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battery won't stay charged...need help

16K views 10 replies 3 participants last post by  Scoundrel  
#1 ·
I have a 03 polaris trailblazer 400 and I bought and put a brand new battery on it and wheelers lights were nice and turned over and started great..took it out riding and hours later went to start it back up and battery was completly dead.none of the lights even light up at all and don't even click to turn over until I put a battery charger on the battery the brand new battery is completely dead no matter if it recharges it will kill the battery instantlywhat could the problem be?
 
#2 ·
If you remove the battery from the machine and charge it, does it hold a charge?
Can you then use that battery to run other things, like an air pump?

It kind of sounds like you have a short somewhere.
If it just drained the battery after a few hours, and then you recharged it and everything worked for a while until it slowly drained again, it would sound more like a generator issue or something, but if the machine kills it instantly, that's gotta be a short.
 
#3 ·
I'll go put the battery on the charger and let it sit for a while then I'll hook it up and see how fast exactly it does die out and see how much of a charge the battery does takeand I'll let you know thank you
 
#4 ·
the battery did not take a charge at all it was deader than a doornail put it in my 02 Honda 300ex and drove around for awhile see if it charged at all or do anything it is completely dead I put the battery out of my Honda into my Polaris and it is juicy as hell but I want to wait and drive a few days and see if the polaris kills it again since I didn't really get to ride it that much today..just weird because I bought that battery from Napa not too long ago brand new probably about 3 months ago and I first had my Honda and drove for about a month and it kept it charged up very well started my Honda every time and then I got a brand new one for my Honda and put that one in the polaris cuz the polaris' s was dead and all the Sudden went from juicy to completely dead in the matter of one day...now I've never been a fan of napa batteries but for it to go dead that quickly I think it's definitely the Polaris and not a bad battery
 
#7 ·
So battery did not stay charged...what things can I do to find out what's not working I went through and cleaned all connections I seen I noticed that when battery is un hooked or with the old battery in it that was completly dead that none of the lights come on at all..which would mean its not generating power for itself at all...what things should I check
 
#8 ·
So first you'll want to recharge the battery off the bike so you've got something to work with.
Then start the bike, put a multimeter on the battery terminals, and note the voltage at idle.
Then rev the engine and see if the voltage changes.
If the voltage increases significantly (to 13.5 or 14), then the bike is generating its own power. But based on what you said, it probably won't.
If the voltage does not increase when you rev the engine, then your generator is not producing power, or your voltage regulator is shot.
That's assuming your bike has both.

You'll want to do some research on your year/make/model to find out exactly what it has.
Then start replacing parts in your charging system, cheapest first, until the problem goes away.
Check all of your connections on those parts and your fuses first, because that's cheap and easy.

If doing the above does not help, then you'll either need to seek help on forums from someone more familiar with your specific bike, or take it to the shop for repairs.
 
#11 ·