Melted Negative Battery Terminal
 

Hey guys,

My negative battery terminal completely melted on my way home from work today. I was carrying a heavy linked chain under the seat which could have definitely spanned the terminals on the battery. This would have done it right? Anyways, when the bike died, I took off the seat and noticed the melted terminal. I pinched the ground wire to the neg battery terminal, and the bike started right up with no problem and ran fine. Do you think everything is ok? And do you think the chain under the seat caused the problem? I'm pretty sure it did. I guess I'm just looking for reassurance. The battery may be salvageable since I think I can attach the wire so it will stay put.

Thanks for your help.

you should be fine, typically you will blow a fuse before any real damage is done... I found that my positive battery terminal was pretty chewed up - I think the terminal was loose.

yeah hopefully its ok. i think i'll rig the terminal up and take a ride sticking close to home to make sure the charging system is still functioning correctly. i guess the only think i'd be worried about would be the r/r being affected.

NEVERMIND...CHECKED THE BATTERY YESTERDAY AND BOTH - & + TERMINALS MELTED. DEFINITELY HAD TO BE THE CHAIN UNDER THE SEAT LAYING ACROSS THE TERMINALS TO DO THAT. ANYWAYS, I BENT WHAT WAS LEFT OF THE TERMINALS INWARD ENOUGH TO HOLD THE CONNECTORS ON TEMPORARILY. WILL BE GETTING A NEW BATTERY TOMORROW AFTER WORK.

How in the world do you get a chain underneath the seat?!

Its about 24" long i just spread it in a circle throughout the under tray. Idk, it fit.

Lemme know if this seems odd though.

(Keep in mind I just purchased this bike 3 weeks ago so I have no idea the age or condition of the melted battery)

The tops of the battery terminals melted so just the side were left. So, I bent them in enough to hold the "square threaded things" and fastened the ground and lead wires up. They were pretty secure but the contact patch was severely decreased. This was always meant to be a very temporary fix.

I rode probably three miles and everything was ok.

Then as I get to my destination I notice my right turn signal was blinking very quickly. Then I notice my gauges flickering and my tach dies...:shock:. I turn off the bike, then turn it bike to on. I get nothing. The bike is dead. I turn the key off and on like 3 times and then finally i get power. Turn it off and then on and no power again. You get the idea. I pull the seat off and hold the negative terminal down. I get power as soon as a press down on the terminal. Meanwhile the tach and speedometer are still dead, however, everything else is working. I ride it home and park it.

Today I picked up a new Yuasa battery for $100. I really don't want to ruin this battery.

Do any of the above mentioned symptoms seem like the chain and subsequent melting of the battery terminals fried the r/r?

Like all things you should keep it wraped if you dont know where your sticking it. LOL

WORDS OF WISDOM RIGHT THERE...

Tested Charging System...Things Look A Bit Strange
 

Yesterday I picked up a multimeter to do some preliminary tests to see if the charging system was working right or not.

My initial readings were the following:

Bike OFF: 12.80V
2500RPM: 13.87V
5000RPM: 14.00V

I thought I was good to go, so I went for about a 40 minute ride. Towards the end of the ride, it was dark out and I noticed that when I put my blinkers on the gauges would, ever so slightly, dim with the blinker. I thought it was a bit strange, so I pulled the multimeter out and tested again. I didn't right down the readings but everything was reading between 12.60 - 13V! Not good right?

So today I took the following readings today:

Set 1: :)
Bike OFF: 12.75V
2500RPM: 13.70V
5000RPM 13.67V
5000RPM w/ High Beams: 13.58V
2500RPM w/ High Beams: 13.71V


Set 2: :confused:
2500RPM: 12.94V
5000RPM: 13.00V
5000RPM: w/ High Beams & Fan On 12.90V
2500RPM: w/ High Beams & Fan On 12.72V

I turned the bike off at this point, let the fan fun its course, then turned the key off. I tested the voltage at this point.

Bike OFF: 12.65V

I let the bike cool for about 5 minutes and checked the voltage again three more times.

Bike OFF: 12.72V
Bike OFF: 12.72V
Bike OFF: 12.72V

IMPORTANT***************************************** *****
I now pulled apart the connector on the R/R and inspected it. One of the yellow stator wires in the female plug was, not totally charred, but it was black throughout the length of the plug. It was just that wire though. The male end in the R/R was discolored black but it was intact. I squirted some WD forty in the plug end and cleaned that one wire out a little bit with the end of a zip tie. Then firmly connected back up. Then I took the following readings.

Bike OFF: 12.72V (.03V lower than at the start of Set 1)
2500 RPM: 13.75V
5000 RPM: 13.80V
5000 RPM w/ High Beams 13.56V
2500 RPM w/ High Beams 13.77V

Then I turned the bike off and let it sit for about three minutes.

Bike OFF: 12.93V (.
2500 RPM: 13.71V

At this point I stopped because some girl came out to inform my that bike bike is obnoxiously loud even though I live in Manhattan and there is constant construction everywhere. The total duration of this whole thing was like 20 minutes long.

So I think I am going to do the R6/R1 R/R upgrade regardless. Do you think this upgrade will solve my problem. I think I should be getting at least 14V
By the looks of the readings here, do you think I may have another problem, possibly with the stator?

I am aware that the voltage should always be around 13.5 - 14.5V, but, will the lower end of these readings obtained here deteriorate my battery? I know that aren't close to burning it up.

In other words, do I need to take her in to a shop and have diagnostics done on the whole charging system or should I just swap the R/R myself and see what I get then?

Thanks for your help.

- Phil

Start by making certain that all of your ground connections, on the engine and chassis, are clean and tight.

If you don't have good grounds, electron flow is compromised.


Rex

If you don't have a manual then you should get one, period. And start testing the Stator, R/R, all grounds, voltage output with new battery. But those voltage numbers look fine and they definitely won't hurt anything, but seeing as your gauges are dimming and one of the stator wires is burned you probably burned some or one of your charging coils in your stator. Its not the end of the world as your stator produces more power than the bike needs (at high revs), hence having a voltage regulator (btw, your idle voltage seems fine). Now because of this, as things get hot, they become more resistive, maybe thats why your gauges were flickering after a bit of a ride. Experiment more and do some reading, I'd like to know what you find.