Hey all, my first post here.

I've got an 07 CBR 600rr. I bought it used last summer. The bike runs and rides fine, but the battery is draining pretty fast. It will get drained to the point that it won't start, and then I usually plug it into a trickle charger, and 6 hours later she's fine.

I didn't want to worry about my bike dying in the middle of nowhere, so I went and bought a brand new battery. The weekend I got the battery everything was fine, but several weeks later when I tried to start her up again the battery is too low (it cranks a few times and then dies off). I don't get to ride my bike too often because I'm keeping it in my parents garage, 2 hours from home.

How can I fix this? It's definitely not the battery since a brand new one didn't fix the problem. Is there any component that usually causes this to happen? The bike loses charge while it's parked, so I'm thinking some electrical component is leaking power.

I've checked the battery voltage with my multimeter, but its saying 26 V or something, which doesnt make any sense. both my old and new battery both read out as 26 V so I think I'm just reading it wrong. How can I check how much power is flowing out of the battery when the bike is off?

Thanks for any help in advance.

- Spooky

 

What scale are you trying to read your battery voltage on? Ac or dc? You need to be reading it on dc to get the proper reading, and is the bike off or running when you are checking it?

 

As stated set it for DC, probably 1-50/60volt range. Red is positive.
First with the cables connected and every thing tight, with the battery fully charged.
Test across the battery terminals with the ignition OFF. You should read 12.4v-14.7v.
If you're not in that range, there's a problem with the battery. Turn the ignition ON,
Testing across the battery terminals again, should slowly drop to no less than 11.4v
over at most 30 seconds. If it passes that hurdle (and it should with a new battery),
battery's fine.

To test if the sitting battery has an excess discharge rate while turned off.
First, dis-connect the NEGATIVE cable to the battery and set your multi-meter to
read ohms. Hook the probes between the negative cable on the bike and the battery's
negative terminal. Leave the positive cable hooked to the battery for this test.
With the key OFF, you should read NO MORE than 1.5 milli-ohms. If you read more
then you have either, a short in the harness or a short across the battery (from
dirt/electrolyte on the top of it, again not likely with a new battery), or a bad r/r.

Try that first and see what that tells you. After that, it's probably a charging issue.
Check out these 2 links for the basics on diagnostics on that type problem...
Charging System Diagnostics - Rectifier/Regulator Upgrade - Triumph Forum: Triumph Rat Motorcycle Forums
https://cbrforum.com/forum/f2-tech-9...-solved-27739/

Hope this helps, Ern

 

Ok, turns out I'm an idiot and I was using the AC voltage. Reason for that is that when I put my multimeter on DC voltage it doesn't read anything at all (sits at 0.00). Anyways, I've got another multimeter and it works. This morning I took the bike out, started her up (to make sure the battery was charged). Then I turned the bike off, let it sit for 15 minutes, and took these measurements:

1) Voltage across battery terminals, key out of ignition: 12.60 V
2) Voltage across battery terminals, key in ignition, after 30 seconds: 12.01 V
After 1 minute: 11.99 V
After 90 seconds: 11.98 V
After 2 minutes: 11.9
After 4 minutes: 11.94 V
After 6 minutes: 11.92 V
3) Amps between negative terminal and negative cable, key out of ignition: somewhere between .51 and .57 milliamps.
4) Ohms between negative terminal and negative cable, key out of ignition: I set my multimeter to 200 Ohms, and it basically gave me the infinity output

Is the declining voltage after the key goes in the ignition to worry about, even though its still > 11.4?

Can you explain what the measurement from #4 means? Are we measuring the resistance of the bike's entire electrical system? I'm not sure if I took the measurement right. I unhooked the negative cable and put the probes between negative cable and negative terminal on the batery, with ignition off and positive cable/terminal connected.

Unfortunately I'm leaving to head back home today around 4PM, but if there's any other useful measurements I can make, please let me know.



I have to head back home tonight. If there's anymore useful measurements I can make, let me know.

 

Ooops, mis-quote. I mis-stated for the #3, #4 part of the test.
It is milli-amps that you should be checking not ohms. Soory about that.
Your post sent me back to my manual to verify the test. Less than 1.2
milli-amps (as noted in #3) is a passing score. The test is designed to
check for current flow while the bike is off. Thus the battery discharging
while parked. So that is not the issue, given the load you posted.

Hope this helps, Ern

 

I would test the Rectifier as mentioned in Ern's first link as if you got a new battery and it keeps dying it is most likely your rectifier not charging the battery.

 

Take a voltage reading while running at 3500 rpms. Should be 13.5v to 14.5v. If low, pull the stator plug and check for continuity to ground at each stator pin to ground. Should not have any. Then check for it between pins. Should have it there. If stator checks good and charging volts are low, r/r is bad. If stator is bad, i would replace the r/r also. A shorted stator has a way of ruining the r/r.

 

I'm still not convinced that its a charging system issue, because it seems like it loses charge from just sitting in the garage (I've barely ridden the thing). But thats a pretty easy thing to test out.

Guess I need to buy a service manual and check the stator and r/r for health.

Thanks for the info.

 

If you store a bike over winter or a few months, chances are the battery will die. Get you one of those bike battery chargers and keep it on the battery while it sits for a few weeks or longer time frame to keep the battery charged.

I normally forget to do this over winter and my battery is dead when i try to fire it up come spring. The charger is cheap and saves alot of money not having to buy another battery all the time.

If the bike runs fine when you ride it sounds like it charges fine, just when bikes sit they will drain the battery for some reason.