[mdsteve101]

I have a 2010 Honda Sabre VT1300 CSA that I expect has something wrong with the charging system. I bought it last year and did not ride it much due to health issues. After a few cold months in the shed for the winter I rolled it out and tried to start it. No luck! I put my trickle charger on it and after a few hours I got it to start.
Hooray....I took it for a short ride around the neighborhood and came back after about 10 minutes. Due to more cold weather it sat again for another two or three weeks.

The next time we had a nice day with sunshine I tried to start it up again and guess what...Nothing doing. I got the charger back out and charged it up again and although the bike sounded like it was really struggling to start it finally did start up. I shut it off and pulled the battery out, it had a Yuasa YTZ14S in it. I ordered something cheap off of amazon with the same specs as the Yuasa, it would not start the bike. I now have a 44 dollar paperweight or fish finder battery.

So I ordered another Yuasa YTZ14S from amazon and after installing it in the Sabre I am getting the same results as with the old battery. It sounds to me like a "hard start" if that is the correct term. I placed a multi meter on the battery after a 8 hour trickle charge and with the key in the off position the battery read about 12.45 volts. After I turned the key to the on position the battery dropped down to around 12.3, when I started the Sabre the voltage went up into the high twelves and even 13 plus once or twice it jumped up into the 14 volts range. When I gave it some gas to raise the rev's it actually went down into the 12 volt range and I even got an occassional drop to the 11 volt range.

I'm guessing it's got a bad stater or something, it's always seemed like it's struggles to turn the engine over even with a new Yuasa in it. My MC mechanic skills are minimal at best, what would you guys say I should be looking at for a fix for this issue.?

Many thanks for your time listening to my elaborated report on the Sabre, best wishes to all and God Bless.

Steve in NE Indiana

 

[Easy Rider]

You are making this much harder than it IS.
New batteries often come almost dead and MUST have a full charge before using.

If your charger really IS a cheap trickle charger, you need to junk it and get a real automatic battery maintainer of at least 2 amps capacity.

If you charge it until the charger indicates "full", you probably will find that you now have two GOOD new batteries.
Not guaranteed but probably.
A fully charged new AGM battery should read a minimum of 12.8 volts with no load after sitting off the charger for a while.

 

[mdsteve101]

I have a Schumacher sp 1286 3amp fully automatic battery charger and I have charged both of the new batteries with it and the Sabre still seems to struggle to turn over. The person I bought the bike from told me the battery was low when I asked him for a start up video, he told me he would get that video after he charged up the battery. Fast forward to the bike being unloaded from the delivery truck low and behold the battery was low and we had to jump it.
The original Yuasa battery still holds a good charge but the bike would only start after the battery was charged for a few hours. I might indeed have 3 batteries in good shape but that doesn't change the fact that the bike struggles to start with all of them. I can get the bike to start, I just have to keep charging the battery before each attempt to start it. I took the Sabre for a 20 minute ride on Wednesday after charging the battery up, when I got back home the bike would not start up again. I immediately put my charger back on it and the schumacher reported the battery was only at 82% charged.

Regardless of the reason whether it be my fault for making this harder than it is, or perhaps a unseen issue within the charging system, it will someday be fixed and none of this will matter. That's the way I see it anyway. Thanks for your input I do appreciate your comments, did you see my update on the Suzuki S83 thread?

Steve in NE Indiana

 

[Easy Rider]

I immediately put my charger back on it and the schumacher reported the battery was only at 82% charged.

82% should be plenty good enough.
NOW you need to get a voltmeter to check the charging system with the bike running.
And to check the actual battery voltage after sitting overnight.

And EXACTLY how does it "struggle" ?
Gotta ask that because some folks use the term "turn over" wrong.

IF it really is turning over slowly, then the starter might be going bad or the solenoid contacts.
OR the connection at the OTHER end of one of the main battery cables might not be making a good connection.

It might be interesting to take the plugs out when cold and then run the starter and see if anything comes out any of the plug holes.......looking for a partial "hydro-lock" condition.

And finally, some engines have an automatic compression release and if that fails it will turn over REALLY slowly, fighting against the engine compression. Don't know if yours has that or not.

 

[Aussie Steve]

I read that the bike has a single cam variable valve timing. No mention of an auto compression release so I doubt it has one....although I have been wrong....once!