Importance of a fully charged battery

here is my Harley. now that we have gotten WAY off track. LOL!

Yea, it's off topic but it keeps his thread active while we wait to hear back from him. LoL Nice looking bike. Sportster if I'm not mistaken. When I bought my 81, my girlfriend (and future ex wife) had a 1980 "bowling pin" sportster as we called it. I think it was the last year that AMF owned and built harleys.

JMichael said:

Yea, it's off topic but it keeps his thread active while we wait to hear back from him. LoL Nice looking bike. Sportster if I'm not mistaken. When I bought my 81, my girlfriend (and future ex wife) had a 1980 "bowling pin" sportster as we called it. I think it was the last year that AMF owned and built harleys.

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the good ole AMF bikes. yes it is a 2007 sporty. i love it. all i need.

Hey Pappy, any truth to this? Never try and start a FITCH or E-Tech outboard with a low battery. It can damage the ECU.

???

Pappy, that is my 1981 KZ 1000 LTD (K1). I've installed some Kuryakyn grips and different mirrors since that picture was taken, but other than that, it still looks the same. I like the styling of those Valkyrie. Looks like a nice bike for taking long trips.

nowgrn4 said:

Hey Pappy, any truth to this? Never try and start a FITCH or E-Tech outboard with a low battery. It can damage the ECU.

???

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never heard that before. is it in the owners manual somewhere?

You would need to know what year the motor is and research whether it has electronic fuel injection or other computer controlled functions. If it's just a carburetor/ magneto motor the battery condition will not affect the running performance. A dead cell in the battery will likewise not affect it. As long as the battery is grounded and can accept the current from the charging circuit, running the motor will not damage it (the fact that the motor was started proves it had a complete circuit).

My guess is you have carb problems unless this is a later model motor with a DC stator type electronic ignition. In that case your problem is that your charging circuit is likely malfunctioning. Once the engine is running the stator should generate more than enough energy to power the ignition unless it is not working correctly.

lovedr79 said:

nowgrn4 said:

Hey Pappy, any truth to this? Never try and start a FITCH or E-Tech outboard with a low battery. It can damage the ECU.

???

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never heard that before. is it in the owners manual somewhere?

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I had a IMHO very knowledgeable older Gentleman that works in management at a local BRP dealership tell me this.

That sounds a little odd. So I guess they sell alot of ecu's?

One problem I ran into with a 1992 Boston Whaler Rage with the Yamaha 650 motor was the weak battery cooked the points in the solenoid so trying to start it was a crapshoot. It took me a while to diagnose what was wrong. Nothing worse then turning the key and getting the dreaded click, click. I'm not sure if a weak battery could affect the electrical while running, but if the key is in the running position, I would think it's trying to power all the accessories and run the engine would could possibly lead to a power shortage somewhere.

lovedr79 said:

I can tell you for a fact that a 1971 Honda SL70 with battery and kick start will not run without a battery. I do not know all of the specifics of the OP's OB. More importantly is what has the OP done since they started this thread.

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That SL has a battery excited field and the ignition runs off this type of charging system. Once its started it will run with no battery.

Some charging systems have a voltage regulator in parallel with the battery. Anything over 13.4dc or something gets dumped to ground. If no battery the regulator dumps all to ground.

OMG you guys I am so sorry I fell off the face of the freaking earth. Long story and maybe we talk about it some other time.

Back to the boat. I put my charger on the battery and it's this digital kind of charger from Craftman. It charged the rest of that day, all night and most of the next day until I took the charger off the terminals and charged a different battery to see if my charger was bad. It charged the second battery so I put it back on my first battery. Now... It charged the rest of the day again, over night again and that morning it said it was at 90% charge and I unplugged it. I have not had a chance to get it back on the lake to see if it's running correctly.

The guy I had do the carbs says he tested it under load and it ran fine. I could try just running it on the ear muffs and see if it does it.

I'm so sorry it has taken me this long to get back to you guys... Great bikes though. LOL...