Electrical ignition problem 2005 Softail

After a long period of charging a flat battery I am having a problem starting the bike. The lights come on as does the ignition light but there is a chattering from the relay/fuse box and I cannot turn over the bike. Indeed the whirring sound one normally gets when switching the run button on isnt there either.

Is it that the battery just doesnt have enough juice despite a week of charge or is it something more sinister.

Thanks

[Tones]

Sounds rather like your battery has run out of oomph.
Could be charging and getting a decent voltage but not holding ampere/h
or basically a large current.
If its been flat for a while it may be in an unrecoverable state. I.E plates bent, too much internal corrosion, weak acid etc,
If you've got a mate with a good battery, do a swop, or even use jump leads, (But be careful and don't use a car battery) soon tell you whether its the battery. Thats where my bet would be.

[kiwidave]

put a voltmeter on the battery and with ignition off it should be reading 12.6V-12.9V after a week of charging......

if not, it is stuffed.

Even if you get 12.6V+....Turn the ignition ON, no need to start the bike....if the meter reading falls below 12.0V it is also kaput...can't hold a load.

[SJC69]

Battery. RE:- Starting the bike.

It is simply all about just how many amps the battery can give when cranking the engine via the starter motor. You may well be surprise just how much is required to do this, its well over 100 amps.

If your battery can't deliver this it will not even turn over the engine that simple!

Most people just haven't the equipment to measure fully the battery’s condition, but as Kiwi Dave always says volt drop on starting with a charged battery is normally a good enough indicator, below twelve and it's a non starter! {That's with all connections checked etc. and OK.} If it drops below twelve even without trying to start, ie with just the ignition on, it's finished.

As you said your battery was flat, how long was it flat for?

Why? The sealed AGM {VRLA} OEM type batteries do not like being left discharged for long periods and this will shorten/destroy them very quickly.

Completely discharge them i.e. very low voltage or zero and they are nearly always finished or very much reduced in capacity.

That said don't be afraid of them they are excellent batteries and far exceed any lead acid wet cell. {The type you top up with water.}

So do the volt drop test and my money is on a knackered battery, but this is very important don't just change the battery without checking everything else such as connections, starter circuit and charging circuit and ask why did the battery go flat in the first place.
Don't do it and you may well need another new battery very soon!

SJC

[Hawkeye]

Originally Posted by Tones

(But be careful and don't use a car battery) .

Why not a car battery ???

[Tones]

Originally Posted by Hawkeye

Why not a car battery ???

If connecting in parallel to a bike battery to jump start, the amperage going into the bike battery wouldn't do it any favours, which is why batteries prefer trickle charging.

[banquo]

A friend recently had her battery on an '07 Heritage go completely flat, after somebody (not her!) left the ignition on by mistake. This was effectively a new bike. The battery was put on an Optimate overnight, but would not recharge. We tried another Optimate (just in case) but with the same results.
She was told that the Gel battery could not be recovered when totally discharged, and the only solution was a new battery, which resolved the problem.
I have heard this before about Gel Batteries, but this was my first experience of it...

To check if a new battery will sort it, you can remove the dead battery altogether, and then connect a good car battery to the leads (postive first, negative last, taking very great care to ensure the positive is well insulated or isolated, so it can't short on to anything) using flying leads or (quality copper) jumper cables, preferably bolted to the existing battery leads. If all else is OK, it should start no problem, and the bike battery's dead.