So, I just finished putting together my 351 (for the second time, faulty head gasket). The bike started up fine and ran no problem. I went for a 30 km ride and stopped for lunch. On the way home, I was riding about 110km, when the bike surged and I switched to reserve. I made it into a gas station and the bike just died. I still had a good amount of fuel. Anyways I filled her up and the bike would barely crank over. The clock actually reset as if though the battery was disconnected. I had my buddies push start me and I made it home. I put the bike on the charger overnight. Went for a ride today, bike started up no problem. I went 100ft down the road and the bike died. I tried starting it, and same thing as yesterday, it felt like the battery was dead, and the clock reset again. I brought the bike home and checked the battery voltage, it was 11.8v. Any ideas why the bike is acting like it has a dead battery? Once I got the bike running again, I cranked it to 5,000rpm, and the battery was reading 13.8v. Is this enough voltage? Any help or ideas would be appreciated, thanks.

 

Hi

Sounds like the bike has a charging fault. Possible regulator/reftifier issues or the gererator is faulty.

Just a few ideas

 

what year ?

Rectifier mod ?

 

It's a 2009. And yes I did try the rectifier mod, but when it died the first time, I put everything back to stock.

 

Sounds like the battery to me. 13.8 volts sounds about right, so your charging.
How old is your battery?
marc

 

It's the stock battery. The bike ran fine last season. I didn't start the bike all winter, did the rebuild to 351, and this was the first time I rode it this year.

 

Did you recheck all the electrical connections? Slightly loose ground etc etc

Did the battery just sit all winter or did it have a trickle charger? Outside, inside?

 

It sounds like your battery is cactus. Is it 11.8v with key on, headlight on? The circuit should be loaded when checking battery voltage. A multimeter is low impedence and will not load up...

 

Your battery is toast.

 

The bike was stored in an unheated garage, without a trickle charger. And yes it was 11.8v with key on, lights on. It dropped to 11.5 after about 3 seconds of cranking the engine over.