robbiecampbellsoup
XS400 Enthusiast
Hey Folks,
I just picked up a 1983 Maxim XS400 from a nice fellow locally - it rode decently well on a test ride and the price was pretty good so I picked it up - I knew the battery wasn't holding a charge on it when I was looking at the bike, but I was hoping that it was just a case of a super old battery - however I think it might be more than that after I didn't quite make my ride home - I am assuming that typically the bikes can run themselves without a battery when they are already running (Am I wrong?).
I guess I'm looking for pointers on where to start and next steps.
Here's what I've done so far:
1. Got it back to my shop finally (a bit of bump starting and then pushing)
2. Put the battery to a multimeter, 11.86V pretty flat.
3. Put the battery on a power supply at a charge voltage of 14V - 2A, battery immediately went to 14V with less than 0.01A current. Battery must have massive internal resistance (I assume that this means it's sulfated to crap)
4. I replaced the battery with a new one - it's currently doing an initial charge to 13.5V at a charge current of 0.5A.
Here's what I think I need to check:
0. Are things plugged in and or corroded?
1. Is the stator/generator outputting AC voltage?
2. Is the rectifier putting out DC voltage?
Any tips/pointers on what else to check would be greatly appreciated - otherwise I'll default to reading manual and fudging around (which would waste time if I'm overlooking something simple).
The old dead battery lasted me about 30min of riding around before I started to lose power and the bike would just die (this is what makes me think there's something up with the charging system, as wouldnt the bike normally be able to power it's own ignition system?? if the engine is already idling??)
Thank you for your time!
-Robbie
I just picked up a 1983 Maxim XS400 from a nice fellow locally - it rode decently well on a test ride and the price was pretty good so I picked it up - I knew the battery wasn't holding a charge on it when I was looking at the bike, but I was hoping that it was just a case of a super old battery - however I think it might be more than that after I didn't quite make my ride home - I am assuming that typically the bikes can run themselves without a battery when they are already running (Am I wrong?).
I guess I'm looking for pointers on where to start and next steps.
Here's what I've done so far:
1. Got it back to my shop finally (a bit of bump starting and then pushing)
2. Put the battery to a multimeter, 11.86V pretty flat.
3. Put the battery on a power supply at a charge voltage of 14V - 2A, battery immediately went to 14V with less than 0.01A current. Battery must have massive internal resistance (I assume that this means it's sulfated to crap)
4. I replaced the battery with a new one - it's currently doing an initial charge to 13.5V at a charge current of 0.5A.
Here's what I think I need to check:
0. Are things plugged in and or corroded?
1. Is the stator/generator outputting AC voltage?
2. Is the rectifier putting out DC voltage?
Any tips/pointers on what else to check would be greatly appreciated - otherwise I'll default to reading manual and fudging around (which would waste time if I'm overlooking something simple).
The old dead battery lasted me about 30min of riding around before I started to lose power and the bike would just die (this is what makes me think there's something up with the charging system, as wouldnt the bike normally be able to power it's own ignition system?? if the engine is already idling??)
Thank you for your time!
-Robbie
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