Electrical issues.

[reverand]

I have a 1999 Valk. Bought new, over 120K gets ridden everyday. Battery went dead 4 weeks ago so replaced battery. One week later battery dead again. Replaced alternator. One week later battery dead again. Bike shop metered the alternator and voltage was good. So I continued to ride but each week I had to recharge the battery.The only change in the bike was the light that tells you the bike is in neutral sometimes wont work when the bike is in neutral. Then I must clutch it to get the bike to start. Is it possible that neutral switch has failed and causing a power drain? The last ride was the kicker. Full battery charge and rode for 15 minutes. Stopped to eat and the bike fired right up. Started off and at low RPMs the bike was missing. High RPMs bike ran good. Rode another 15 minutes and while in motion the bike just shut off. Been carrying a power pack with me. Now started the bike with the power pack and it idled for maybe 15 seconds and just shut off. Now the battery completely dead. The bike is at the shop now. Needing help.

[Oss]

bank angle sensor?
short in relay?


went on youtube and then bought cheap ohmmeter multimeter and check every fuse

[0leman]

Maybe your alternator is causing issues.   Have you check how many volts you are getting? 

[reverand]

Bike is at the shop now. I wil give them a few days to diagnose the issues. Whatever it is it took 20 minutes to kill a fully charged battery. A while back I had the bike in for Alternator check. I left the shop and went maybe 10 miles and the bike started missing. So I turned around and headed back to the shop. They either hooked up the Alternator backwards or didn't hook it up at all. Same symptoms the bike just stopped running. I have it at a different shop now.Trying to get different ideas to fix this. Electrical is always a nightmare.

[Moonshot_1]

Maybe new battery is kaput. Sometimes you get a bad one from the start.

Have you tried a different battery yet?

[Jack]

Bad ground?

[da prez]

   On my podium,  If I had the bike I would start from the basics. Remove the battery. Put the battery on the charger. Remove and clean all grounds and connections. If you did any add on's , disconnect them. If you have a spare battery , (I use a marine battery) , or a non-running vehicle. Hook up the positive cable.  Remove key from bike. Touch the negative cable to the negative ground. It may spark. If it is a large blue looking spark , there is a definite short. Now , the fun begins.  I did not notice what model. Start by pulling one fuse at a time and test for the spark. ( I have a similar way to test )  If it is a fusible circuit , it is a process of elimination. If this method fails to find the circuit  it is time to start unhooking wires. That large of a short should leave a visible mark on a wire. You may have a rub thru.
                                  GOOD  LUCK. I , personally have little faith in dealers. Call out , there is help nearby.
                                                da prez

[Robert]

The alternator on the Valk does not charge to well if at all at idle. Needs at least 1400 rpm to make enough power to charge well. So at idle you may charge at 13 to 14v but low amps. The minute the fan turns on that is all your juice and the bike will die if the battery is low. Sounds like a battery issue since it wont stay charged and you could have a draw but me thinks it would be unlikely. To effectively test the battery you cannot just measure voltage you have to measure voltage under a load. If you turn on your lights the engine fan and a radio if you have it and measure the voltage with the engine not running it should slowly go down on voltage. But remain fairly steady at 12.5 volts. The real test would be though to put a volt meter on the battery and crank the thing over for about 30 seconds and see what happens to the voltage, It should stay above 10.5 volts. If it drops like a rock then the battery is either not fully charged the terminals are not connected well or the battery is in fact bad. After trying to start the bike if you immediately feel the connections and wiring is hot then there may be a poor connection at that point of the heat. Doing this simple test checks all the starting and connections. The alternator charging should be checked running and you should be able to load the alternator at 2000 RPM with about 30 amps and have it hold 14v. If not and you have to go to say 20 amps then the alternator is bad. This test can only be done with a load meter though. The simpler thing is wait for the fan to come on and turn on everything you can and bring the idle up to 1500 the voltage should be at 14v. If it drops then the alternator is not putting out a full charge.

[GiG]

Please post more info of your groundbreaking fantasy of a load meter. The earthlings would benefit greatly your impeccable knowledge.  Includie make model and detailed procedure  - since it is the only way to diagnose this issue. Also, explain what warm wires mean because Rev  has already explained how batteries discharge within minutes. An intelligent person would deduce something is amiss if battery cables were not warm after a rapid battery discharge.
Reverand - please Do Not mash the starter button for 30seconds, or you w certainly have electro- mechanical issues in addition to the battery ones.
There are many fine folks around here that will gladly assist you, and there has been some good troubleshooting advice given. Just beware, sometimes bad advice gets posted by fraud. please check and clean All connections including grounds. To determine why Rapid  discharge occurs.

[Beer van Huet]

You may want to start with the basics.
If your alternator is providing current, and your negative cable is making good contact with the frame, check for current leakage.
Perhaps not all your electrical stuff is routed through the ignition key switch.
Unplug your negative cable from the battery with the key OFF and put a multimeter in between the negative pole and the connector cable and check the amperes.
If you measure amperes (some mA are usual and no problem), one electrical item is drawing current all the time.
If so, disconnect the fuses and other electrical items one by one to check which one causes the problem.
From there, you can start fixing it.
If not, your problem occurs only when driving. Unlikely, because most of the wiring is protected by fuses.
Check for a short in the wiring (could be anywhere, even in the wiring harness) alternator, ICM, coils or any other item that stops the engine from running properly. Like sidestand switch, kill switch, bank angle switch , neutral switch, etc.

[FryeVRCCDS0067]

Hopefully the bike shop is able to fix it.

If not, I would try a couple of things.

First, remove the seat and side coverers. Start the bike and wiggle every electrical connection, component and wire you see while watching for a reaction. Do the same in the headlight housing.

If no joy, then pull all the fuses that aren't needed for the bike to run. Then start the bike and see if the problem is still there. If's it not, reinstall the fuses one at a time until  the problem returns.

[h13man]

As mentioned many a time here, the ground connection is a common culprit.

[-mike-]

The best budget tool to check battery and alternator is something like this:



Connect to battery, start App, insert Battery data and get results:



It's the first tool I use in my shop whenever a fellow rider comes to my shop with starting/charging issues.

Checking ground cable as said and alternator trigger wire wouldn't hurt, too

I have installed similar boxes

https://www.amazon.de/quicklynks-Monitor-BM2-Bluetooth-4-0-Ger%C3%A4t-Batterietester/dp/B01MT4583U

permanently on all my rides, these give me an early warning on my phone when something with the battery/alternator starts failing.

-mike-