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Author Topic: Low battery, can it cause power loss at high RPM's?  (Read 5664 times)

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Offline shizzomynizzo

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Low battery, can it cause power loss at high RPM's?
« on: May 24, 2009, 07:15:47 PM »
I ran into a ditch last night as a result of a Fuc#!n Douchebag not looking both ways. I'm alright, the bike is alright for the most part too.

Anyway after taking a few minutes to get up, have a smoke and get on with my life, the bike would not start with the electric start. (as if the battery was drained from me leaving the lights on for a few minutes). On the ride home I noticed every time I would hit 5500 - 6000 rpms, depending on what gear I was in, there would be a power loss, as if it was not getting enough fuel. half throttle seemed fine, but at wide open, it stuttered and hesitated. I figured maybe some garbage got knocked loose in the tank. Today I pulled off the tank, removed the petcock, and the screen was clear. Fuel was flowing normally.

I know these bikes are kinda weird regarding a few things, well how their set up. I know you have to have a bit of charge to start them even if you're kicking, and when you pull in the clutch, you cannot kick it over.

Anyway,
QUESTION: Could the low battery be causing a loss of power at high RPM's?  ???

I was thinking about the coils needing a good charge to spark it to start it, makes sense to me that it would need a stronger charge to run at higher rpms to burn fuel faster. Right? ???

Just asking before I go out and buy a nice trickle charger. I have an old 10/12/50 amp battery charger, but that does little good at putting a good charge in these small batteries. Money is kinda tight right now, and I cannot spare even 30-40 bucks on something that is not going to help me, so before I waste my money I figured I would ask.


Thanks for lookin and the help on advance ;D
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Offline Hush

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Re: Low battery, can it cause power loss at high RPM's?
« Reply #1 on: May 24, 2009, 08:03:28 PM »
These old bikes def like a fully charged battery, how about charging the battery to full and then riding it to 5500-6000 to see if that helps, if not buying a new charger probably a waste of time an $$.
If this problem developed only after the prang then you need to look at something that could have been affected like a wiring fault/ lose connection/ cracked carb isolator/ split air box rubber etc....
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Offline shizzomynizzo

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Re: Low battery, can it cause power loss at high RPM's?
« Reply #2 on: May 24, 2009, 08:50:01 PM »
Well I just bought a new charger :-\ I guess I need a good one anyway.

If it don't work, I can always return it I guess. I've been looking the bike over, I don't see any leaks in the filter box or connections. I don't have enough light today, but I will get back to it tomorrow.

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Offline Spanner 1

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Re: Low battery, can it cause power loss at high RPM's?
« Reply #3 on: May 24, 2009, 08:59:50 PM »
Sorry to hear you fell-off, Shizz, my 2c is your bike is fine ...misfire @ high rpm with about dead battery trying to charge and get back to normal operating voltage...yep, sure it's going to cause power loss @ high rpm....check your battery too, when the bike went down it may have lost some fluid out the breather tube....
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Offline Frankencake

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Re: Low battery, can it cause power loss at high RPM's?
« Reply #4 on: May 24, 2009, 09:20:08 PM »
Yes.
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Offline Venturous

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Re: Low battery, can it cause power loss at high RPM's?
« Reply #5 on: May 25, 2009, 02:42:09 PM »
Was the bike wrong side up for any amount of time? If so, could some of the battery acid have drained out during that time? I would check to be sure it is full. I crash a Venture a couple years ago and was in no condition to upright it. The battery was half empty and about dead by the time I got to the bike a few weeks later.
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Offline shizzomynizzo

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Re: Low battery, can it cause power loss at high RPM's?
« Reply #6 on: May 25, 2009, 04:07:43 PM »
It was on its side for a few minutes, not long tho. I pulled the petcock off today and the bowl was full of crap. Its time to take off the carbs...again :'(

This will be the 5th or 6th time in 2 weeks :'(
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Offline Frankencake

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Re: Low battery, can it cause power loss at high RPM's?
« Reply #7 on: May 25, 2009, 05:09:02 PM »
Quote from: shizzomynizzo on May 25, 2009, 04:07:43 PM
It was on its side for a few minutes, not long tho. I pulled the petcock off today and the bowl was full of crap. Its time to take off the carbs...again :'(

This will be the 5th or 6th time in 2 weeks :'(
Perhaps an inline filter would alleviate this reoccurrence.
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Offline shizzomynizzo

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Re: Low battery, can it cause power loss at high RPM's?
« Reply #8 on: May 25, 2009, 06:21:14 PM »
The 1st time was to remove clean them after I bought the bike, second time was to pull the jets and clean them good. Then I found out I needed to set the floats, fourth time and today was to clean crap out of them too.

I will definitely put some inline filters in. I am learning a whole lot from this bike and enjoying it too.

That's important right ???
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Offline Spanner 1

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Re: Low battery, can it cause power loss at high RPM's?
« Reply #9 on: May 25, 2009, 07:09:56 PM »
Hey, Shizz, try this if you like.. get a small bar magnet  ( Home Depot 3 bucks) and zip-tie it to a coathanger, then fish it into your tank and let it sit beside the pet-cock tube...it will attract rusticles getting sucked towards the tank outlet...make a loop in the coathanger so that it just sits under the gas cap...remove and clean magnet every day......eventually it will catch all the loose crap  !!........saw this in the Tips and Tricks.....
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Offline Hush

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Re: Low battery, can it cause power loss at high RPM's?
« Reply #10 on: May 25, 2009, 08:53:23 PM »
Neat idea Spanner, I'd also go with the inline filter, many say they restrict your gas supply but I have one and it just stops me having to remove my bowls every week. :)
I have had no trouble with it so far, I just sliced through the main gas feed under the tank and fitted it with tiny hose clips.
Be very careful how you set this up, take your gas tank off to do it so you can see where it will all go, a filter that ends up on it's side will not work, it must be vertical so find the smallest filter you can.
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I think the thing I most like about motorcycling is the speed at which my brain must process information at to avoid the numb skulls who are eating pies, playing the ukulele, applying make-up etc in the comfort of their airconditioned armchairs as they make random attempts to kill me!!!!!!!

Offline shizzomynizzo

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Re: Low battery, can it cause power loss at high RPM's?
« Reply #11 on: May 25, 2009, 09:43:38 PM »
The tank has been coated with por 15. it looks great, no peeling or rust anywhere. I will try the hanger and magnet idea, see what I collect, as well as the inline filter, too.

Thanks guys.

I'm checking my points and timing right now to see if the spill bent anything in there, then I'm going to go over the valves agin and on the cam chain too.

Ill see what transpires


Ill keep ya'll updated
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Offline shizzomynizzo

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Re: Low battery, can it cause power loss at high RPM's?
« Reply #12 on: May 26, 2009, 10:51:47 PM »
Just pulled the carbs yet again, re-adjusted the floats, reset the valves, reset the timing, and just got it back together.
As I pulled out of the drive, it started down poring, but I got to go a couple miles. IT NO LONGER LOSES POWER AT HIGHER RPM"S. The floats were a little higher than I thought...about 24.5mm and it was really running like crap.

Thanks again for all your help everyone!  :D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
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