Electrical Problem On 08 Te 450

I am having problems with my 08 te 450, it was and has been running smooth for a while now, but i have always had a problem with electrical. My battery would die or go under 10v if not used for a few days or a week, i solved the problem with a 800w charger and the problem was no longer an issue. My bike was going fine until i started to have the problem of sever battery leakage my bike would run for like 6 mins fine but then die, i did a bunch of trouble shooting and my alternator is working fine but the battery would just die. I chatted with my uncle about this (vintage motor cycle repairer) he said it could be something wrong with wires grounding out or the battery. During this time it was able to start (just not run for long), i was waiting on parts for some other part of the bike and i was putting off electrical because for me it is a head ache. Now that i am coming back to it the bike won't even start it goes through one stroke and dies, and my battery will drop to 10v. Is this a grounding out problem a battery problem or a starter problem?

P.S. i don't think it is an engine problem because it has great compression i hear fuel intake and i also hear air intake.

Please help me with this for i am not good with electrical Thank you for your help

Declan Downes

sounds like you have a small short to ground that may have gotten bigger (the high powered charger was just masking the problem) so I'm with your uncle here.

inspect your wiring closely for rubbing, breaks, burns, or cracks in the insulation.

get your uncle to help (a small bottle of tequila perhaps?)

good luck.

and the bike would be cutting out because of the EFI not getting enough power? When or if i do find some wires that are touching the frame or shorting out what do you think i should do to fix them? Obviously electrical tape is a short term fix but would it work? just to get it out and ripping.

For long term would you get a new harness or get some shrink wire and fix the problem?

How old is your battery ? Are you sure your battery is good ? And what do you mean by “ severe battery leakage “ ?

yup, test the battery.

Then put an amp meter between the battery and the the cable when the bike is off and see it there is a current draw.

Be careful not to fry the meter by turning the IGN on when it is connected!

There are amp meters designed to clamp around the wire you want to check also .

I am not 100% sure but i believe it is original the previous owner tore off all the tags and what not so it might be after market it may not be idk...... also without an extra battery what is a good way to test it? with a car battery or no?

Like i said i am not great with electrical.... would i be putting negative on the battery and positive on the wire?

depending on how bad of a problem you find (hopefully)... heat-shrink tubing should be fine. Replacing a small section of wire would be the next step if needed. It's unlikely you would need a harness or you would have probably already seen the problem.

you have to look hard to find a big wiring problem; a small short is even more difficult to see.

For AMP measurement I don't think it matters.

Just pull the negative cable off the battery and put the ammeter in between the cable and the battery.

This is what I use . Works on ac or dc and also has an ohm meter built in . What’s nice about the clamp on is that it is non intrusive , just clamp around the 1 wire that you need to check . At work I end up using it on most of my jobs while testing power supplies and back up batteries . While what I work on is a bit different I believe it can be applied to bikes too . What I have seen during storm restoration work it that when we have a site with no commercial power and we need to place a generator or power is restored until the site is up to the correct voltage , the power supply will be pushing full amperage . Once it get to the correct voltage on the batteries then the amps will start to drop until the batteries are fully charged . Working correctly . Now the opposite , bad batteries . I have seen bad batteries draw more amps than they should creating heat then they draw even more amps , making more heat and so on and so on until they are in thermal runaway . Not good . I have run into where the batteries are drawing so much of the available amperage that there isn’t enough amps left to run the equipment .

Try another battery. YZF7S. Sometimes batteries die. They seem good, and as soon as to try to use them the voltage drops like a hammer.