Electrical problem

Bike's been sitting in the garage for the past couple months as I recover from a back injury, and the battery's been hooked up to a charge keeper. Yesterday, I went to start it for the first time. Unplugged it from the battery keeper, put the key in and turned it, heard the fuel pump whir to life, hit the starter button and everything died. I checked all the fuses including the ones in the block inside the left cowl and on the positive battery wire.

If I leave the battery connected to the 1.5a keeper and turn the key, at least the instrument panel comes to life for half a second. Otherwise, I get no power anywhere.

I'm at a loss, so any and all help would be greatly appreciated!

nu_b wrote:

and the battery's been hooked up to a charge keeper.

What's a "charge keeper"?
Can you supply a link to a web page showing us exactly what you mean? Or take a picture and post it?

I'm guessing the battery slowly drained into the "keeper".

For a bike sitting a long time, especially over the winter when it's cold, you need to keep battery on a "battery tender".

I have original 2008 battery in my X.

I use one of these every winter: http://batterytender.com/


Any time my bike sits for more than 4 or 5 days without being started I hook it up to the tender.

Keeper or tender. Same thing just different words

nu_b wrote:

Keeper or tender. Same thing just different words

If they're the "same thing" then yours is defective, or perhaps it wasn't plugged in/connected correctly.

I'm still betting your problem is a dead battery.

It looks like you may be right ... Just put the voltmeter to it again and it's reading <10a :(

What puzzles me is I still get absolutely nothing even when it shows 12a+ at the terminals.

Being EFI and all - these bikes are notoriously finicky about needing a good battery.

It does not take much of a drop in voltage before the wr250r/x simply won't start.

I googled "charge keeper" and the only thing I found was related to boats and watercraft.

The "Battery Tender" is designed specifically for motorcycles.

It's possible your "charge keeper" just wasn't the proper device for long term maintenance of a motorcycle battery. Might work okay in short term, but not for long term storage.