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[RayG]

I was greasing the neck bearings the other day when I decided to unplug the tender & check for codes.  I just started my winter maintenance list.  Anyway the electrical system was dead, I removed the wires on both terminal posts & measured the battery & found it to have 6.5 DC volts.  It was on the tender since fall.  The tender always has the yellow color showing and never the red.  With it plugged in the 110 volt AC it measured 1.3 volts DC on the plug end that usually would go to the bike.  It is a Harley unit and is about 6 to 7 years old,  I use it after every ride.  I know I need to install a new 12 volt battery but is the tender shot as well?  Could someone be kind enough to measure the DC voltage on their tender.  I guess it's possible that the tender is bad and took the 12 volt with it.  The 12 volt battery is about 4 years old. 

Thanks

Ray G

[HarleyStud]

Try checking the fuse (7.5 I think?) from the battery to the plug that plugs into the tender.

[RayG]

I did test that one already, Thanks.

[BillH]

I get 3.3-3.5 millivolts with no load (not plugged in to the bike). This is a Battery Tender brand, not HD

[dartman]

I run 7 deltran chargers same ones Harley uses, after initial charge mine all show green, amber would indicate that your battery was never charged completely, bad battery or charger

[grc]

Depends on the brand I suppose, but the actual Battery Tender brand doesn't produce an output until it's connected to the battery and it senses the battery has a certain minimum charge (it won't even try to charge a completely dead battery).  I'm not certain how you can easily check the voltage with this type of charger.  However, if the front panel indicator light never turns green and remains red or yellow, odds are the battery is defective.  I think your 6.5V open circuit voltage measurement of your battery confirms that; a discharged but otherwise good six cell lead acid battery wouldn't have that low a voltage.  At zero percent state-of-charge it would still show an open circuit voltage of at least 11.6 volts.

Jerry

[RayG]

Thank you all for the replies.  Going to replace both. 

[donald p]

With in minutes mine always turns GREEN ( H-D ) charger

[Chains]

With in minutes mine always turns GREEN ( H-D ) charger

X2

[moscooter]

 
I have three or four of those Battery Tenders.  Sometimes you can simply have a poor connection at the male/female connectors that plug together.

On occasion,  I have had one show red after being plugged in for 24 hours on what I thought was indeed a good battery.  A few "wiggles" of the connectors would make the light switch to green right away.  Always double check that first for a possible problem.

[porthole]

Sounds like your tender is fine and your battery is toast.

The "tenders" will only "maintain", they will not charge a dead battery.

[UAV Pilot]

I agree with previous post regarding open circuit voltage.  Dont throw away the tender till you replace the battery, or just hook up your tender to a know good car battery and see what indications you are getting.