Routy wrote on 06/06/10 at 16:46:38:First of all, disconnect one of the battery cables, then verify that the battery is fully charged,....and if it ain't, charge it. Yes, you need a voltmeter, or a charger that shows when its full charged. If it doesn't stay charged w/ cable disconnected, the battery is bad !
If the battery stays charged, then the battery is most likely good. Then connect one of the battery cables if it isn't already. After making sure everything on the bike is turned off, touch the last batt cable to the post on the battery and look for any continued sparking (best to do at night) if you see any continued sparking....no matter how small, there is a short somewhere in the electrical system. If no sparking, everything should be ok.
I have this feeling that the battery was not charged properly. Just because a battery starts the bike, that don't mean it was anywhere near full charged. Most battery failure is caused from sitting around 1/2 dead all the time, even if you ride the bike on short trips quite often. If the bike is not run for at least an hour or 2 everytime you start it, the battery state of charge is slowly going down hill, till all of a sudden one day it won't start. Sound kinda like your problem ?
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Yea it does sound kinda like it. It's not my daily driver so it only gets ridden on my days off fora few hours. I'm at work, but once I'm off tonight I'll head over to wal mart and buy a charger and a voltometer cuz I couldn't find mine anywhere earlier. But just to verify, when I disconnect the cable to check if it charges, am I looking for it to say 12volts? And does it matter which one I take off? I hope it's the battery man, but it's only a month old!