Topic: 1974 CB 550 - Battery Voltage/How long before it dies

[Jzuba550]

My Friends,

I am working through the wiring of my bike and have completed all connections, cleaned grounds, and made sure everything was wired correctly. I have a new Ricks motor sport regulator rectifier for the bike, and everything else is stock. When I put a full charge into my battery I plug it in connect Pos/neg and it rests at about 12.5 volts. When I push the starter about 5-7 times for ~ 3 seconds it kills my battery and the starter wont turn over. The lights get dim as well, and the gauges don't even light up. My questions is..is this normal? After I have spun the starter a couple of times my battery drops down to about 11.4 volts. Is that really not enough to spin the starter?

I have tested 3 good batteries to this point, and the same result on all of them. 

Any feedback is much appreciated!

Thanks

[strynboen]

test the solonid..intern korosion can make a lot of heat..so the full voltage nog goes through..short the terminals vill give a thrue idea..of it vorks or not..
ground vire pulls the same load as the positive..so need to be as perfekt as the rest of the vires..
no heat build up at any konnektors??
a old type accid battery at 12 ah vill turn the starter effektivt dovn to 10 volt..
but modern  types dies at low/heigh- as 11- 12 volt..

[Jzuba550]

Thanks for the reply! The solenoid was what I was thinking as well but it does NOT heat up at all. I took the connectors off and gave it a good clean but didn't solve the problem. Its a sealed Gel cell Battery too.

[flybox1]

A GOOD, charged battery should read north of 12.6v, 2 hours after coming off a charger.
Anything less than 12.6, and its not holding a complete charge. 

[Jzuba550]

It was 12.6-12.5. Sat all night after the charge. BRAND NEW battery

[flybox1]

Charger your battery again, and check after 2 hrs rest.

[Jzuba550]

I will do more battery tests, if I switched to electric ignition instead of the points system is that less stress on the battery?