Battery Charging Issue , Help ?????????

blaster800

blaster800

Location
sunbury ,ohio
I have a 66e In one of my b-1's anyways Its not charging ! The battery is one year old and is a AGM and was tested today at autozone on their tester to verify my suspicion that it was good . All connections, cables , and starter are in perfect condition. Problem is my batt is losing voltage after a day of riding , not staying at 12+ volts or even 12 for that matter , so how do i troubleshoot the system ??? any help appreciated !
 
firemedicmonkey

firemedicmonkey

Erie Surf & Ski
Location
Erie Surf and Ski... Cleveland, OH
she said they tested it at autozone... I am not sure how he got them to test it... the one by my shop (i used to work there) got this fancy new handheld tester and it won't test the small batteries... or so I was told... (The kid might be an idiot... my shop is near the ghetto!)

1) Test to see if you have a current drain... put a 12v test light between the positive battery cable and the positive terminal of the battery... if it lights up when the ski is off and the key is disconnected (I am not sure about yamaha's ignition circuits) then you have a drain somewhere...

2) Test the voltage at idle... you can put a multi-meter across the the terminals... it will give you an idea of what the stator output is... if you are above 12 (again I am not sure of the actuall output voltage on a yamaha) then you should have a charging condition...

Those are two quick ways to get a direction to start doing further testing though.
 
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djkorn1

djkorn1

kidkornfilms
Site Supporter
Location
Cleveland Ohio
Mine doesn't charge either...ever since I put in this 2nd vilder flywheel, mine stopped charging...Its been two years, I might as well go total loss. It lasts about 2 days of riding.
 
#ZERO

#ZERO

Beach Bum
Location
Florida - U.S.A.
Most Autozone stores use the Midtronics digital battery conductance testers that will give an accurate reading of the voltage and cold cranking amps. They work 100 times better than the old waffle iron heater testers and won't drain the battery during the test.

Also you should use a digital multimeter on the amp setting inline with the ground cable disconnected for checking battery draw. The test light method is not an accurate measurement for finding the amount of current draw and sometimes will never illuminate when chasing milliamps.
 
firemedicmonkey

firemedicmonkey

Erie Surf & Ski
Location
Erie Surf and Ski... Cleveland, OH
#.0 said:
Most Autozone stores use the Midtronics digital battery conductance testers that will give an accurate reading of the voltage and cold cranking amps. They work 100 times better than the old waffle iron heater testers and won't drain the battery during the test.

Also you should use a digital multimeter on the amp setting inline with the ground cable disconnected for checking battery draw. The test light method is not an accurate measurement for finding the amount of current draw and sometimes will never illuminate when chasing milliamps.
Click to expand...


Word... They used to have the midtonics tester but now now they are using some handheld digital tester... they told me that a batter I knew was junk was ok the other day... They also told me the could not test small batteries anymore...

I know the test light is not accurate but it will work in a pinch if you don't have a multimeter handy... Good call if you have that its the best way todo it...
 
JonnyB

JonnyB

Location
Round Rock, TX
Are you saying once the ski sits overnight or longer the batt is loosing volts or while you ride its not charging.

If its overnight do you still have the MFD hooked up? that will drain the battery, I have had the same issue with my GP927 I just unhook the batt after the day of riding is over.
 
Pro-pulsion

Pro-pulsion

Location
Ontario, Canada
I find the easiest way to test charging output is to just start the ski and put your multimeter probes on the battery terminals to see if the voltage raises. Tag the throttle quickly to see if it spikes up a little higher voltage, if not then look further into the charging system. If it does show an increase in voltage, start looking for parasitic draw like a wire that has rubbed on something just enough to expose a strand of copper and is shorting to ground.

Corroded wires entering into a connector will also insulate the wire enough to prevent anything from making it to the battery. You ever see a negative terminal go green? It stops returning power from entering the battery. One other really small but very likely possibility is if the top of the battery is dirty between the two terminals. Current will travel down the terminals and use that dirty film as a light duty conductive path from one terminal to the other which will drain the battery fairly quickly too. That was a real surprise to me to learn that and see it happen when I was in trade school.
 
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blaster800

blaster800

Location
sunbury ,ohio
JonnyB said:
Are you saying once the ski sits overnight or longer the batt is loosing volts or while you ride its not charging.

If its overnight do you still have the MFD hooked up? that will drain the battery, I have had the same issue with my GP927 I just unhook the batt after the day of riding is over.
Click to expand...

Thanks EVERYONE for all the help , to answer some questions, autozone tested the battery with a electronic type of tester.. it tested fine , the battery IS charged up and holds a charge unhooked from the ski ,ALL my wireing is in perfect cond with silicone grease on all the connections so there has been no connection corrosion whatsoever since i built this 3 years ago , Today I checked voltage at idle it was 12.5 and spiked up to 12.7 when touching the throttle so I ''think'' my charging system is working fine . Originally I thought I was losing power while riding but I think I was mistaken after checking my running voltage , I'm sure I started with a less than full charge for that ride and was running the bilge pump too , so I dont think it gained any voltage during the ride but barely maintained voltage ............ While testing I noticed a a small spark when hooking up the battery so I tried disonnnecting EVERYTHING I could and it still sparked . so Im going to assume I have a parasitic draw in the MFD '' multi-function display ...... I may try cutting one wire at a time and see when it quits drawing power in the off position ???? but that may make things worse and it may not run or charge .... thanks to all for the input you did help me narrow it down to the MFD .....I think !
 
Pro-pulsion

Pro-pulsion

Location
Ontario, Canada
I had that same exact issue with my Sea-Doo and it ended up being the stator. If you can find the testing procedure for the stator give that a try too. It's usually very easy to do...at least it has been on everything I've ever worked on so it is a very well worth it test.
 
firemedicmonkey

firemedicmonkey

Erie Surf & Ski
Location
Erie Surf and Ski... Cleveland, OH
The stator should charge the battery somewhat even with a bilge running...
In stead of cutting the wires, use a probing testlight... It makes a small hole in the wire and then you can find which one has current when off...

I would also do a full stator test... I am not sure what the ouput voltage of that stator is but I think it should be higher than 12.7 V ...Again I am not a Yamaha guy so I don't know the specs but they should be availble somewhere around here!
 
vomitspot

vomitspot

Location
mobile alabama
do not prob the wire
come on think,
if its a good stator it will not be for long once you poke a hole in the sheeving
if your tester can get in so will water and rot your wires
 
firemedicmonkey

firemedicmonkey

Erie Surf & Ski
Location
Erie Surf and Ski... Cleveland, OH
​
blaster800 said:
............ While testing I noticed a a small spark when hooking up the battery so I tried disonnnecting EVERYTHING I could and it still sparked . so Im going to assume I have a parasitic draw in the MFD '' multi-function display ...... I may try cutting one wire at a time and see when it quits drawing power in the off position ???? but that may make things worse and it may not run or charge .... thanks to all for the input you did help me narrow it down to the MFD .....I think !
Click to expand...

vomitspot said:
do not prob the wire
come on think,
if its a good stator it will not be for long once you poke a hole in the sheeving
if your tester can get in so will water and rot your wires
Click to expand...

61xS7lb1NRL._SL500_AA280_.gif

I should of explained better, SO... As an alternative to cutting away at wires until he finds the problem child...

1) A small hole... (properly sealed afterwards, of course) is much better than cutting and splicing back a harness after its been cut to shiot via trial and error... Using the probing method he can identify the problem wire or wires without affecting the functionality of the ski. Then once identified the problem can be dealt with... cut or disconnected, etc. The holes can quickly and permanatly be sealed with liquid electrical tape, or shrink tubing... Cheap and easy...

2) An even better solution would be to find the harness near a connecter and use the test light to make contact with the connector contacts from the backside... there is usually enough space to get in there with a small test light... Non-destructive method but not always possible and may require some dissassmbly of the connector and ressembly...
 
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N

njfl

X-H2
blaster800 said:
Thanks EVERYONE for all the help , to answer some questions, autozone tested the battery with a electronic type of tester.. it tested fine , the battery IS charged up and holds a charge unhooked from the ski ,ALL my wireing is in perfect cond with silicone grease on all the connections so there has been no connection corrosion whatsoever since i built this 3 years ago , Today I checked voltage at idle it was 12.5 and spiked up to 12.7 when touching the throttle so I ''think'' my charging system is working fine . Originally I thought I was losing power while riding but I think I was mistaken after checking my running voltage , I'm sure I started with a less than full charge for that ride and was running the bilge pump too , so I dont think it gained any voltage during the ride but barely maintained voltage ............ While testing I noticed a a small spark when hooking up the battery so I tried disonnnecting EVERYTHING I could and it still sparked . so Im going to assume I have a parasitic draw in the MFD '' multi-function display ...... I may try cutting one wire at a time and see when it quits drawing power in the off position ???? but that may make things worse and it may not run or charge .... thanks to all for the input you did help me narrow it down to the MFD .....I think !
Click to expand...

blaster800, it looks like you did everything except use a multimeter inline to observe the amount of current draw. Am I correct to assume you are going to start disconnecting wires until you no longer get a spark at the battery? I don't think this is the best method because a spark at the battery terminal can just be due to a charge difference, for example if there is a capacitance somewhere in your system. Once the spark is gone, it is gone. With the multimeter (ammeter) you can observe the mA draw as you disconnect connectors. You mentioned that you "assume" there is a parasitic draw. Before you go crazy chasing it and taking things apart, use the multimeter to quantify the amount of parasitic draw.
 
SuperJETT

SuperJETT

So long and thanks for all the fish
Location
none
12.5 idling and 12.7 revved is low. A fully charged battery should be 12.7-12.8 if your meter is accurate.
 
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