Bike will not start up! =(

[Easy Rider]

Originally Posted by dentheman

Now I'm confused, you say the battery tender is not a charger.

He shouldn't have said that. It is not correct.....as the literature with your "tender" clearly states.

It will not attempt to charge a stone-cold dead battery; that is true.

A "normal" charger will blindly try to charge anything it is connected to.

On rare occasions, a normal charger will recover a completely dead battery but that is rather rare. A battery so recovered actually lasting more than a couple of weeks is even more rare.

[Vansky]

WOW!!!!!!! I can't not believe this! I think I may have found my problem. After going through in my head all day what I did when i replaced parts...I kept thinking spark plug....I believe I gaped the plug too much. Lucky I bought a spare just in case this happened. Once I get my battery recharged I'll post an update. Thank you all who have helped so far.

[blaine]

Originally Posted by Vansky

WOW!!!!!!! I can't not believe this! I think I may have found my problem. After going through in my head all day what I did when i replaced parts...I kept thinking spark plug....I believe I gaped the plug too much. Lucky I bought a spare just in case this happened. Once I get my battery recharged I'll post an update. Thank you all who have helped so far.

You can take out the plug and regap it.No need to replace it unless you want to.

:roll:

[Vansky]

Okay GZ250 IS UP! re-gaped my spark plug and charged my battery and she zip up right away! Rode my bike around for about 10 mins...hope that keeps the charge over night...

[blaine]

Originally Posted by Vansky

Okay GZ250 IS UP! re-gaped my spark plug and charged my battery and she zip up right away! Rode my bike around for about 10 Min's...hope that keeps the charge over night...

:2tup: Great.What kind of battery charger did you buy?If the battery loses it's charge over night you will need a new one.

[Easy Rider]

Originally Posted by blaine

Great.What kind of battery charger did you buy?If the battery loses it's charge over night you will need a new one.

And/or get the charging system tested.

We just had another GZer report needing a new stator and regulator.
I think that might be a first for us here.

[mrlmd1]

A simple test to see if your charging system is working is to measure the battery voltage at rest, then start up the bike and rev it to at least 3000 rpms and measure the voltage across the battery terminals while the bike is running. You will see if your charging system works or not by the voltage coming out.

[alanmcorcoran]

To clarify my comment above - the people at Battery Tender are the ones that advised me against using a battery tender to charge my battery when I let it run down (in the park setting once, and once with the headlight on.) They told me falt out it would not work to charge it back up. one of the scenarios mentioned above is that the bike might have been left in park. A Battery Tender (at least according to the Battery Tender) folks would not fix that situation. But Battery Charger would. Thus, my comment - a battery tender is not a battery charger.

[dentheman]

Originally Posted by alanmcorcoran

To clarify my comment above - the people at Battery Tender are the ones that advised me against using a battery tender to charge my battery when I let it run down (in the park setting once, and once with the headlight on.) They told me falt out it would not work to charge it back up. one of the scenarios mentioned above is that the bike might have been left in park. A Battery Tender (at least according to the Battery Tender) folks would not fix that situation. But Battery Charger would. Thus, my comment - a battery tender is not a battery charger.

I went to the Battery Tender site and pulled up their instructions, which state it will not charge a battery with less than 3 volts (it won't even come on). I am not a battery expert so I wonder if any charger will bring back a battery that is that discharged?

[alanmcorcoran]

Originally Posted by dentheman

I went to the Battery Tender site and pulled up their instructions, which state it will not charge a battery with less than 3 volts (it won't even come on). I am not a battery expert so I wonder if any charger will bring back a battery that is that discharged?

Yes, they will. As long as the battery is still chargeable. I have run both my Strat and my GZ battery down to 0 (no click, no light, no nothing) and brought them both back to life with a simple Manny, Moe and Jack (pep boys) charger. They have been running fine for over a year since. (I'm not a battery expert either. Mrlmd and Easy know more than I do and I think they'll agree with me.)

Battery tender people told me if the charge was DOWN more than 3 volts the tender wouldn't work. Maybe I misunderstood, but the lady basically told me not to buy their product, and to buy a charger. I bought a tender (in addition to the charger) anyway, but I haven't even opened it up yet. That was over a year ago. The charger I've used three times successfully.