97 1100 Sporti is Killing her Battery while Bike is not being used

[MedicAndy]

Here is my next issue on one of my 1100 Sporti's......

I purchased a new PC545 Odyssey for one of my five 1100's about six weeks ago. (I use this model battery on all of my Sporti's, and this is the first time that this issue came up). I installed the battery, bike run great, parked bike in stable, tried to start her up again maybe two weeks later, and the battery was completely run down. Odyssey send me a replacement battery, (sorry Odyssey for thinking that I had a bad battery), and the same thing happened again. The replacement battery was also dead two weeks later when I wanted to take the bike out for a ride.

I have the new battery now on a trickle charger at all times, until I figure out on what it is that is pulling a draw and killing the batteries charge while the bike is not in use.

So my question is simple, what causes my battery to die while the bike is just sitting in the stable? Bike had nothing added to the electrical system, and the ignition key is removed when bike is not in use.

Thanks for any advice,

Andy

[fotoguzzi]

Time to get out your multi meter😊

Instead of running a charger all the time you could disconnect the negative lead until ready to ride..

[MedicAndy]

Time to get out your multi meter😊

Instead of running a charger all the time you could disconnect the negative lead until ready to ride..

True that, but I still need to find out why the battery is being drained, just to make sure that I won't get stranded 50 miles away from home one day.

 

[rodekyll]

I have a resettable breaker I use as a battery cutout.  Push the button and no drain.

Disconnect the ground lead to the battery and get a volt meter between the neg post and the cable.  See if there is a draw.  If so, start unplugging things one at a time until the draw goes away.  Start with the alternator and regulator.

[chuck peterson]

Or pull fuses one at a time

[MedicAndy]

Thanks for the great advices from all of you!

 

[Kiwi_Roy]

Start with your meter on the 10 Amp range, if you put too much current through the milliamp range it will blow the fuse inside the meter then read zero fooling you into thinking there is no drain.

Another way is to connect a small 12 Volt lamp between battery Negative and ground (12V LEDs are great for this)
Turn the key On the lamp will light
Turn the Key Off the lamp should go Out, if it doesn't you have leakage, the LED will operate with just 1 milliamp.

http://www.thisoldtractor.com/guzzi007/schematics/1996_Sport_1100i.gif

The OEM Voltage regulator shouldn't have any draw because it's switched by the headlight relay.
After market direct connected regulators have about half a milliamp draw I have a fuse in mine that I pull if I'm not going to use the bike for a week.

[wymple]

I disconnect the ground, and then touching it back to the post, look for that tiny spark that indicates a parasitic loss. You can also just use a meter to check, but hey, I'm an old guy. Pull fuses one at a time until that spark is not found, or the meter doesn't show the voltage, and then you'll know where to look.

[Kiwi_Roy]

Scan through this thread you might see something

http://wildguzzi.com/forum/index.php?topic=90452.0

Note how Stephan measured the current draw between the negative terminal and ground wire