S.A.]

A 30-minute run on a reasonably healthy charging system should have put the battery back at full charge. You should find a small digital multimeter...I bought a small flip cover one from Radio Shack quite a few years ago...not quite like this but probably this would work:

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index ... Id=4214667

Set the meter function to DC volts, start the bike, hold the red probe to the + battery terminal and the black probe to the - battery terminal, and have someone run the engine up to about 3K RPM. Voltage should read 13.5v minimum or preferrably nearer to 14v.

Kurt in S.A.