Hey guys, I replaced the batt on my 02 sp 700 in June. I've been having a hard time starting my machine lately. It has a hard time to turn the engine over. Once it starts is fine and any other time I start it during my trip it starts no problem.

Soooo the last few times I park it for the night or day I unhook one of the battery terminals. The next time I go to start it it starts fine.

The only thing I've done to the bike is the 3 headlight mod, other then that its 100% stock. No winch. Any ideas?

 

Could be a bad ground as the ECU always pulls a little juice from the batt to keep it alive and a bad groung may make it draw more. I'd suggest that you just get a battey tender and wire a charging port onto you bike. The is a possiblity that you batt is bad. Bike and ATV batts don't last as long as car and truck Batts do.

 

Where would the ecu ground? I can't imagine that the batt would be bad already, its only a few months old.

I wouldn't mind doing the battery tender, I would rather fix the problem then just fix it half a$$ed.

 

i'ld check to make your putting the right volts w/ a tester when its running that way you know charging system is working right. sounds like you may have a short if its draining the battery over night. w/ it off you still should hold a 12 to 13 volt charge.

 

Well I did a few things this weekend. After fully charging the battery it started just fine. A few hours later it had a hard time turning it over.

So I did a few things, checked the volage when starting, before I turned it over the voltage read 12.5v when I turned the key to start the machine it dropped to 6v. Figuring it was the starter that was overdrawing I tried a battery from my lawn mower and the voltage only dropped from 12.3 to 11.8v.

I'm going to bring the battery back to NAPA today and exchange it.

 

Sound like you have 3 bad cells in that batt. Each cell is 2 volts. Glad you got if figured out.

 

For diagnosing these kinds of problems you can’t beat a specific gravity cell tester. Yuasau makes the best one I’ve seen, specifically designed for smaller batteries like ours.

 

even the el cheapo $10 multi meter these days does Amps so put it on 10 A setting and positive lead in the top plug marked 10 A and put it between the positive of battery and positive lead

see what reading is when there SHOULD be zip there

secondly they told me my atv had a new battery when I bought it and it appears that might be so BUT it had no water/acid at all in it - like unlike car batteries they normally come as dry and you buy the bottle of acid to plonk in

mine was like yours ie it actually took a charge but drained down very quick - I was amazed it worked at all - but heaps better with acid

also my specific grav tester is just a $5 one but apart from testing SG you can use it as a "pipette" to add battery water to cells - I first tried to get a funnel small enough but this is way better

 

Thanks for the input guys. The battery is actually sealed, so I don't have to deal with acid or any of that other fun stuff, just charge it and go. The guy at NAPA called the manufacturer and got the specs on the batt. It turns out that the batt was bad, and I'll have another one later today. I'm glad it turned out to be the problem!

 

Get a battery charger from wal-mart or auto parts store. We have black & decker 2amp trickle chargers ($14.00) on all our car and atv batteries that sit still for more than 3 weeks as they will slowly discharge from sitting long term. Bell also makes a motorcycle charger like the black and decker. They are designed to be hooked up long term and won't hurt the battery but keep it full charge so it won't get sulfated and then not take a recharge at all!

These units are the size of a ciggarette pack and light weight so can be tucked up under the bike or under a cover to keep them out of the weather.