Battery boiling over

[billdavis83]

I have a reoccuring problem with my 98 superhawk. Occasionally when I go to start the bike, it is dead. Every time it has happened, I take the battery out and it is bone dry. I replaced the battery and the reg/rect and thought I had the problem solved, but it did it again last week. I refilled/charged the battery and put it back in the bike. I also hooked up a voltage gauge to it and drove it about two miles down the road at about 5000 rpm. It was reading 14.1 volts the whole time. I parked it and the battery was already spilling over. I am just waiting for the thing to be dead again. Anybody have any ideas?????

[Wildfire]

Reg/Rec unit would have been my first guess

I had this problem with my FZR last year....Had the battery bubbling away like a kettle

Have you tested this to make sure the new Reg/Rec unit is serviceable ?? Could be a duff one ??

[billdavis83]

Wouldn't it be charging more than that if I needed a new regulator? Do the regulators burn out on these really fast or what?

[sirch345]

I have a reoccuring problem with my 98 superhawk. Occasionally when I go to start the bike, it is dead. Every time it has happened, I take the battery out and it is bone dry. I replaced the battery and the reg/rect and thought I had the problem solved, but it did it again last week. I refilled/charged the battery and put it back in the bike. I also hooked up a voltage gauge to it and drove it about two miles down the road at about 5000 rpm. It was reading 14.1 volts the whole time. I parked it and the battery was already spilling over. I am just waiting for the thing to be dead again. Anybody have any ideas?????

I would have said it was the rectifier (as Wildfire said) at first looking at your post, but after reading a bit more you say the charging is around 14 volts so now I'm not so sure. Was that reading 14.1 volts (when you took it for a ride) with the lights on or off Also do you think may be your voltage gauge is not giving a true reading, check it out on a good battery, IE from another vehicle, I dumped two batteries once thinking they were no good, only to find out at a later date the gauge was faulty

[billdavis83]

The gauge is working properly. The bike was at 14.1 running with the lights on, can't turn them off anyway.

[sirch345]

The gauge is working properly. The bike was at 14.1 running with the lights on, can't turn them off anyway.

Usually when the battery boils dry it's because it's over charging, but seeing as you say thats not the case (according to your volt meter) perhaps the battery plates got damaged before you fitted the new rectifier, and a new battery is needed I take it you have everything wired up the right way around