Falco battery/alarm problems.

[HowardQ]

There are always problems posted on here about Falco’s with battery and starting problems, and also some people tend to blame alarms for a flattish battery failing to turn over the V60 motor strongly enough.
It always made me think because I have two very different bikes, which behave very differently.
First of all the Kawasaki ZX9R, which is fitted with a Data-tool alarm, (a favourite culprit to be blamed for flat batteries).
I bought the bike just over three years ago and the battery was far from new then, do not know how old it is. With the alarm always set it hardly ever goes flat.
I tend to ride it less than the Falco and only have one battery conditioner, both bikes are wired for it but it stays almost constantly on the Falco. If I haven’t ridden thw Kwack for 5 or 6 weeks I usually swap over the charger overnight and give it a boost, just in case, and it is always alright afterwards.
The Falco had a new Dynavolt Gel battery fitted nearly two years ago, which does better than the previous Yuasa and always starts well when on the conditioner.
If I don’t put it on charge and don’t ride it for two weeks, or a bit more it is usually OK, 3 weeks marginal, 4 weeks plus and I don’t bother trying.
So why does the 9R battery hold power much longer, even though it has a "power sapping" alarm.
The alarm always goes into sleep mode after a couple of weeks or so and seems to use nothing, (does have its' own battery), so the bike still starts.
So why does the Falco go flatter quicker even though it has a superior battery?
Then I read this article about the "Myths" of alarms and immobilisers being blamed for going off for no reason, generally flattening batteries and causing starting problems, it was by Kevin Raymond of Ride magazine.
There were a couple of “experts” adding their views, one being David Martin of Acumen, who made some very interesting comments.
One was a classic case of an R1 with persistent alarm problems, which turned out to be the ignition switch filling with water and allowing a very slight short on the switch. It was not enough to light a bulb, but it always set the alarm off. They put five new alarms on the bike before they found this problem.
I have always squirted the bike switches with WD40 by shoving the thin tube down inside to keep them lubricated, but it may have helped avoid this water problem.
Certainly the Falco always has more problems when left out in the rain. People have tended to look at areas like the R/H switch gear as possible culprits, and this is certainly probably a good candidate. as Pete has found, but the ignition switch is worth a check.

The next bit is even more interesting. It covered the area of alarms causing flat batteries.
It seems that bike electrical systems, especially ECUs take power all the time and often cause problems, Goldwings and Harleys are particularly bad, but the one of the worst is Aprilia.
He also added that Aprilia actually warn users about this, and a little light went on at the back of my brain. When I got the Falco 8 ½ years ago and read the Handbook/Manual from cover to cover, I now remember reading about this.
So back to page 78 of the book itself.
If the vehicle remains unused for more than 20 days, disconnect the 30A fuses in order to avoid deterioration of the battery caused by the current consumption of the multifunction computer.
(NOTE the removal of the fuses ….. will reset the digit clock and red line settings …. Which will need to be reset.)
If the vehicle remains unused for more than 15 days, it is necessary to recharge the battery.
So there we have it, I had forgotten all this!
Still intrigued that the Kwack does not suffer like this, but then again, although it is newer, it is still on good old flatside carbs and only has a simple part digital dash with displays that can be swapped. (Time or Temp, Odo or Trip etc.)
I suppose many of you may be aware of this, but I had forgotten, so for people without garages, wip the 30A fuses out if you are not riding regularly, it should retain the battery power and also acts as an anti-theft device.
Unless you have an alarm fitted that is.

[Aladinsaneuk]

nice work Howard

instant sticky!

[D-Rider]

The next bit is even more interesting. It covered the area of alarms causing flat batteries.
It seems that bike electrical systems, especially ECUs take power all the time and often cause problems, Goldwings and Harleys are particularly bad, but the one of the worst is Aprilia.
He also added that Aprilia actually warn users about this, and a little light went on at the back of my brain. When I got the Falco 8 ½ years ago and read the Handbook/Manual from cover to cover, I now remember reading about this.
So back to page 78 of the book itself.
If the vehicle remains unused for more than 20 days, disconnect the 30A fuses in order to avoid deterioration of the battery caused by the current consumption of the multifunction computer.
(NOTE the removal of the fuses ….. will reset the digit clock and red line settings …. Which will need to be reset.)
If the vehicle remains unused for more than 15 days, it is necessary to recharge the battery.
So there we have it, I had forgotten all this!
.

Howard - I think it VERY unlikely that it is the ECU as I doubt that there is anything in there that needs to be kept "live" when the bike is off. I'll have a look at the wiring diagram when I have a chance to see whether it has a direct battery feed or just +Acc.

Of course the INSTRUMENT CLUSTER does draw current when the ignition is off - we are all aware of this because when the battery is disconnected it all needs setting up again.
I wouldn't surprise me if the quiescent current is somewhat more than on your Kwak which would explain the difference.

I don't think that any of this is a surprise - though it's probably as well to remind people.

BTW I think most people's concerns with the alarms are that some of them will not un-immobilise and therefore give people problems in starting. I know one or two have questioned whether they drain the battery significantly but as you mention, we are aware that they have low current strategies and effectively switch themselves off into an immobilised state after a period of time.

[Cathcart]

I've a kill switch ready to go under the rear seat for directly cutting the + supply from the battery... Seems the Aprilia does drain batteries quite quickly.
Another kill switch will also be fitted for the ignition circuit as had problems with an immobiliser previously.

[anzacinexile]

I've a kill switch ready to go under the rear seat for directly cutting the + supply from the battery

Make sure its a heavy bastid then. Starter pulls a hellava lot of current. J/K

(I'm assuming here that you're only talking the 30amp feed here)

[Cathcart]

I've a kill switch ready to go under the rear seat for directly cutting the + supply from the battery

Make sure its a heavy bastid then. Starter pulls a hellava lot of current. J/K

(I'm assuming here that you're only talking the 30amp feed here)

It is mate, 300 amps. Should be ample.

[wayno]

It is mate, 300 amps. Should be ample.

that should do ya

[HowardQ]

Andy, my comments were only on the comparison between my two bikes.
The comments on the ECU and "Multifunction Computer" were taken pretty much verbatim from David Martin, (director of Acumen) and the Aprilia manual.
Personally I cannot see why either the the ECU or the dash "computer" should take any sort of current. You only need to keep something like a CMOS battery charged, and all Aprilia say that it keeps alive is the red line warning lights and the clock settings (??).
You should not need to flatten the battery to keep that lot alive, but they both say it does, and we all know that is true.
Why it does ????

We just have to live with the result.

[fatboy]

Cathcart, sounds like a good mod/ battery saver/ anti theft !
Be good to hear of your progress with this

[Cathcart]

I'll try remember to post up once I do it with details of what I done. Won't be hard though.