My DS650 I sold my cousin died while we were riding I towed him back and we checked his battery with a voltage meter and it had 12V, but it would not start we then jump started it and it did start. What do you think the problem is. Thanx

 

sound like the battery has a dead cell in it and it is not accepting a charge. 12v could be there but not enought cranking amps to turn the motor over. The ds pulls alot oc current with the two coils. I best to get a battery tender and charge the bike before you ride it.
1. check battery under a load
2. Check to make sure the statort is putting out a charge
3. make sure all the connections are free of corrosion.
good luck and I hope this helps

 

Make sure you check your connections (battery, starter solonoid, starter, ground etc) first. The battery reads 12v with the ignition off? Full charge is around 12.8v. Once you get the battery fully charged, hook your voltmeter up to it, and take a reading while trying to start. It should read somewhere around 11.6v - 11.8v if I remember correctly (don't hold the starter button for more than 2 or three seconds). When you let off the starter, it should bounce back to 12.6v - 12.8v within a few seconds. If it doesn't, the battery is probably bad. Using your bike as a load tester isn't an exact science because the the amp draw is alot more than a normal battery load test machine, but it should do ok.

If you still doubt it, get it charged then take it to a battery shop that can do a proper load test on it.

-Tom

 

oh yeah, a fully charged battery with the bike running should read 13.5v to 13.8v. These readings can vary depending on the state of the battery.

-Tom

 

It makes a clicking noise that sounds electrical, could it be the regulator or do you think I maybe lucky and it's just the battery

 

The clicking noise is typical of low voltage or a bad connection. The sound is usually made when the solonoid trys to close the contacts, sends power to the starter, the starter pulls alot of amps causing a voltage drop which causes the solonoid to not have enough power to maintain the contact. The contact opens, the voltage drop is eliminated and the process starts all over.

First thing is to get the battery charged. If the battery won't accept a charge very well, get a new one (but your not done yet). Second thing is to check all your connections. Even if they look ok, un-do them, clean the contact surfaces and reconnect (you still not done). Third thing, make sure your charging system is working. For this you really need a good fully charged battery. If it's not charging, you probably have a bad voltage regulator/rectifier. If it is charging, your probably good. But keep an eye on it, there may be another problem that is causing a slow drain. A Quick check for this... With the ignition off, disconnect the ground lead from the battery and connect a 12v test light between the negative terminal and the battery. If it lights up at all, you have a problem. This could be from a shorted wire (insulation is worn through) or a bad mechanical swich (like the temperature switch for the fan).

-Tom

 

It is your regulator. At least thats what it sounds like. They run about a hundred bucks from the dealer. I had two go bad on me but I fixed that problem.

 

I have a regulator if you need one. I'm having a similar problem except it's my stator.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img]

 

So, does the DS have lots of electrical problems? It seems like maybe they do, it seemed like since I've joined (not very long ago), I have seen a few threads pertaining to electrical related issues.

 

I would say no. If anything the earlier models seem to be where the most problems are. Primarily with the voltage regulator burning out. If I remember correctly they changed the voltage regulator for the later models (say 2002 and up) because the voltage regulator/rectifier was showing some strain under the additional lights. However this was all second hand hear-say info.

The truth of the matter, if you really dig a little deaper into each case where one of these has gone bad, you will usually see poor battery maintainance, jump starting a dead quad, push starting a dead quad, running too many lights or too high a wattage of lights.

All of these actions can put unnecessary strain on the voltage regulator as the battery demands more amperage to maintain the charge than the voltage regulator is designed to handle. Which in turn translates into alot of heat, which leads to premature failure. One other important thing is to keep the voltage regulator clean. Not necessarily spotless, just don't let mud cake up on it, it needs to be able to give off heat that it builds up.

This is true for any quad out there that runs a 12v dc system (electric starter). If the DS is more suceptable (sp) to this problem, it's probably because of it's high output stator (290w at 3k rpm if I remember correctly). But that's only a guess.


In short the answer is no, the DS does not have electrical problems. It "usually" goes bad as a result of the owners actions.