Dead battery = no tach?
 

I went to fire her up today but the battery was dead. After a jump it seemed like it was running straight off the alternator. Blinkers were spastic and the lcd readout was flashing but my big concern was the tach, it jumped a couple times but stayed at not for the entire time the bike was running, about 20 minutes. Will a bad battery cause this or do I need to replace/check something? This is a '98..

time for a new regulator!

Did you jump it with a city bus? Could be the regulator (which is why your battery was dead; it wasnt charging). Also when this happened to me it fried the ECU which made me live w/o a tach for a while til I got a new ECU. Put a volt meter on the battery, then start the bike. My guess is its not gonna be charging so the voltage wont go up but down (til it dies)

It had been sitting for a while so I was expecting the battery to be low or dead. I need to get a trickle charger. @Smokinjoe, did your speedo work? I didn't ride it after all this so just curious if it will be working. Gotta take it to emissions tomorrow.. :/ But no city bus..lol

Yes my speedo was fine. Just the tach was mia. I actually just mounted a small 2" tach so I would have something til I got the new ecu. The city bus thing was just because you may have fried components with an over-powered jump charge.

If it was just the tach, probably not this, but check fuses since that's an easy starting place.

Earlier this week I had my tach, speedo, odometer, and neutral indicator stop on me during a ride (I thought the whole gauge had stopped, but later realized the signal indicators still worked). I was sure it was wiring-related since I was messing with that a couple months ago. But after taking off the fairing and gauge cluster and not finding any loose wires, I decided to check the fuse. Sure enough, it was the fuse. I did all that work unscrewing everything for nothing.

So the lesson learned is . . . Always start with the easy stuff!

PS: The temp gauge also stopped working on me, so if I would have known what each fuse is connected to, this would have been an easy diagnosis for me. Always learning something about this bike . . .

PPS: Oh, almost forgot, my tach and speedo only worked sporadically when my R/R was going bad, and I never had an issue with that after swapping R/Rs. So I agree it could be R/R related.

Thanks guys. I'm taking the battery in today and I am getting a trickle charger. Today it needs to be in running condition, emissions are to be done tomorrow. :/

Arizona motorcycle emissions = PITA. It's a good thing, though, cause Maricopa county has so many pollution problems caused by motorcycles that we need to keep the things well regulated. 2 stroke leaf blowers are a complete necessity, cause brooms are so hard to use, so I'm lobbying to subsidize them...

Agreed!

So.. I got the battery yesterday, dropped it in, fired her up, did a few laps around the block(about 10 minutes). Today I go out at it's dead again. Put the key in and and only the headlight comes on! Push the engine start, not a click or anything! I need to diagnose this fast! I have seen the regulator posts so I am looking into that, what else should I be looking at? Bad alternator, shorts, power drains?

As the 2nd post said - New upgraded R/R (esp if you have an unfinned original) and probably now another new battery - but don't keep wasting new batteries till you get to the cause - see 2nd post

R/R is definitely my next step, but it's going to be a few weeks before I can get one so I was more curious as to if there is anything I can do between now and then just in case. I will have to pick up a multimeter to check it all too. I do have it on a tender now..

Hey You may not wanna wait or ride until its in. I waited and ended up with a dead bike 30 miles from home.

Did you put a voltmeter on the battery when you installed it? They only cost a few $ but can save you buying 10 more batteries. If the r/r is dead then you will keep killing batteries. Have you recarged those old batteries? One run down does not kill them.

I don't have any plans to ride it until everything is fixed.

I had the first battery tested, no good. I am going to pick up a meter in the next week or so. Right now it is sitting on a tender until I can get to testing everything. After a day with the tender it was back to full charge.

Just curious, did you have the battery tested by the same guy who sold you the new one?.... Also, what I am saying is to put the voltmeter across the battery ON THE BIKE, first off, & then running. This will tell you if the RR is functioning. Testing the battery alone tells you very little. (except that the guy would love to keep selling batteries).

I got what you were saying about the voltmeter. It was the same guy but, I honestly could tell the battery was no good, plus it was several years old so since I am going through this I figured I'd get a new one anyway.