Author Topic: Not quite startus interuptus GRiSO 1100 & 1TB V7  (Read 980 times)

Offline malik

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Not quite startus interuptus GRiSO 1100 & 1TB V7
« on: August 22, 2020, 03:58:57 PM »
Just back last night from an 11 day camping trip. On the morning of day 10, we loaded the gear on the bikes, ready to go, the GRiSO produced only the dreaded click when the starter was pressed. Gear off, seat off, found that the battery terminals on the Motobat AGM were not fully tight - tighter than finger tight, terminals clean & lightly vaselined, but took less than a quarter turn to tighten fully. Problem solved.

The very next morning, gear loaded ready to go, this time the 2014 V7 was dead at ignition - no dash lights at all. Fuses tested fine, battery at 13.2V. The battery terminals here too were clean, lightly vaselined, tighter than finger tight, and only required less than a quarter turn to tighten fully. No joy this time. Found that removing & replacing the 30A fuse enabled the dash self test, but pressing the starter clicked a relay & everything died. Until the fuse was again withdrawn & replaced. We found also that when we held the multimeter to the battery leads it would show 13.2, until the starter was pressed, when it would jump to zero. We hooked up some jumper leads to a car battery & it started up fine. The V7 is running on an SSB lithium battery, and we opined that this experience might have something to do with the lithium battery's cut out function. As we happened to be staying that night with a mate who happened to have a lithium battery specific charger, we removed that battery & hooked that up for a couple of hours. All worked fine - all day, half a dozen starts, got home without any more trouble.

Morals learned. First tighten the battery terminals again. Second, it's good to have mates. Third, when Li batteries let go, there's nothing you can do (unless you've a Li charger or a spare battery at hand).
2010 V7 Classic, 2014 V7 Special
1996 1100 Sport Carb (in NZ), 2004 V11 LeMans (in UK)
Carberry Enfield V-Twin, 2008 Royal Enfield Electra, 2006 RE Electra 535

Offline Muzz

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Re: Not quite startus interuptus GRiSO 1100 & 1TB V7
« Reply #1 on: August 22, 2020, 04:51:29 PM »
Any idea on why your Li battery went flat to start off with Mal?
Muzz. Cristchurch, New Zealand
03 Breva

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Offline malik

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Re: Not quite startus interuptus GRiSO 1100 & 1TB V7
« Reply #2 on: August 22, 2020, 06:32:29 PM »
It's weird. It wasn't actually flat - it showed 13.2 on the multimeter at the bare terminals, but after the relay cut in, zero at the battery wires until the fuse was pulled & replaced, whereupon it showed 13.2 again, but it certainly did not have any oomph. We figure (that is, a guess by the ignorant) that somehow the battery's electronics tripped the protection circuit, and it refused to output any of its magnificent CCA. At least until the C-TEK charger's over-ride button was engaged and it got a boost. That battery is going to be treated as suspect for a while longer. Interesting to see what happens.

The night before, we came in in the dark, with the LED driving lights on for the half hour on the country road. Don't know if that had anything to do with it. It shouldn't have, but life's a bit of a mystery at times.
« Last Edit: August 22, 2020, 06:36:06 PM by malik »
2010 V7 Classic, 2014 V7 Special
1996 1100 Sport Carb (in NZ), 2004 V11 LeMans (in UK)
Carberry Enfield V-Twin, 2008 Royal Enfield Electra, 2006 RE Electra 535

Offline Muzz

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Re: Not quite startus interuptus GRiSO 1100 & 1TB V7
« Reply #3 on: August 22, 2020, 10:34:45 PM »
A bit of a worry really.
Muzz. Cristchurch, New Zealand
03 Breva

Life is just a bowl of Allbran
Ya wake up in the morning and it's there

Offline not-fishing

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Re: Not quite startus interuptus GRiSO 1100 & 1TB V7
« Reply #4 on: August 23, 2020, 02:55:03 AM »
One of the things I've done in the last year to both my 07 Griso and 03 V11 Lemans is pull all the ground connections, give them a good cleaning then reaffix and double check with a decent ohm meter.  Both of my bikes have spent a few years on the coast so they had some corrosion.  Also poor grounds seem to come on new bikes so it doesn't take much corrosion to retard current flow.
Griso 1100
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1/2 a V50 III (with my son)
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'75 850T with sidecar - a new project and adventure

Offline Kiwi_Roy

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Re: Not quite startus interuptus GRiSO 1100 & 1TB V7
« Reply #5 on: August 23, 2020, 05:56:35 AM »
Im sure you are familiar with the tapered posts on car batteries letting go even though the lugs are tight, Lead oxide which is a perfect insulator can creep in between the lug and post, usually lets go on a cold day as the last little bit of contact melts
Vaseline will normally prevent that happening as it excludes Oxygen from the mix.
Its easy to demonstrate the lead oxide layer, touch your meter probes lightly on the lead posts, no connection until you jab the sharp point through the invisible oxide layer.
I used to be on a Suzuki board, they reckoned star washers were magic and would jamb them in between the lug and battery post.

The ground cable on my V7iii connects to a bolt right on top of the engine/gearbox
It looked tight but I'm sure it wasn't making proper contact, I was able to measure resistance between a couple of the wires in the lug and chassis (regulator grounds). it may have been a copper/aluminium corrosion cell
I actually sweated the lug with rosin core solder but I could have just warmed it up and applied some grease to keep the copper bright.
I also suspect there was corrosion between the lug and aluminium
Pull it off and apply some form of grease to keep water out of the joint.
« Last Edit: August 23, 2020, 06:12:25 AM by Kiwi_Roy »
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Offline malik

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Re: Not quite startus interuptus GRiSO 1100 & 1TB V7
« Reply #6 on: August 23, 2020, 01:08:19 PM »
Some good tips there, guys. Thanks. I'll re-clean & grease all the connections, including the main ground again, being more finicky than usual, because the usual obviously wasn't good enough.
2010 V7 Classic, 2014 V7 Special
1996 1100 Sport Carb (in NZ), 2004 V11 LeMans (in UK)
Carberry Enfield V-Twin, 2008 Royal Enfield Electra, 2006 RE Electra 535

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