Posted by Pete Koutoulas on July 13, 2003 at 06:05:34:
It's been a while since I visited this group – my 1986 Savage has been sitting in the shed for almost a year. It needed a new rear tire and new battery and I just couldn't afford to replace them for a while.
Got the tire, and now I have installed a new sealed battery from my Suzuki dealer which they had already filled with acid and charged. Last evening I eagerly installed the battery as I looked forward to my first ride in way too long. When I turned the key, nothing. No instrument lights, no headlight, no horn, nothing. Figuring the dealer had not charged the battery after all, I hooked up the charger (I had installed the charger connector when I installed the battery) but the "fully charged" light came on the charger. Okay, now I figure I must not have gotten the terminals good and tight or didn't clean them well enough. So I removed the battery, thoroughly cleaned and even sanded the terminals to get a nice shiny contact, then re-installed the battery. Still nothing.
I checked the voltage of the battery at the terminals and across the hot wire to the frame. I checked it in several places and it always read about 10.5 volts. I assume that's in the normal range for a 12 volt battery. I checked the ignition switch for proper operation and it checked out. I even tried jumping the two sets of ignition wires with the switch disconnected and this didn't change anything so I am sure the switch is good. Everything above would lead me to the conclusion that there is a broken connection on the hot side somewhere between the battery and the rest of the electrical system, except for the following.
Partly in frustration, I re-connected the charger, not really knowing why. Then with the charger connected, I turned the key. Bingo. The instrument lights blinked on. But disconnect the charger and she's dead again. I then removed the charger wire in case it was somehow interfering the with battery operation but that changed nothing.
What would you look for next?