Ski won't charge battery?

[x-jetter]

What causes a ski to not charge a battery? I don't think mine is because my battery is dead again, from a full charge 2 weeks ago. I might possibly have a bad relay or battery cables. if one of those were bad would it drain the battery when it's just sitting there? or do i have a bigger problem, like a bad stator or enhancer?

 

[CG Racing]

I would just unhook the battery after each ride to see if it has a slow drain. Start there before you assume the worst. Possibly try a different battery also.

 

[Mouthfulloflake]

I would measure the battery with the ski off ( use a $10 digital meter) it will show like 12.7 volts or something....

then crank the ski and check the voltage at the battery while revving it.

it should show 14 volts or so.

if it does that, it is charging, if it doesnt, then you need to check your stator

 

[JimTMich]

I had a relay that got soaked and it drained the battery after a week or two. Seems odd, but that was what the problem turned out to be on my ski. It wasn't showing infinate ohms between the two be terminals, that's how I found it. It would charge just fine like mouthfulloflake said so I knew it wasn't the charging circuit.

 

[x-jetter]

hmmmmm well i have a brand new relay and a different battery, so i'll try both and see what's up tomorrow. the local dealer 'load tested' (whatever that means) my battery and said it was perfectly fine, so i guess it isn't that? yamasaki, i actually do have a hard time starting it, it always seems flooded when i start it, even from a cold start, but that's probably just a tuning problem. it's an odyssey battery, but it hasn't been sitting for a long time. i rode for about 2 hours yesterday and then went to start it up today and it was dead.

 

[sflsurfrider]

as mentioned earlier, check the voltage across the terminal both with the ski off and on and compare the two. thatll tell you if its charging. if its charging, your batt is bad. if its not charging, it could be a stator or regulator/rectifier. i had a prob with my SJ similar to yours. when i cranked it, it would sound as if the bendix is intermittantly engaging.... but only when the boots were on the plugs. remove the boots and it cranked solid. once it started, it always ran fine, but never charged itself. turned out, it was the ground wire coming from the stator in the e-box. the conductor opened up inside the insulation and was arcing.

 

[keefer]

The Odyssey is a AGM battery, you have to use a charger that has a AGM setting or else you will fry the battery. I also heard of a few guys having problems with the Odyssey batteries lately. I run a Deka AGM battery and it has performed well for going on 3 years now. If the battery is in fact good then you might have a faulty rectifier module. This is the small black box inside of the electical box. Be sure and check the battery voltage like mentioned in the previous post for around 14v after starting and while revving the ski.

 

[crammit442]

If you have a parasitic drain you will normally get a spark when you connect the battery cable to the battery. What are you using for a bilge switch? The bar mounted version is known to be a slow drain culprit.

Charles

 

[keefer]

You could also temporarily connect a meter with a amperage setting in series with the positive cable and the battery. Begin with the 10 amp setting and work your way down. Usually DVMs have something like a 10, 2, and .2 DC amp setting. Be sure that nothing is powered up like the bilge and do not hit the starter switch or you will overload the meter. You should not see any current flow if all devices are off. This will check for any parasitic drain like crammit spoke of. Good luck.

 

[sflsurfrider]

yeah that

 

[x-jetter]

i'm running the 3 position rotary switch. thanks for all the suggestions, i guess i'm gonna have to suck it up and but some sort of voltmeter.

 

[douglee25]

You could also temporarily connect a meter with a amperage setting in series with the positive cable and the battery. Begin with the 10 amp setting and work your way down. Usually DVMs have something like a 10, 2, and .2 DC amp setting. Be sure that nothing is powered up like the bilge and do not hit the starter switch or you will overload the meter. You should not see any current flow if all devices are off. This will check for any parasitic drain like crammit spoke of. Good luck.

This is right on the money for testing if you have a drain on the circuit. Like SFL mentioned, check battery voltage with the ski off and the ski on. Should be like 14 volts and change with the ski running.

Doug

 

[WAB]

Hey, I just joined the non-charging ski club last week! Hope you don't mind if I put my situation in.

I took my battery in to get tested at a local auto parts store and it was fine. They hook it up and simulate a cranking pull on the battery multiple times to see if it holds charge.
My wiring box looked ok, clean & dry inside, so I moved on to the stator. I found out that the 2 screws that hold the stator to the case had loosened up, and was letting the stator plate shift around. I was happy to see that the 2 screws did not come completly out or contact the spinning flywheel. I can't believe it even ran or lasted long running like that though. I'm assuming that the plate was also rotating with the spinning flywheel to the retard point and affecting my bottom end response.
The coils on my stator look ok as far as the coil's wire windings. But, there is some wear on the actual pickups themselves where the flywheel's magnets were rubbing the pickups.
I hope the coils are ok, but I will find out soon.
just found how to do it.
Scroll down to the #last post on this thread> http://www.x-h2o.com/threads/2300&highlight=stator+coil+test
:biggthumpup:

 

[douglee25]

I fixed my buddies ski about 2 months ago. His ski didn't have spark and I know for a fact that the battery wouldn't have charged.

Cause?

Solder joints broken on the stator assembly. Give a small tug on each wire on the stator. Just because it looks like it's on there doesn't mean it is.

Doug

 

[Idok]

if youve been into your electrical box lately maybe you forgot to plug in your rectifier.....

that happened to me a few months ago...I got in a hurry, and the ski would run great...but I'd kill the batt by the end of the day..

 

[x-jetter]

okay so it's not the battery, because it only took about 15 minutes to charge on a 1 amp setting. i went out and got a voltmeter and it reads 13.8v. so it looks like i'm back to my same electrical issues i was having a few weeks ago. my battery is good, my starter is good, my relay is brand new, and i tried a known good cdi and still the same. so it pretty much has to be the battery cables. what exactly do i do to know if there's something wrong with the battery cables? the voltmeter i got can measure voltage, continuity, amperage, and resistance, so which do i use to know if my cables are bad?

 

[x-jetter]

oh yea and when i opened the electrical box i got a nice steady flow of water out of it :banghead:

 

[douglee25]

oh yea and when i opened the electrical box i got a nice steady flow of water out of it :banghead:

There you go then. Sucks bro. Good luck.

Doug

 

[x-jetter]

well i still know it's the battery cables, because i switched out the relay and cdi after i discovered the water and dried it out. so i need to know how to test them and what reading is good and what is bad?

 

[Mouthfulloflake]

take the battery cables off, clean each end and each connection with a wire brush.

inspect each cable look for melted rubber on the cables, or greenish corrosion on the ends.

if you dont find any, the cables are more than likely good.