Greetings! I bought my '87 Savage a few years ago and after a few months, I didn't do much riding. Now I have the itch to get her out and hit the highway again. A few months before I parked the bike (in the fall of '05) I installed a brand new sealed battery. Of course, when I got the bike out the other day, the battery was totally dead. (Yes, I knew better but I did leave the battery in the bike in a cold shed for two consecutive winters!)

Now, the battery refuses to take a charge. I have one of those chargers that detects the state of the battery and this one thinks the battery is fully charged even though it is not. I read somewhere to "trick" the charger by momentarily connecting another battery in series to get it charging. When I do that, the charging light does come on, but goes out as soon as I remove the good battery. I even borrowed a "dumb" trickle charger and left it connected overnight, but still the battery took no charge at all.

Does it sound like I ruined my new battery? Any way to absolutely confirm this before I plunk down another $60 for a new one? Everything I have found to revive a battery applies to non-sealed batteries.

Thanks for the reply. The battery is indeed bad, so I have a new one ordered.