Hot Battery

Had to swap batteries over this morning as the Motobatt just couldn't cut it. I htink it was due to leaving the lights on too long when putting the bike away last night.

I will be fitting the digital voltmeter tomorrow, does anyone know which wire is best to connect the live to so it only comes on with the ignition? I will be installing it in the cowling above the clock so it needs to be either the light circuit or clocks. If necessery I may be able to reach the live wire from the ignition switch (not starter switch)

 

Maybe the running light, you know, that little 3amp light that sits under the main bulb. That may give a steady accurate reading?
I wonder if I could attatch the earth to that circuit too

I will look at the Haynes manual this evening.

 

It is an all enclosed unit, fus n all, wires direct into the harness, the diagram shows it being connected dir to the battery!
I have also just ordered the headlight module that keeps the lights off until you flick the main beam switch. So there is more juice to start up on a cold morning----another £40, plus £100 on a new rear disk

One day I will stop spending money on the bike....one day

 

Fitted the Voltmeter this morning, attached it above the clocks and under the cowling as planned, sits there nicely, fed the wire along the harness and into the back of the light housing. I used the red connecting clips to attach it to the day/running light and seems to work well. It shows about 1.3v less than the battery so it flashed on start up to warn me voltage is low, but when the bike is running it shows 12.7~ish volts while the battery has 14v.
I will check the connections after a few weeks as I bet it gets hot behind those bulbs!

As I know to expect this I will learn what to expect and when something is wrong.

Battery is not getting hot anymore and max charging voltage I can record is around 14.2v over 3k rpm