Forum

[Dennis C]

Bryan. There are a lot on here who ask questions then ignore the answer.

[Reg]

Didn't mean to doubt anyone, just thought (in my ignorance) that 10v. out of 12 was near enough, and that once the bike was started the battery wouldn't have any influence on the way it ran. i.e. the backfire/lack of power. I'll take your advice and get the battery checked.

[Presto]

A 12v battery in good condition and fully charged should give a reading of around 13.5v. If the reading is around 10v it shows a problem with the battery or with the charging circuit – corrosion/damp could be the reason for problems with charging.
A battery producing around 10v shouldn’t make much difference to starting and running an kick-start engine with points ignition.
It makes sense to try the cheapest option first, some WD40 as a first step, before concluding a battery needs replacing.

[Beezabryan]

You're right of course Dennis plus the ones who answer without reading the question or the subsequent responses thus confusing the original poster......Ah Well

[Dennis C]

Reg, The first two replies to you question gave you the answer. ------ if your battery won't charge above 10v with a charger the battery is knackered, if the voltage dropped to 3v then the bike is probably not charging. ------ replace the battery, this should get the bike running OK, check the battery voltage with the engine running it should increase to 13.5 to 14.5 volts, if not you have a problem in your charging circuit, loose wire, duff regulator, duff alternator ETC.

[Phil Ashbrook]

I lost charge last week because my new primary chain and crank sprocket ran in and flaked metal that was picked up by the rotor magnets and gave no electrical gap , strange things do and can happen , new battery then check if it's charging , Enfield reg/rectifiers are terrible sometimes , our host can help you on that .

[jaffa90]

Could somebody tell me where the technical advice forum is? This appears to be a WIND UP forum.

[John R]

Two things;
1) an Optimate charger will sometimes "do what it says on the tin" and restore virginity to a shagged battery.
2)I recently had a problem with similar symptoms which was down to the carb. (I know, it's never the carb). This time however it was the needle clip which had come out of its groove allowing the needle to wander further and further from its correct location until the bike gave up the ghost.
I kept stopping to clean an increasingly sooty plug!

Easy to check!

[Dennis C]

Jaffa90, You have just posted in the technical forum. ---- for technical notes look down the left of this screen and you will find them 4 down from message board listed as Technical Notes.

[PeteF]

What the battery gives on the volt meter when charged can be misleading. It's how many volts you get when it's under load that matters. The number of volts is not a measure of how "full" the battery is and it should keep 12v untill it's nearly "flat"