SuzukiSavage.com - Cold Weather Battery Issues

verslagen1

YaBB Moderator
ModSquad

Offline

Where there's a
will, I want to be
in it.

Posts: 28884
L.A. California
Gender: male

Re: Cold Weather Battery Issues
Reply #15 - 12/05/09 at 07:55:59

When it's dam cold, the wt. of your oil will be it's minimum spec. 5, 10 or 15 for the 3 oils I've used.
Crank fired? batt fired? The savage doesn't have a magnito, it has a generator. And until it has sufficient rpm it's running off the battery.
The ignition is voltage sensitive, if you run the battery down or have a bad cell, it will crank but not fire.

Back to top

Versey's Place
Tech Section Index

IP Logged

Charon

Serious Thumper

Offline

Posts: 1811
Harvard, NE
Gender: male

Re: Cold Weather Battery Issues
Reply #16 - 12/05/09 at 08:28:03

With few exceptions, if the motorcycle has any sort of electronic ignition, the ignition is powered by the battery. Once the engine starts and comes up to speed, the alternator/generator will raise the system voltage to above battery level so as to charge the battery. I'm not too sure, but I suspect if the battery voltage is low enough so as not to fire the ignition, push starting probably won't work either. If the battery is marginal, that is its output is sufficient to fire the ignition but drops too low under starter load, a push start might work.

Back to top

Eschew obfuscation.

IP Logged

ero4444

Full Member

Offline

weekender

Posts: 176

Re: Cold Weather Battery Issues
Reply #17 - 12/05/09 at 08:31:27

>> So if its cranking fine, a weak battery shouldn't lessen spark

I posted about my starting issues a while back, where the crank rate sounded fine, and choke/no-choke didn't help, but push-start did work and it ran fine. So the only cause I could see is low battery performance.

After I installed the Big Crank AGM battery, then I have had NO problems with starting and crank rate sounds the same. That is how the issue resolved for me.

Back to top

c2001, 3800miles, 3rd owner, adjusted idle, raised seat, Tkat brace, Raptor petcock, cleaned carb, replaced some jets, Dyna muffler, Fiamm horns, Shinkos, future Ed L. forward controls, fork boots.

IP Logged

Routy

Serious Thumper

Offline

SuzukiSavage.com
Rocks!

Posts: 2280
Winston Oregon
Gender: male

Re: Cold Weather Battery Issues
Reply #18 - 12/05/09 at 09:03:13

Thanks,...and good to know.

There are many engines,.....like most all utility/garden equipment engines are electronic mag fired ignitions that will run w/o a battery, and the only way to shut them off is grounding the magnito.

verslagen1 wrote on 12/05/09 at 07:55:59:

When it's dam cold, the wt. of your oil will be it's minimum spec. 5, 10 or 15 for the 3 oils I've used.
Crank fired? batt fired? The savage doesn't have a magnito, it has a generator. And until it has sufficient rpm it's running off the battery.
The ignition is voltage sensitive, if you run the battery down or have a bad cell, it will crank but not fire.

Back to top

Rich
'07 S40 Blvd stocker, except drilled OEM exhaust and white spacer mod...1/2 (.055)

IP Logged

verslagen1

YaBB Moderator
ModSquad

Offline

Where there's a
will, I want to be
in it.

Posts: 28884
L.A. California
Gender: male

Re: Cold Weather Battery Issues
Reply #19 - 12/05/09 at 09:33:57

Routy wrote on 12/05/09 at 09:03:13:

Thanks,...and good to know.

There are many engines,.....like most all utility/garden equipment engines are electronic mag fired ignitions that will run w/o a battery, and the only way to shut them off is grounding the magnito.

verslagen1 wrote on 12/05/09 at 07:55:59:

When it's dam cold, the wt. of your oil will be it's minimum spec. 5, 10 or 15 for the 3 oils I've used.
Crank fired? batt fired? The savage doesn't have a magnito, it has a generator. And until it has sufficient rpm it's running off the battery.
The ignition is voltage sensitive, if you run the battery down or have a bad cell, it will crank but not fire.

next time you're poking around your lawn mower... don't call me.

Back to top

Versey's Place
Tech Section Index

IP Logged

photojoe FSO

Serious Thumper
Alliance Member

Offline

I did warn you to
brace yourself

Posts: 1379
New Jersey
Gender: male

Re: Cold Weather Battery Issues
Reply #20 - 01/16/10 at 11:04:32

I went down to start my bike for the first time since a couple of weeks before the blizzard a month ago. It's been sitting for probably 6 weeks in freezing temps and blizzard.

I went down with portable jump pack in hand, thinking that there was no way this bike was going to start. Took 2-3 tries (about 15 cranks) and low and behold, she fired up with the Big Crank I bought in 2008. Yeah, get the big crank or another maintenance free battery. So much convenience for a few dollars more.

Back to top

FSO

IP Logged

Oldfeller--FSO

Serious Thumper
ModSquad

Offline

Hobby is now
"concentrated
neuropany"

Posts: 12671
Fayetteville, NC
Gender: male

Re: Cold Weather Battery Issues
Reply #21 - 01/17/10 at 04:02:04

Consider yourself possibly reconsidered.

Assume a very marginal battery (just barely holding a charge).

With decomp solenoid actuated you have a drain on voltage. With starter motor engaged you have some sluggish engine spin, with another big drain on battery voltage/amperage. If volts drop to the nine volt range your black box won't fire the spark right and she won't start. Of course your cranking action stops pretty quick like too, but that goes along with the this "marginal battery" territory.

This is not unique to the Savage -- almost any black box equipped bike that has a starter motor and no kick starter will show this syndrome if the battery is just barely there.

============

Battery float chargers are a good thing -- go get you one. Harbor Freight will sell you one for less than $5 (on sale most times).

Remember, a float charger is intended to maintain the full good charge on a freshly charged battery, not bring one back up from a totally discharged state. Float charges sometimes lack the ass to bring totally flat plates back up to a full charge state all by themselves -- this is known to be true about the little Harbor Freight unit.

People have killed batteries with float chargers when they forget this one little trick -- always start out with a fully charged battery !!

Back to top

Former Savage Owner

IP Logged

Skid Mark

Serious Thumper

Offline

FSO

Posts: 1216
Calgary, Alberta
Gender: male

Re: Cold Weather Battery Issues
Reply #22 - 01/17/10 at 13:40:10

Its been a couple months thru some -30c weather. Its -3c today. Went out and fired the Wee Beastie up. It took 6 or 7 hits till it fired. Then 5 minutes of holding the idle high with the throttle to keep it running. One it was warmed up ran like a charm till I shut it down. I'll be trying to do this more often to keep the oil circulated and the battery charged. Also I put the petcock off of the run setting. This ensures the carb is getting a good initial flow of gas as it would be bone dry from sitting so long. I'm going back out to the garage now to ensure I put the petcock back to the run setting. Very satisfing to see the bike is running well.

Back to top

2008 S40 , Windshield, Sigma Cycle Computer, after market backrest & luggage rack, Tkat Fork Brace, saddlebags, 12v power supply, Garmin GPS
'09 C50SE, '09 C90
Shoulda got into this years ago

IP Logged