1975 CB400F
SHORAI LFX 14L2-BA12 (cca: 210, polarity: [-+]
Rick’s Reg/Rec 14-100 (“Lithium Ion Battery Compatible Reg/Rec)
Stator is stock
Running all LED lights, even the headlight
There have been dumb occasions when my Shorai battery has fallen below 12V - trying to get the bike started from a stall (part of a separate idle issue I seem to be having recently) and the voltage set point on Rick’s reg/rec seems to then maintain at that lower reading and not at 14V +/- 0.2 like it should. The volt reading does increase with higher RPM but I still don’t think it’s correct because it maintains a charge at a lower voltage.
Using Shorai’s charger (SHO-BMS01) and connecting in Store Mode is the only way I can get the battery back up to about 13.3V (resting voltage).
Looking into this, I stumbled upon some parasitic draw coming from the power connection to my Koso T&T speedo/tach; some 11V and up of drain utilizing the instructions provided by Shorai below:
KEY-OFF DRAW, or PARASITIC LOAD: This is almost always the culprit behind batteries discharging while not in use. While the Shorai LFX
battery has a very slow discharge rate (it will hold at or above 13.1V for approximately 1 year without a load), if installed in a vehicle the electrical system draw can discharge the battery over time. Standard draw is about 1-3 mAh on modern motorcycles, with some vehicles having as high as 20-30mA! Damage due to overdischarge is not a manufacturing defect and is not covered under warranty.
How much does YOUR bike having running in the background?
Switch your Digital Multimeter to DC mA, 20m/mA is usually sufficient unless you have a considerable key-off draw—if so switch it to 200m/mA.
Disconnect the negative terminal from the battery to your motorcycle. Do not touch the positive terminal connection. Keep it as is, covered and protected.
Place the Negative (black) Multimeter probe on the negative post of the battery and the Positive (red) probe on the ground wire (and together with any others that were connected to it; accessories like a Power Commander or alarm, lights). You may hold the ground/negative wires together with your hand when checking, it will not shock you.
The digital readout should read no more than 4 to 5 mA. If the reading is higher than 4-5 mA, the vehicle will need more frequent charging. Most motorcycles are less than 1 mA.
Accessories such as GPS, computers, and grip warmers which are left on, and even stock anti-theft deterrents will discharge your battery extremely fast. Please ascertain all non-anti-theft, or non-essential device accessories can be turned off and note that you will need to charge your battery more often while using even the factory anti-theft device.
Now I’m sort of at a loss because both the battery and reg/rec are fairly new and I’ve hit quite a low voltage on the lithium battery which is detrimental. I currently have the battery on Store Mode and it appears to be at a nice 13.3V Should I take this up with Rick’s or with Shorai? Any ideas here? Stator? Ignition switch?
Before this recent battery and reg/rec replacement I had a Shorai LFX 14A2-BA12 (this had a +/- polarity, reverse of what the 14L2 has) and a Rick’s OEM style Honda reg/rec 10-100 and despite it reaching close to 15V while riding, the battery kept up for at least a year before it gave up.
Is the way that I have the Koso connected to my solenoid some issue? I tried connecting it to ignition 12V and this won’t do since turning the bike off shuts the Koso off completely, clearing its memory (clock and trips) each time.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
