[CardRon]

Hey everyone. Anyone know where to start looking for a battery drain on the 2004 Rubicon? Heres the deal, The battery will die in 4-5 days max if fully charged and left to sit. Also I do know the battery is shot, its new but the person who installed it cooked it before install and its done, I bought a new one but am waiting to install. The weird thing is the bike dies if the battery is low it seems to drain out the ignition. If I remove the battery and start it - it runs fine??? I am not great with testers and ohm meters and all that stuff but I have them if anyone has a suggestion on where to start and the procedures, I dont want to replace the stator and then the CDI unit, then this, then that. Its expensive to guess, but I am very capable to replace anything on the bike so looking for a little tech help. I appreciate anything. Thanks, Ron

 

[Honda Mechanic]

I would start with the regulator/rectifier ..

 

[treeax]

battery is shot, i had the same problem.

 

[CardRon]

Well I have the battery and I'm gonna put it in, my worry was that if it was something more than just the battery I didnt want to ruin it. I'll see what happens and if the battery goes dead i'll start with the Rect/Reg. Thanks for the fast answers.

Ron

 

[treeax]

You have to get the bike started with the old battery(jump the bike with another battery). Use a tester and test the battery when bike running, on the battery it should say what v is when bike is running, it should be higher than 13v, if it is the battery is shot, if it isn't you have a charging problem. I had the same problem. I tested everything, check all wires, everything looked good. So i changed the battery and problem fixed .
hope this helps

 

[CardRon]

Okay, so I changed the battery and the bike seems good now. I let it sit for 4 days and I uncovered it and it started right up, usually after 1-2 days the battery was completely dead after I fully charged it. So it seems the battery was so bad it was making the bike run so bad. Now this problem has been here a little longer than the battery issue but I wasnt sure if it was part of the electrical/battery issue or not. The bike has a slight miss to it while idling and if I leave it sitting at idle after about 5 mins it will pop and stall. It starts right back up if I give it a little gas and I can hear the slight pop every once in a while when its idling. It almost sounds like water in the gas? I've changed the plug, and spray cleaned the carb a little but did not disassemble. This seemed to start when I cleaned the air filter a couple months ago, I've since changed the filter also. If anyone has any input on this I appreciate it. And thanks for the electrical help.

Ron