battery drain

[nascar7613]

2007 Dyna Low Rider drains the battery while sitting with the ignition off. The ignition switch felt like the insides were worn so replaced it with a new one, replaced the battery with a new Deka battery, let the bike sit over the weekend and it drained the battery down to 11.5 volts from 12.8 volts. I did an amp draw test and found that pulling the main 40a fuse or the battery fuse were the only fuses that stopped the draw. Just wondering if anyone here has had the same symptoms and what the end result was.

 

[biscuit]

Do you have any electrical accessories fitted to your bike?
Like radios or sound systems or CBs or navigation systems?
And has this just occurred or is this a “normal” occurrence?
Have you fitted any electrical accessories to your bike?
Anything that is different? Like recently different?
How confident are you that you installed the new Ignition Switch correctly? Did you have this draw before you installed the new switch?

All fuel injected vehicles have a ‘Parasitic’ electrical draw- ECUs, clocks, alarms etc. But, these are ever present. If you’ve pulled the main fuse,and that stops the drain,then your parasitic draw is w-a-y over the top.
If this has just started, then you should instead check if any recent additions are responsible.
If your bike is unaltered, then you need to check for for current drain.
You’ll either need an Ammeter or a Clamp-on Ammeter.
With your key off, and any alarm system disabled; remove the positive wire from the battery and hook up your Ammeter. Positive wire of Ammeter (red) to positive battery terminal and negative wire of Ammeter ( black) to the disconnected positive lead.( This is a “Series” connection.)
Any load goes through the Ammeter and will register on the screen.
If you have a “Clamp-on” style of Ammeter, then you only have to put the clamp around the positive wire from the battery to the starter solenoid or main fuse. Or wherever it goes- the main thing is the clamp goes around the lead from the positive terminal of the battery.
You should only have milliamperes as a parasitic draw. If your battery is draining over a couple of days then
your draw will be more.
Pull individual fuses so you can- hopefully -isolate whichever circuit has a fault.
Start from this and let us know what you find.

 

[gator508]

Biscuit has you covered on this. Unless you had the drain prior to the switch change, I would check to see if your installation is correct, good luck!

 

[nascar7613]

Do you have any electrical accessories fitted to your bike?
Like radios or sound systems or CBs or navigation systems?
And has this just occurred or is this a “normal” occurrence?
Have you fitted any electrical accessories to your bike?
Anything that is different? Like recently different?
How confident are you that you installed the new Ignition Switch correctly? Did you have this draw before you installed the new switch?

All fuel injected vehicles have a ‘Parasitic’ electrical draw- ECUs, clocks, alarms etc. But, these are ever present. If you’ve pulled the main fuse,and that stops the drain,then your parasitic draw is w-a-y over the top.
If this has just started, then you should instead check if any recent additions are responsible.
If your bike is unaltered, then you need to check for for current drain.
You’ll either need an Ammeter or a Clamp-on Ammeter.
With your key off, and any alarm system disabled; remove the positive wire from the battery and hook up your Ammeter. Positive wire of Ammeter (red) to positive battery terminal and negative wire of Ammeter ( black) to the disconnected positive lead.( This is a “Series” connection.)
Any load goes through the Ammeter and will register on the screen.
If you have a “Clamp-on” style of Ammeter, then you only have to put the clamp around the positive wire from the battery to the starter solenoid or main fuse. Or wherever it goes- the main thing is the clamp goes around the lead from the positive terminal of the battery.
You should only have milliamperes as a parasitic draw. If your battery is draining over a couple of days then
your draw will be more.
Pull individual fuses so you can- hopefully -isolate whichever circuit has a fault.
Start from this and let us know what you find.

Do you have any electrical accessories fitted to your bike?
Like radios or sound systems or CBs or navigation systems?
And has this just occurred or is this a “normal” occurrence?
Have you fitted any electrical accessories to your bike?
Anything that is different? Like recently different?
How confident are you that you installed the new Ignition Switch correctly? Did you have this draw before you installed the new switch?

All fuel injected vehicles have a ‘Parasitic’ electrical draw- ECUs, clocks, alarms etc. But, these are ever present. If you’ve pulled the main fuse,and that stops the drain,then your parasitic draw is w-a-y over the top.
If this has just started, then you should instead check if any recent additions are responsible.
If your bike is unaltered, then you need to check for for current drain.
You’ll either need an Ammeter or a Clamp-on Ammeter.
With your key off, and any alarm system disabled; remove the positive wire from the battery and hook up your Ammeter. Positive wire of Ammeter (red) to positive battery terminal and negative wire of Ammeter ( black) to the disconnected positive lead.( This is a “Series” connection.)
Any load goes through the Ammeter and will register on the screen.
If you have a “Clamp-on” style of Ammeter, then you only have to put the clamp around the positive wire from the battery to the starter solenoid or main fuse. Or wherever it goes- the main thing is the clamp goes around the lead from the positive terminal of the battery.
You should only have milliamperes as a parasitic draw. If your battery is draining over a couple of days then
your draw will be more.
Pull individual fuses so you can- hopefully -isolate whichever circuit has a fault.
Start from this and let us know what you find.

There are no accessories added to the bike. The drain was present before the ignition switch change. The switch is the type that is mounted in the frame by the steering neck. It has a three wire plug that connects directly to the switch itself and there is only one way it can be connected. The bike does not have an alarm system. When I checked for the amp draw, I disconnected the negative battery cable and tested between the cable and battery post, I am going to retest using the positive side and let you know the results. Thank you guys for responding!

 

[ThunderRogue]

Do you have a battery tender?

 

[nascar7613]

I retested the amp draw using the positive side and the results were the same. I can't get a reading using the milliamp scale. I do get a reading using the 10A scale. With the knob at the 200m scale and the tester lead plugged into the 10A receptacle with all the fuses in, I get a reading of 1.0. If I remove the main fuse or the battery fuse, the reading goes to zero. Removing each of the other fuses one at a time the reading stays at 1.0. Removing all of the fuses and relays except the main fuse and battery fuse the reading stays at 1.0. I assume the next step would be to start unplugging harness connectors.

 

[nascar7613]

I unplugged the stator, regulator and ecm, no difference. Then I unplugged the tach and the draw went from 1.0 down to .6. Then I unplugged the speedometer and the draw went from .6 down to .1. I don't see anything obvious wrong with the wiring going to the tach & speedo, but something must be going on there somewhere.

 

[liquid_wrench]

Seems like something shorting at the speedo/tach harness? .1 to .2 sounds about normal draw....I think, if I remember right.

 

[biscuit]

I unplugged the stator, regulator and ecm, no difference. Then I unplugged the tach and the draw went from 1.0 down to .6. Then I unplugged the speedometer and the draw went from .6 down to .1. I don't see anything obvious wrong with the wiring going to the tach & speedo, but something must be going on there somewhere.

I was going to suggest you test your charging system next.
See if your stator and voltage regulator are working correctly. You should see 14.2-14.7vdc or thereabouts at the battery at, say, 2000rpm. This proves the stator and v/r are ok and charging correctly.
I’ve attached a copy from my Softail manual about how to check them. And another picture showing how the test probes go into the stator socket. Unfortunately this pic is upside down! Sorry.
Hopefully it may still show enough detail for you.


I also read this item about how a faulty voltage regulator can easily draw down a battery overnight:
-An easy regulator diode test is with a low voltage test light. Touch each pin in the regulator connector from a good ground with the tester, if the light comes on the diode is bad. Faulty diodes will cause the battery to drain out even with the ignition off.
Note- I didn’t write this and am not claiming I did. It was someone smarter than me.
But it may assist you.
However: I have to wonder about your findings with the Tach.and Speedo.
These would be protected by a fuse somewhere - I don’t know exactly what fuse it would be: but, if you pulled that fuse then the draw should’ve stopped.
What did you mean when you said you unplugged the Speedo and Tach? From what? An inline connector or something like that?
Either way, to my thinking, removing a fuse or removing a connection will still isolate a fault.

 

[gator508]

An off the wall suggestion, see if there is any corrosion in the fuse box,I had that happen once and the battery was nearly dead. I took some lite emery paper and cleaned all the contacts never had the problem again.