I just bought an 88 Trail Boss 250, great shape. Since I had it home I had it started maybe 2 times with the pull starter as the battery is shot. Now last night I had a battery charger hooked up to the dead (completely shot) battery and was trying to start it with the electric start....nothing...tried the pull start (still had the battery charger hooked up)....nothing. NO SPARK. Today at work, I thought maybe I burned something out turning the starter with the charger hooked up. I just got home and tried to pull start it without the charger hooked up and NOW it has spark again. My question is...what was the charger doing that prevented it from getting spark and yet turned the starter. I thought for sure I had fried something. The charger was set at 12 volt automatic 15 amp. I'm just concerned if it was the charger or something else, something that may prevent the bike from starting when I get around to buying a new battery. Any ideas?????

 

just a guess, but i think maybe the extra juice of the charger shut down the recifier that controls voltage so it wouldnt overload the system. most likely way off base but just a guess. i would however put a new battery in there so it wont be so hard on the charging system trying to charge a junk battery. imo.