noob question: battery dead w/ no vehicle to jump, what do i buy?

B

barrebeast

Well-known member
moved" from general thread.

before i start, i tried doing a search and not sure what's right for ME

pls chime in if you have reliable info


my first bike, dual sport yamaha xt250
has never started on its own since i bought it, got a friend to jump the batt with his car (engine off).. maybe a month later i had to push start the bike.. and now another month later the battery seems to be dead, i tried to push start but when i pull on the brake the dash lights turn off and reset. i've never started the bike between these stated occasions.

so without having to ask a friend to jump start my batt, what should i buy to start/maintain my batt?

canadian tire has sales on until tomorrow and not sure if these are overkill for my bike or what

motomaster
http://www.canadiantire.ca/browse/pr...=1336601370996

stanley
http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/brows....jsp?locale=en

edit: in the other thread i got 4 different opinions,help!
 
With such infrequent use, and not holding a charge over a month, sounds like your battery is well past it's sell by date. I would buy a new one, plus a trickle charger (about $30) for the winter, but for an extra $40 the Motomaster is worth stretching to and gives you everything you'll ever need.
 
The dealers people may have screwed up doing the initial charge on your battery. You can buy a new one or if your bike purchase was recent I would call the dealer back and ask WTF happend.
 
Very first step is fairly simple, you need to take the battery out, and charge it (at 10% of its capacity).
Fill it if required first, so the levels are within the range between the two lines.
Say it's YTX8-AE or whatever, that's 8 amp-hour and so a proper charging rate would be .8 amp (1 amp would be okay).
After a coupla hours it might seem to be fine.
Then you need to take it to the shop and have it load tested.
It's the only way to tell, and they should test it for free.
Many newish batteries (expensive ones too) flunk load test!
Dunno what to tell ya, except that it's fundamental; you can't proceed to getting her running without a tested-good battery.
If all this seems like too much trouble, just buy a new battery, heheh...
Get a Gel.
Regards
 
Gryphon said:
Very first step is fairly simple, you need to take the battery out, and charge it (at 10% of its capacity).
Fill it if required first, so the levels are within the range between the two lines.
Say it's YTX8-AE or whatever, that's 8 amp-hour and so a proper charging rate would be .8 amp (1 amp would be okay).
After a coupla hours it might seem to be fine.
Then you need to take it to the shop and have it load tested.
It's the only way to tell, and they should test it for free.
Many newish batteries (expensive ones too) flunk load test!
Dunno what to tell ya, except that it's fundamental; you can't proceed to getting her running without a tested-good battery.
If all this seems like too much trouble, just buy a new battery, heheh...
Get a Gel.
Regards
Click to expand...

gryphon.. thanks for the good advice, i'll look into it
 
i would buy a volt meter as well, check to see if the battery is even charging, especially as you have always had to jump/push start. Check voltage before starting, jump start and then read the voltage running. if you start with 8 volts and after starting the voltage is the same or only slightly less then suspect charging system, if it's 12v+ then assume battery is either draining down due to a load when left off or battery is not able to hold a charge.
 
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