Battery Nearly Exploded

I recently returned from a relative long trip to Toronto from North Carolina. Yesterday, right after I got ticketed at a tollbooth in West Virginia my bike decided to shut off. I've dealt with rectifiers failing, blown fuses etc but this issue turned out to be something else. After waddling my bike of the road I stated my troubleshooting procedures by doing a quick visual inspection. Immediately I smelled something funny, like rotten eggs. I hucked all my gear off, pulled the seat and noticed my relatively new AGM battery was leaking sulfuric acid and it was bulging out of all sides. One side of the battery plastic was even melting. I had been ridding for 13 hours with little breaks other than fuel ups so I can kinda see how it got so hot. I removed it in hopes that I could let it cool, have someone help jump it and get itd get my ass to the next town, obviously though that was a false hope. Tow truck came an hour later and the next morning I walked to a walmart and bought a cheap battery thatd do the job for the next 300 or so miles to home base... Im wondering though, has anyone experienced any similiar issues after doing long distance riding? I was hoping to make it from Toronto to NC that day. Always thought id be the one throwing in the towel, not my VFR :sorrow:

 

Battery was definitely overcharged. You need to "do the drill" and check R/R for proper output voltage. the 'r's stand for Rectifier and Regulator. It's job is to take AC current from the stator and rectify into DC and to regulate DC voltages based on load. It does this by shunting unused current to ground. If regulation is off, the battery will get too much current.

 

Ok I'll do an in depth look now that I'm back. Luckily it didnt destroy the battery I put in afterwards :triumphant:
Also, could I do this check by using a voltmeter and monitoring the voltage while I run it or do I need to run a fine tooth comb over the issue and go by the book? In other works am I expecting to see 14+ volts at the battery constantly or will i need to check amps and other stuff to see the problem more clearly?

 

You should get an idea straight away when you hook up a voltmeter.
Sometimes an R/R only plays up when hot.
Just make sure you check volts at idle and around 5000rpm, mine never goes over 14.1 volts.

 

Ok will do, I checked before i left for the trip and it was running perfect. Then again it was cool and in a controller environment haha This particular R/R has maybe 8K miles of life experiences and at that moment the heat surely had it on its knees. Thanks alot for the tips though fellas :cheersaf:

 

I replaced my amg battery with a 2pound Shoria -I wonder how this battery would do over charged? It has a 1/3 more power then the amg. 18Amps. I insulated on all sides with foam.

 

The lithium batteries charge between 14 & 15 volts. Lithium batteries create intense heat when they fail---houses have been burned to the ground by fires started from improper charging of Li batteries.....

 

I think a volt meter fitted permanently to the bike is probably good insurance, seems these charging problems will never really go away, not only just on VFR's

 

the battery I got is shoria is not the same as lituim car betterys-it isn't suppose to heat up and burn

 

Output of alternator (stator is stationary half with coils) will vary with RPM, Regulator half of R/R should limit DC voltage to 14.1 to 14.6, there abouts. Fully charged battery should read 13-13.2 vdc. How old was your battery? If sediment built up on bottom of plates in one cell (there are 6), this could have caused it to draw a lot of current, thus fooling R/R with increased load. Check all your connectors on the stator leads and R/R for corrosion and signs of thermal distress, discoloration.

 

Honestly Id be too cautious to put something like that in there. I might be spittin in the wind but this could cause excess heat in your charging system since it would require more work to keep that battery charged - especially if youre tagging on extra electrical accessories. Im down for the extra insulation but im a bit too cautious to exceed manufacture recommendations on a bike I like to travel long distances with. Hopefully you dont run into any issues though and if it turns out to be a solution id be happy to know - ima all ears

 

The battery was nearly brand new. Mightve had 2 weeks on it and it wasnt the cheapest one the shelf either. Ill look into that then

 

Only two weeks? Might have had a defect, see if they will replace it, if everything else checks out.

 

Yeah Im getting a bit suspicious because I had to actually replace the last one I bought from them which had a defect.. Could just be my bike though, not going to throw the blame on the manufacturer. Need a better idea of what the deal is.

 

Doesn't mean the battery wasn't at fault. New ones do fail, very rare though. If it was a China made then it's really suspect. IMO

 

I've been using an MMG Lithium Ion battery since April this year & so far it rocks! How it fairs over the winter will be the true test but so far it's been the tits~

 

Until you fit a volt meter you will have no idea what the charging is doing, no point spinning around dicking with all sorts of batteries if you don't know what volts are getting punched into a battery and that goes for any battery

 

What brand of battery was in your bike? I have a battery from PO that came from a Batteries plus store. Not good reviews and i have concerns myself.

 

Use this flow chart and a multimeter to test out your components. And check wiring & connectors for browning/burning.

http://www.electrosport.com/media/pdf/fault-finding-diagram.pdf

My Walmart battery is going on 3 years, 2 more than the last 2 Yuasa batteries I bought that were 2x as expensive. Keep it on a $15 battery tender jr. in the garage. Seems like it's helped me so far.

 

:welcome: to the world
You are about in my backyard...Raleigh. Looks like you got some good advice here already. Not sure where your battery came from, but definitely look into warranty if the RR checks out good. I've only replaced mine twice in 14 years and they both came from Batteries Plus....