Losing charge on '98 valk

[chickenman]

My brother rides a '98 valk, he does not ride alot. The problem is" he replaced his battery two years back. We have ridden about 2000 miles in this time. He maintains his batt. with a battery tender yet when he did get to ride today the battery did not have enough juice to roll the mill. We jumped his valk off and it ran great but when he kills it he can't get it to start.

[John U.]

Has he checked that his connections are in good shape, including the ground to the block. He may have an alternator problem. A new battery should be fully charged before being place in service. If this initial charge isn't done the battery will not be able to take a full charge and it's life will be shortened. If the battery has been allowed to discharge completely the plates will sulphate more each time this happens. The sulphate deposits will also inhibit charge and discharge. If the connections are cleaned and battery still won't start the bike after being connected to a charger overnight it doesn't look good for that battery.

[chrise2469]

Get a volt meter and see what the battery voltage is.  Like John U said, if it was never charged right the first time it will likely be dead.

I had a battery that was on a tender and it gave a good green charge light.   When I measured the voltage 12.8v, one crank and it was down to 9.6v and the battery is toast.

Here is a table that shows the charge vs voltage


Next start the bike either by jumping from a non-running car or from your bike.  Measure the voltage at the battery. You should have between 13.6-14.2 volts .  If this is good you have a bad battery.  If its below this you need to start checking your charging circuit.

Hope this helps