My brother has a Polaris Scrambler 500. Its a 2008 with very little miles. He thought the battery was dead the othe day so he hooked jumper cables up on it and let it charge for 45 minutes. The bike would start with the cables on it but as soon as you take them off the bike dies out. Is this a battery problem or something else, any help is appreciated thank you

 

I believe that this is in the wrong section, but yes it sounds like the battery.

 

If the battery is flat dead, it would take quite a while to charge. Charging at 1 to 2 amps is about as fast as you would want to charge an atv battery, preferably with an automatic charger. You would also want to unhook the battery cables and make sure the contact area of the cables and the battery are bright shinny clean, and tight.

If the battery has sat in a flat dead state for very long, it could be ruined.

I'd also suggest taking a multi-meter, put a charged battery in and hook up the positive cable and take an amp meter reading between the negative cable and negative post on the battery with the key off.

A few miliamps would be normal key off drain. Much more than that and you would want to track down the source of the drain.

It would also be a good idea to see how the charging system is doing. Take a voltage reading with qaud off, and with it running and reved up a bit.

If both those tests are good, and the battery dies quickly again, it would be time to replace it. If the machine gets laid up for long periods of time, I would highly recommend the Battery Tender Jr, or if it is stored outside, the waterproof version.

 

Thank you JeffinTD and Gary i apprciate the help. I wil pass the ino on to my brother. Thanks again