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My Ninja died - help please?

Took the battery out and got it load-tested at a dealership.

They said it was good.

So now what? According to the service manual, I can test the reg/rec when it's off the bike partially - though the regulator test needs a test light setup which would be a pain for me. (The rectifier test seems to be just checking resistance between particular pairs on the plug - not too hard.) Testing its voltage output though requires a specialized tool and a running bike... neither of which I have.

I dunno where to go from here. Help?
 
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All you really care about at the moment is whether your bike is charging or not. Troubleshooting why it isn't charging can wait.

Charge the battery, then start your bike. Put a voltmeter across the battery terminals, then check if you are getting over 14 volts while the motor is at 3000 RPM's.
 
Er, did you read the previous update?

I charged the battery. Put it in, connected. When in OFF, it reads ~12.6V. When switched to ON, it drops to 0.2V, and doesn't have enough juice to even click the starter, let alone start the bike so I can test it at 3krpm.

Haven't tried testing it @ 3krpm when started off a car jumpstart...
 
did you manage to get your bike home? I live not too far from downtown berkeley, and it's mostly downhill.

I don't have any protected storage either, but at least you can lock it up and park it next to mine without paying fees and/or tickets.
 
Nope, the bike is still where it was parked. Unregulated except for the first something of the month street cleaning, so I should be good for a month or so.

It's locked up okay I think. Thanks for the offer though. :)
 
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saizai said:
Er, did you read the previous update?

I charged the battery. Put it in, connected. When in OFF, it reads ~12.6V. When switched to ON, it drops to 0.2V, and doesn't have enough juice to even click the starter, let alone start the bike so I can test it at 3krpm.

Haven't tried testing it @ 3krpm when started off a car jumpstart...
Click to expand...

If you can jumpstart it, but it won't crank using the battery, then the battery is bad. So if your battery isn't holdng a charge, why didn't you buy a new one? :confused

You can't load test a battery that isn't charged, that's why I assumed you could start the bike.

I'm amazed that this has gone on for as many days as it has.
 
... I did charge the battery. And got it loadtested at a moto shop. And they said it was good.

Like I said already.

I think you're either not reading something, or not understanding something I wrote...
 
saizai said:
... I did charge the battery. And got it loadtested at a moto shop. And they said it was good.

Like I said already.

I think you're either not reading something, or not understanding something I wrote...
Click to expand...

You are saying that there is nothing wrong with the battery, but it won't crank the engine over. You said if you jump the bike with a car, it does crank over.

Your exact words:

"Eventually figured the multimeter was borked, started charging it from my car anyway. Would easily jump start, and run perfectly fine when connected to the car, but stalled out soon when disconnected. I added a couple gallons of gas while I was there (with everything disconnected of course)."

You either have a bad battery or you don't have a good, clean connection at the battery terminals.
 
Not sure HOW the battery could read 200 mv or whatever with the key on. If it was dead shorted like that it would be smoking the shit out of something. You sure you had the multimeter on the right setting? Basically that battery has enough juice in it to blow up and leave a huge mess. If you turn the key on and it reads 200 mv it indicates a DEAD short. If there were a DEAD short somewhere, they battery would turn REALLY hot, and a wire somewhere would turn into molten copper or a fuse would blow.
 
Ya mon, I'm pretty sure I had it in the right setting. Switched it back and forth to make sure, those are the readings. Instrument lights were waaay low and such too.

I'll me going back and getting readings of the voltage with various bits disconnected (reg/rec, each fuse individually) to see if I can isolate it. Maybe even an amperage reading at 3krpm if I can get a multimeter for temp that can handle that much.
 
Sure as hell sounds like a short to me, especially given the recent electrical mods.

I know you said that you don't currently have any popped fuses, but did you pop any during the installation process (or sometime after) and replace them?

Are all the fuses currently in your bike the correct amperage for each slot?
 
Didn't pop fuses any during install. All are definitely correct amps. (They're all 10s 'cept two main fuses @ 30 - hard to mess up.)

Pretty sure it's not a short in the mods I made (I try to be careful), but pulling the lights fuse and testing voltage should rule that out one way or the other. Will post when I know that data.
 
Why are you doing all of this in a parking lot away from home, rather then just buying a new battery and continuing to ride your bike? :confused

If it is a financial thing, I can kinda, sorta see you doing it this way, but still. :rolleyes

I'll be quiet after this.
 
Ya, I'm broke too. But like I said - I charged the battery and it tested as being fine, so I don't see the point of getting a new one; it'd still not start any better than it does now.

Need to figure out which part of the electrical system is messed up / shorting / whatever.
 
saizai said:
Pretty sure it's not a short in the mods I made (I try to be careful), but pulling the lights fuse and testing voltage should rule that out one way or the other. Will post when I know that data.
Click to expand...

Even if you were very careful during the install, you could still have pinched a wire somewhere between the frame and the plastics. That wouldn't cause a problem instantly because the wires are insulated but, as you ride, stuff rubs and vibrates and insulation can wear away and break, exposing hot wires to the frame and shorting a circuit.

Why it's not popping a fuse would be the $64k question, which is why I asked if you'd perhaps, in a pinch, thrown in an incorrect fuse.
 
*nod* No offense at the question, it makes sense. Just pretty sure it's not the problem. :p

Anyway, once I isolate the responsible system, I can go over it for any things like that.
 
Just because a battery is "fully charged" and a shop load tested it doesn't mean that the electrolyte is still good. Voltage and Amps are not the same thing. Since it's a sealed battery they couldn't test the specific gravity of the battery "juice".

If you get a get a new battery and the problem goes away, I promise I won't say I told you so.
 
Also, do a quick check and see if the main ground is actually attached.
 
"If you get a get a new battery and the problem goes away, I promise I won't say I told you so."

Yeah you will. :p

But, if the battery is at fault, then that should turn up by the invariance of voltage w/ fuse pulling. Hopefully.

I'm not sure *where* the main ground is on the bike; service manual doesn't say in an obvious way. Should I just follow the wires from the negative terminal to find something that attaches to the frame within a short length?
 
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