random misses, electrical - fix!

[deadchef]

last year mid summer i completely rewired my bike. as in pulled the harness out, bought wire, shrink wrap, bullet connectors, fuse block and went to town. no real issues, pretty much everything worked right off the bat (i think i forgot to initially connect the tach light). previous to the rewire i bought one of the agm batteries from mikesxs. no issues that i was aware of.

towards the end of the summer i started to get random misses and the occasional temporary loss of electrical power. when it would die i would turn the key off, wait a minute or two and it would be back on again. run fine for a while and not skip a beat.

the beginning of this season i noticed the problem becoming more frequent. so i went through all my wiring, checked connections and everything seemed kosher. i would jiggle wires with it running and not see any flicker or misses. then i pulled the battery and ran my meter over the posts. i would see the readings jump all over even though i didn't see any corrosion on the posts. or at least what i consider corrosion, you know the white or green crustiness. the posts did seem a dark grey from what i'm used to seeing. so i took a file and lightly deglazed the posts. ran the meter over the posts and sure enough the readings didn't even flicker.

i've since put some miles on it and haven't even noticed the slightest of flicker. bike actually seems to pull harder too but that might just be in my head, ha!

just wanted to share in case anybody might be having some random electrical gremlins. the 'glaze' over the battery posts was making a poor connection.

 

[retiredgentleman]

Its well known that a lot of the parts sold by Mikesxs are of poor quality. They buy large quantities of parts made in Taiwan, where the phase "quality control" is unheard of. They make large profits on the parts, but the customer gets sub-standard parts.

Next time pay more money and buy your battery from a reputable manufacturer.

 

[deadchef]

oh, i'm quite familiar with mikesxs "quality". the battery purchase was before i knew. it holds a charge fine for now so i'll continue with it and monitor the posts.

just went to mikesxs and looks like they have a newer version of their agm battery. looks different from the one i bought. doubt it's any better...

 

[5twins]

Coat your battery terminals, cable ends, and bolts with Vaseline, that will prevent future corrosion. Old, old trick.

 

[retiredgentleman]

That's a good tip 5twins. My father taught me that when I was a teenager, a few years ago.

That may help deadchef, but the fact remains, the lead plates/terminals in that Taiwan battery are made of the poorest lead alloy, and he may still end up stranded on the side of the road.

deadchef..................I recommend you install a voltmeter on you bike, to give you early warning, when the battery is about to die.

 

[5twins]

The problem I've found with the sealed batteries is they give no warning. They can be fine today, dead tomorrow. In fact, I had one fail on one of my BMWs last summer as I was riding down the road. I had just fired the bike up with the electric start a few miles before and it cranked right over fine. I came to a red light and when I let the bike drop down to idle, it just died, no lights or anything. I thought a fuse blew but it turned out the battery had shit the bed.

 

[deadchef]

yes, been wanting to get a voltmeter. i'd like to find one i can integrate into my pilot box. i no longer use the headlight indicator light. would be slick to fit one in there...

 

[payaso13]

http://www.chromebattery.com/bought a battery from here no problems for two years now...bought it on eBay..
Typed in xs650 battery and pops up first on page