Breva battery voltage drop

[Seabass]

Hi all,
Got an issue with a 2004 Breva 750 600 original miles and have read some posts on here about parasitic drains. Installed a new spec gel battery about 6 months ago (YB14L-A2 237CCA) and kept it on a trickle/maintainer charge. I noticed the battery would get flat very quickly and I could not start the bike after riding short distances. After a recharge on the battery sitting at 12.83 volts I turned on the ignition and the voltage drops to 10.56 immediately and just keeps going. Once I turn off the ignition it will go back up to 12.80 within 5 minutes. The voltage does not drop when the bike is just sitting so I guess there is not a short which would explain the drain.
Is this normal? Do I need a bigger battery? The headlight seems to pull a lot of juice as well.

[bmc5733946]

If the battery voltage drops to 10.56v with the key on and you are not trying to start it, as in pushing the start button, the battery is probably bad. You can unplug the headlight to make sure it isn't the problem but I can't think of any thing that could pull that much voltage except the starter. I would suggest load testing the battery. If your battery charger is not capable of turning off or reducing the charge rate when the battery is fully charged it may have ruined the battery. Get the battery load tested.

Brian

[Wayne Orwig]

Hi all,
Got an issue with a 2004 Breva 750 600 original miles and have read some posts on here about parasitic drains. Installed a new spec gel battery about 6 months ago (YB14L-A2 237CCA) and kept it on a trickle/maintainer charge. I noticed the battery would get flat very quickly and I could not start the bike after riding short distances. After a recharge on the battery sitting at 12.83 volts I turned on the ignition and the voltage drops to 10.56 immediately and just keeps going. Once I turn off the ignition it will go back up to 12.80 within 5 minutes. The voltage does not drop when the bike is just sitting so I guess there is not a short which would explain the drain.
Is this normal? Do I need a bigger battery? The headlight seems to pull a lot of juice as well.

Sounds like the battery has been cooked dry by the battery maintainer. The battery is sitting at 12.83 volts, which is good. But with a load on it, maybe the headlight and little more, the battery resistance is too high. That is often the result of losing to much water due to overcharge.

If the battery was GOOD, and a load pulled it down to 10.56, there would soon be smoke coming from the excess load.
 

[Brian UK]

Unless, of course, there is some additional drain.

But also remember many "maintenance chargers" won't actually charge the battery fully. A battery only charged to 80% won't last long under high current drain.

[Seabass]

Thanks all for the response, I ordered a replacement battery and purchased a led H4 conversion kit which should help either way.

[Wayne Orwig]

And get a voltmeter on that battery charger. Somethings not right.
I found a little cheap bluetooth thing that you attach to the battery and leave it. Then you can bring it up on your phone to not only see the voltage, but the history. I think it stores one months worth of battery voltage. You need something like that.

[Muzz]

Seabass, for some reason the Breva seems to have a high parasitic drain while sitting.  I don't use a tender but every 2-3 weeks throw it on my smart charger to bring it back up.  I have been told that this causes less sulphation that a tender.  Works for me.