Pardon the noob-ness.

My 2006 Hawkeye had been sitting for a couple of months. We took it out last month and it would not start (weak starter), but also the instrument cluster was not working right (low battery, I get that). We jumped it, and it started fine, ran well (instrument cluster still wonky. It ran for ~ 2 hours (plenty long enough to recharge the battery, IMO).

My wife tried starting it yesterday - dead. She jumped it, and it runs perfectly - with the jumpers connected. As soon as they are removed it dies immediately (instrument cluster and all). Battery charge right now is ~ 5 volts.

Am I right in suspecting the generator is toast (or has a voltage regulator issue)? and that the jumping battery overcomes that when installed? Is there something obvious I am missing?

Thanks in advance
d

 

5 volts! holy COW
That is the problem that battery is shot.
1) charge the battery, test the voltage of the battery. A good battery will have at least 13.8 volts after a charge. then let it sit a few hours and see if the voltage has droped. If it did, let the battery sit a few more hours and see how low it gets. If the battery gets lower than 12 volts then it is deffinitely no good!

Make sure you battery is good/no good before you go spending money on a new voltage regulator.
The dummies at the dealer i got my atv from somehow managed to cross the batter terminals and blew out the voltage regulator. i had to take it back and they put a new one on for me, after that, i have had ni charging problems. Also, to check the voltage regulator, you can enter the diagnostics mode on you atv if ti has it, or like i like to do, just have your atv running, and put a meter on it to see if the battery is reading over 13 volts...(charging)

 

Thanks! I'll be doing just that.

d

 

also, you can jump an atv with say....another battery, but as soon as the atv looses the 12 volts from that battery, it is going to die if its own battery is no good. The atv has to have at MINIMUM of like 11.4 volts for it to be running.... at least that is how it was with mine!
It seems for most people that batteries don't seem to last for some reason? You could also check the water level in the batteries (unless it is sealed) to make sure it has enough fluids, if not you can add some water to the battery to make it charge/ take a charge!

 

Yup, totally agree. My 06 Hawkeye was the same. New and properly charged battery time.

 

as far the battery being totally dead and the bike charging it up it would take a long time. the charging systems arent that strong and trying to maintain a good charge and keeping the bike going just dont happend that fast. i agree the battery should be at least 12.5 volts and charging should be close to 14 when idled up. if you could have the battery load tested it would tell you alot.