Battery or alternator???

[DangerD1967]

Greetings
94 k75s 45,000 miles. I have been trying to teach my wife to ride, and bike has been slow motion dropped 3 times on right side. First symptom was bike started, ran for 2 minutes, she misclutched and bike died never to restart. I posted here and thought I had a ground problem. Bike sat on back burner, I checked all known grounds, tried Jonny Throttlewhacker's suggestion of forcing the starter to spin. Got focused again, put trickle charger on 24 hours before day off, trickle charger was never able to fully charge with the battery connected. When turning ignition key to ON position, no lights on instrument panel and clock resets to triple zeros (clock will keep time for over 30 days if no ignition movement). Thought about switching out batteries, but I decided to try jump starting, (Bring on disapproval) was happy to hear her run! Had choke/throttle advance all the way open, could not keep her running when going back to normal run position. Rejumped and thought doing a 15 mile loop might help. Bike had full engine power and all turn signals/ high beams horn worked, the warning triangle WAS on. Pulled back into driveway and as I neared normal idle, bike died. Back to no lights and turning around tried to roll start, no luck. Talked to one friend who suggested either battery or alternator, pulled battery and ran it up to auto parts store, battery check reported good battery. Put battery on charger and now shows full charge.

Loose connections to alternator?
Alternator damaged from repetitive drops?
Other things to check?

[Motorhobo]

Unplug ECU, spray with contact cleaner, and reconnect. That's the first thing I do when electrical weirdness appears.

[johnny]

greetings...

is your kill switch in the kill position...

with kill in the run position and the ig key on do you have horn turn signals dash lights tail light brake light......

does your headlight flicker when you whaller the key around in the ignition... what about when you move the kill back and forth...

when you plug your battery tender in does the light stay red...

j o

[DangerD1967]

Update: Took suggestion of unplugging ECU cleaning and reconnecting. Placed fully charged battery in, had instrument lights and was able to start normally. Bike ran for 3 minutes, heard a slight "Phist" from alternator area and bike died. Right back to square one with no lights and clock resetting when ignition turned. I did check the connections on the rear (adjacent to battery area) on the alternator, seemed fine and tight....

[Brad-Man]

Sounds to me like a battery problem.

Started and ran fine for 15 mins = alternator working

Came to idle just before driveway and died = alternator typincally doesn't put much out @ low rpm so battery has to supply - bad battery = no supply = engine dies.

[Motorhobo]

How bout the main ground connection at the frame on the LH side? Is it clean and tight?

I read recently here about someone who had to disconnect and reconnect the ECU several times...maybe you should try it again, since you said after doing it once everything came on and you could start...if it starts again then maybe that's the culprit and needs some more tlc.

[DangerD1967]

Update #2

Answser to Johnny's questions: After recharging battery, with kill off still had headlight turn and horn, after turning to on still had headlight, but heard click like a relay fusing and back to dead with clock resetting. When on trickle charger it shows red light to show connected correctly and amber to show charging. When connected to bike two days back, amber light flashed after 6 hours.

Yes I have checked the main ground. I am concerned by the clicking Phhist sound. The battery is less than a year old but it is NOT the "standard" recommended battery. When the old one died I went to walmart and bought the same model that the PO had in there that had lasted two and half years of daily riding. I am concerned that if I buy a new proper battery that whatever gremlins I have right now might eat up the new battery.

Is there a way to easily test my alternator?

Will keep trying...thanks all for your help

[orforester]

I guess from experience, here is another unique to Brick answer.....are your starter bolts tight on the back (rear) of the starter?  Have the brushes been changed lately, I would pull the starter after checking for tightness first and then install new brushes.  The starter is the ground for a lot of weird things on a K Bike.  I have all kinds of electrical issues, till I got new brushes and then one time the bolts were slightly loose and the motor would cut out or the brake light wouldn't work.....  Go for the starter before Alternator.  JMO

Bob

[Motorhobo]

I had a very similar issue recently, complete with starting once reconnecting the ECU and then failing again. In fact, it was less than a month ago -- long thread and lots of speculation about the cause but it ended up being the bAttery after all. You say you had it tested -- did they test voltage or amperage? With me, the battery was reading 12.6 volts but had zilch cold cranking amps, thus not enough amperage to crank the starter. Lights came on but the starter wouldn't crank. Battery would show full charge after being on the tender overnight but still put out no amps. Not sure the auto parts store can give you accurate info on the cold cranking amps of any battery except a car battery, which your Walmart Special probably isn't.

Granted, it would have to be mighty dead indeed to not even show any lights or run the clock. Maybe once the key is turned on and the battery produces no amps, whatever residual current gets distributed among all the systems that are trying to access it, thus causing the current to drop below even the few milliamps the clock needs to stay on. Maybe Inge or rbm can say whether that's a possible scenario, I'm no moto electrician.

So can you confirm that the battery was tested for amperage and had sufficient cold cranking amps to do the job? My battery was only 1.5 years old but dead as a doornail despite the 12.6v reading -- replaced it with another $50 unit from battery warehouse and back on the road, no problems since.

Advice -- don't second guess the battery, these bikes don't like low amperage, and IMO when in doubt, get a new one, a real moto battery rated for Kbikes, even if it's the cheapest one they sell at your local battery warehouse.  If it's not the battery, then you have a spare, which you will use at some point because eventually the one you have will fail. I don't think there's much chance you will kill a new battery with your current problem. More likely you could kill the bike electrics if the battery is in fact the problem and you keep looking elsewhere for the issue.

My $0.02, as paid for by the thread below...

http://www.motobrick.com/index.php?topic=6199.msg41372#msg41372

[DangerD1967]

Thanks for all the suggestions!

On battery. I can get it tested by my auto mechanic buddy the next time I am on his side of town. I think I owe it to the bike and my sanity to invest in a new proper battery. I am unfamiliar with Battery warehouse, here in middle Tennessee we have a chain called Batteries Plus, does anyone know if they would carry a proper battery. Can anyone share detailed criteria of what I should be looking for? I have read battery suggestions in the lieberry and will reread tonight to get an idea of what amps I should be asking for.

On starter. The idea of something being loose holds credence since the symptoms started after the slow motion drops. I also wonder that multiple repetitive restarts could have overtaxed the battery and/or loosened something on the starter(I will never understand how she can drive a school bus and have such trouble with one of the kindest clutches I have ever dealt with. As for pulling the starter or changing the brushes, that is something I have never attempted. Partly due to my lack of confidence, partly because I never really have extended time and with no indoor work area, it is hard to spread a project over several days and have the parts remain unmolested. I tried tarping a project once only to find two cats asleep under the tarp the next morning. I will look at the Haynes, but would appreciate any tips or advice.

Johnny. I tried to answer your questions and was hoping you might have some hempcrusted throttlewhacking advice, you must be baking brownies...will wait

[NickAndHisBrick]

Bricks HATE weak batteries. Mine had 12.4v, tested out fine, but turns out it had 1/2 the rated amps. I figured this out the day I moved it with JUST the jump pack on it. Ran like a champ all the sudden. I decided to kill the fuel pump and see how many times I could try to start it. By the third try it wouldn't turn over any more.

[Motorhobo]

Call around your local battery retailers, ask if they have motorcycle batteries and tell them he bike make and model. Anybody know the spec for or dimensions? I don't have one on the bench right now.

[Scott_]

The original battery from BMW, was a liquid wet cell style.
Most of us here have gone the sealed type.
Personally I have had excellent performance with a Westco 12v20p.
Others will swear by Odyssey pc680.

Either one will require attention to installation details, making sure your terminals don't short out to any of the frame members or electronics supports.

I can't specifically say about the installation on a K75, but these fit the 1100's with very little modification.