HELP!! Left Key in Ignition, now won't stay running

OK, So I'm playing with my son on Sat. riding around the parking lot on the FJR and we decide to go bicycle riding. So I quicky park the bike, jump off and run off to have more fun. Now, Sunday evening, I decide to go cover the bike in case it rains. When I get to the bike, I find the key in the ignition and left on :angry2: :angry2: So I call myself a couple of choice names and call the campus police to come give me a jumpstart. The guy shows up in 30 seconds and we take the cover off the batt. compartment and get the cables connected. He fires up the (bright orange box) thing and I hit the start button. She fires right up and I start giving her a little throttle. I'm thinking of taking a short ride to get the batt. charged when 30 seconds after starting, the engine dies. Weird :blink: So we jump start again, now, I'm giving it more gas and I notice the LCD display turning itself on and off, the an orange light comes on in the LCD area, and bam, the bike dies. I check the cables connected to the Batt. and they look good. Try again, this time no LCD flashing, just about 30 seconds after starting, while giving it gas, the orange light comes on the LCD panel and it shuts off right away.

I'm mechanically dis-inclined, has anyone ever heard of this or experienced it? What should I check?

07 FJR 1400 miles and the only electrical anything that has been done is to install some freeway blaster horns with a nice cable harness I bought from a member here.

ANY Ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

~Mark

And if there are any DFW area folk who are better wrenches than me :dribble: and want to come by and look, I'll be here all day tomorrow !

My theory is you sulfated your battery with the long dischage and it's toast. Although you're getting a jump will spin the starter and fire it up...you're doing that from the jumping vehicle. Once off you have just enough capacity in the dead battery to run for a bit, but the charging system can't keep up and dies shortly after.

The Battery is an inportant part of the charging system output. If the battery is deader than hell it will fool the old regulator into not charging it. Try connecting the dead battery to a good battery and charge them at the same time. Sometimes you can bring the dead one back to life.

Mike

In addition to what Iggy said, get that battery fully charged before starting up again. It's my understanding that the FJR's ignition system and computer needs nearly full voltage to work properly. It's also my understanding that a completely dead battery needs an initial charge considerably stronger that what a Battery Tender will give it. Then top it off with the Battery Tender. I think it would take quite some time for a battery in a discharged state to sulfate enough to short it out. Unless battery is old, I'm guessing you'll be fine.

Thanks for the quick replys, I'll pull the batt. tomorrow and take it up to Motopia and see of they can put it on a charger for awhile for me. I guess when I bring it home and install it, I'll find out if I will be buying a brand new Batt or not!

FJR@DTS said:

Thanks for the quick replys, I'll pull the batt. tomorrow and take it up to Motopia and see of they can put it on a charger for awhile for me. I guess when I bring it home and install it, I'll find out if I will be buying a brand new Batt or not!

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Leaving it shorted for a long time like this is really tough on a battery. There might be some chance you'll get it to hold a charge but I doubt it and riding with a bad battery is hard on the electrical system. At best, you'll never know if it will fail you a week or a month from now.

Batteries are easy and relatively cheap to replace. Replace it.

- Mark

markjenn said:

Batteries are easy and relatively cheap to replace. Replace it.

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Play dumb and get it warrantied?

Barring that, click here for a discount.

Bike Effects is pleased to announce a 10% discount to Forum members on purchases of $50.00 or more. This discount applies to product totals on our Web site. It applies to all products and can be combined with our Monthly sales. Here is how it works. During the checkout phase of an online purchase, there is a box where you can place a Discount Code or Coupon Number. Your Coupon is "FJR1300". The discount will be figured automatically. That is all there is to it. Telephone orders also apply. Just mention that you are a Forum member here. Please take care to put in the discount code as I can not apply the discount retroactively once the order is placed.

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Like iggy said battery is no good buy a new one

do not waste your time with this one buy a new [SIZE=36pt] [/SIZE] battery

They didn't use a high voltage jumper unit, did they? I'm sure that Feejer doesn't like 18-24 volts!

ionbeam said:

They didn't use a high voltage jumper unit, did they? I'm sure that Feejer doesn't like 18-24 volts!

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I was thinking the same thing....I refuse to say anything "out loud", but choose to cross my fingers and hope the battery is ruined and waiting to be replaced.

I did the same thing a few weeks ago. I have a monitoring type battery charger. The battery registered a full charge very quickly and the charger kept shutting off telling me it was done. I hooked up a low-tech , 2 amp trickle charger for about 10 hours. Battery now registers a 95% charge and has been good ever since. Being discharged for that amount of time really shouldn't kill the battery, but it will take slow charging to bring it back.

FWIW,

I did almost the same thing in the dead of winter a couple years ago on my 05. Started the bike on a 10 degree day to warm the bike and charge the battery and then shut it back off. Then I turned the ignition back on to check something with the windshield and forgot to shut it back off again. Two days went by before I opened the trailer again and realized what a :headbonk: I had been.

I put a good charger on the battery and charged it for a full day. Went out and fired it up and used the battery for almost 3 years before my accident. Never a day's worry. The battery may be salvagable... worth a try!

Hope you didn't fry the ECM; an '07 battery should not puke so easily, but start with the easy stuff first. Hoping it's just the battery.

jekirby said:

I did the same thing a few weeks ago. I have a monitoring type battery charger. The battery registered a full charge very quickly and the charger kept shutting off telling me it was done. I hooked up a low-tech , 2 amp trickle charger for about 10 hours. Battery now registers a 95% charge and has been good ever since. Being discharged for that amount of time really shouldn't kill the battery, but it will take slow charging to bring it back.

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I did the exact same thing on my '04 a couple of years ago. Battery was still working fine when I sold it the next year.

B)

OK, Thanks for all the reply s, even the scary ones (ECM :cray: ) To those of you who said just replace it... I hear you, but being a poor student, I wanted to keep from buying a new Batt. if I could help it.

Based on what John, DUFF, and ZZZip said above I went out and bought a 1.5 amp trickle charger and connected it to the batt. The charging light wont even come on, I guess the means the Batt. is prob. dead and I will have to get another one. I've left it plugged in though hoping it will start charging!

I've left my key in my old bike for a few hours at a time before (at work) and was able to push start and the batt. was fine, I'm really surprised that this killed the Batt. :eh-smiley:

Thanks for all the help ladies and gents!

A trickle charger will not work on a fully discharged battery, you need a line charger. Or as suggested by someone earlier, place a second battery on the charger in parallel with your dead one. This will trick your charger into charging the dead one.

Best of Luck

I doubt the battery is actually damaged. It will need a slow recharge on a good charger at over 16 volts (low amperage) initally to break the sulfation caused by a slow discharge. Make sure it is out of the bike, 16+ volts is bad to electronic systems. After the battery starts to take a charge you will be able to charge it with more conventional chargers but still using a slow charge rate. Your dealer should have a good charger that will break the sulfation.

Good luck,

Dave

Wow... I guess batteries must be some kinda super secret magic mojo or something. It seems everyone has an opinion on what the secret recipe is to get them going again.

The fact that your bike sputtered out when you disconnected the charger is actually a good thing. It means that you probably didn't run it for too long with the Alternator and Regulator/Rectifier trying to charge a completely dead battery. That is the biggest hazard that occurs when trying to jumpo start a dead battery. The R/R on bikes is not stout enough to recharge a completely dead battery for long and if allowed to attempt to do so for long enough will burn up. R/R's are pretty pricey.

Put the battery on some kind of a charger and leave it there until it's fully charged. It doesn't matter if it's a battery tender or a trickle charger or a 1 amp regular charger as long as you monitor the charge (and have enough time).

If the charger is too big (provides too high an amperage) it could overheat and damage the little battery, but that probably hasn't happened yet.

If you charge it and it will not take a full charge, then the battery is toast. If it charges OK, it's probably fine.

In the future, if you should forget your key and deeply discharge the battery, don't try to jump start it right away. Instead, try to get the charge up to at least 10-11V so that the bike only has to attempt to charge the remainder while you ride it.

Things are looking up :clapping: I went and borrowed the big charger from the campus police and connected my battery to it for 10 minutes. This got the batt. up to 11 volts. Then I connected my trickle charger and it started charging right away. Yeah!! Now, its at 11.5 volts and going up from there. Tomorrow, I'll reconnect it to the bike and try it out and I guess then I'll find out if my electrical system is ok.

Thanks for everyones input! I appreciate it.