Total Beginer - Yamaha SR125 wont start, Help Please

[sloughclarets]

I have a Yamaha SR125 1993

I rode it to work yesterday and it was fine, When i went to leave work, it wouldnt start.

I turned the key as normal, and the green neutral indicator light came on. I then pressed the electric start, heard a click (The kind of sound when a fuse blows) and then nothing.

No Green light no turn over no nothing. After leaving it for a day, i tried again just now. Again turned the key and the green neutral indicator light came on, pressed the button, click and again nothing.

Does anyone have any ideas of what this might be.

Thanks in advance.

[jasond]

sounds like a flat battery
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1st bike Suzuki EN 125-2 (to break me in) Current bike Honda CBR 400 RR

[Walloper]

Flat battery or lose battery/starter connections.

Check the big thick battery connections and the thick starter connections are clean and secure.

Test the battery. If you can get to Halfrauds they can test and sell you a new battery (and acid charge fill for new battery) if the battery tests bad.
£50-ish.

https://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/SearchCmd?srch=motorcycle+batteries&department=all&action=search&storeId=10001&catalogId=10151&langId=-1#tab=1&pg=1&ppp=10&sb=sor%7C%7CPrice%7C%7C1&vw=list

Or learn to push to start till you save up the dosh for a battery.

If not the above 'simple/basic' faults then you could have a Starter fault. This will need further, more involved' diagnostic work though.
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W-ireless A-rtificial L-ifeform L-imited to O-bservation P-eacekeeping and E-fficient R-epair

[hazza]

Id go to your local bike parts supplier. Any good one will be able to test the battery and supply you a new one for much less than £50 in my experience.
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3 Honda NC50's(Sold)-->'72 Puch Maxi S (Sold, want it back!)--> '90 Yamaha RXS 100 (Stolen)--> '87 Honda Cub 90(Sold) --> '95 Kawasaki Eliminator (Sold) --> '98 Bandit 600 (Sold) -->'07 SV650S (Current)

[cb1rocket]

you can buy genuine Yuasa battery on ebay for about 30 quid - the same price as shit pattern ones

[Walloper]

[hazza]

Fair point walloper, just saying we dont call em halfrauds for no reason. iirc i went in for a bettery for a 1.0 polo and they wanted 90 for a bosch. My local supplier got it me for less than 50. Same with the h7 headlight bulbs they charge 8 quid for!
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3 Honda NC50's(Sold)-->'72 Puch Maxi S (Sold, want it back!)--> '90 Yamaha RXS 100 (Stolen)--> '87 Honda Cub 90(Sold) --> '95 Kawasaki Eliminator (Sold) --> '98 Bandit 600 (Sold) -->'07 SV650S (Current)

[cb1rocket]

halfords are a rip off, hardly ever shop there

here job done, this is the one needed but double check

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/YUASA-12N7-3B-BATTERY-Y12N7-3B-C12N73B-G12N73B-F12N73B-Y12N73B-/290638843205?pt=UK_Motorcycle_Parts&hash=item43ab6ccd45

[Walloper]

[chris-red]

[Walloper]

[cb1rocket]

lol same price as my effing car battery with 70 amps! oh dear.......

[chris-red]

[Teflon-Mike]

Presuming you are a newbie; yes that would be the dead-man's-click of the starter solenoid engaging, without enough amps in your battery to turn the high-drain starter motor.

Continuing to presume you are a CBT fresh Newbie.... nwhat is also the betting that you dont ride very far when you use the bike, and that when you do, this time of year, you do so with the lights switched on, more the bike lives out side?

1/ Batteries on bikes are small; they are made of heavy lead, so they would be rather heavy and take up a lot of space to make them bigger. Lacking size, they have small charge capacity. Starting the engine also tends to take a lot of amps out of them very quickly, so they get discharged heavily, which doesn't do much for battery life; neither does the fairly simple charge regulators bikes use.

Good batteries only have about a two year 'life', maybe three on a bigger battery/bike, not too hard used. Cheap ones and on lightweights, and if hard used, like all year, they can last only a year.

Generally around £25 its a 'service item' thats worth while replacing at MOT time or before winter, if you winter ride.

In the mean time, the electrolyte level needs to be checked, and if the level drops, they need topping up with distilled 'battery' water.

Low electrolyte level means that ont a % of the plates are in teh acid, and you only get a % of the charge holding capacity.

Acid/Electrolyte strength also drops with age, and top ups, and that too reduces charge capacity.

2/ In the cold batteries 'loose' charge. Other than lead, they are filled with acid. The acid, when cold is less 'active'; than when warm. Cold mornings mean that a fully charged battery wont have the 'oomph' it would on a warm day, and even less so if old and tired.

3/ Batteries are charged by the engine. The amps they see is anything left over from the generator after any amps used by lights, indicator horn, heated grips or anything.

Generators on little bikes dont make many amps. What amps they do make increases with engine speed. At idle, they often make barely enough amps to fire the spark plug. At such times charge is taken out of the battery to power lights or other equipment.

If you spend a lot of time, with equipment switched on, and the engine not revved very high, then possible that the battery will be being discharged more often than its being charged, and over time the battery will go flat.

4/ Newbies are tought on CBT that conspicuity is important, and to use dipped headlamps ALL the time, to make yourself seen. Many people do this anyway, and some bikes are 'hard wired' so that the headlamp is on when the engine is running. This may not 'help'.

Newbies also often leave lamps 'on' so they come on with the ignition. This sucks charge from the battery, and reduces terminal voltage. If you have a light switch TURN THEM OFF when you park, and dont turn them on until you have started the engine. This makes more volts and amps avaiolable for the starter motor.

Also; when day-light riding, it can be helpful if you are town riding, and the engine is idling a lot, to only use the side light/parking light/pilot light, as your conspicuity aid, rather than dipped beam main headlamp. It still lights up the headlamp bowl, and increases conpsicuity, but will only suck around 15W of electricity, rather than that 15W plus the dip beam, perhaps another 35 or 50w on top. Helps give the engine more chance to keep battery charged.

5/ Starting the bike; sussing the starting tecnique so you don't discharge the battery more than you have to; by way of using the choke and throttle to get the engine started without flooding it, or having to perform lots of re-starts switching the choke off early, or having engine die at junctions; saves battery charge AND extends battery life, not deep discharging it so often.

Helps enormously if the bike is nicely serviced before hand, so that the idle speed is right and the spark plugs clean and the mixture correct.

Correct grade of fresh oil, can also help; multigrade oil is thicker cold than hot; and on colder morenings a chilled sump, will have oil like treacle in it that will put more load on the starter motor to make bits move.

Conclusion: Its probably an indication that your battery is, in technical terms, fucked. And not a lot of this will help you. BUT if its not totally fucked yet, some of the advice above may, and you might get away merely trickle charging the battery to top it back up to full charge, and looking after it a bit, making sure its topped and charged, occassionally.

However, a new battery is probably a worth while investment, if you dont know how long ago it was last replaced; BUT supplied 'dry' they often need filling with acid (often supplied as an 'cacid pack' with the battery; some-times as an extra; so check whether the acid is included or not when comparing prices or buying). But a new battery will usually need a slow low amp 'trickle charge' to make sure its fully charged before fitting.

A trickle charge is generally around 1/4A, and will charge a small bike battery, around the 6-8Ah range in around 12hrs.

12v 'Car' battery chargers tend to be rated around 4A or more, and can easily 'boil' a little bike battery at that rate. Car batteries tend to have around 10x teh charge capacity so that could be a trickle or normal rate for one, but its a 'boost' or fast charge rate for a bike, and OK for 'occassional' charging to get you going on a cold morning, but repeatedly charged at that rate, or charged for prolonged periods at that rate,m can seriousely reduce battery life.

For first charge, a propper bike battery trickle charge at 250mA or so is ideal, and helps 'condition' the plates, charging them slowly.

A first charge on a 4A car charger, for say 20min, would not seriousely harm the battery, but is less than ideal.

Meanwhile; you may try charging the battery on a car charger if one is to hand.

Or jump-starting from a car battery... just dont start the car's engine as you would to jump start another car.... regulators are different and car alternator regulating at a different voltage likely to fry your bike's regulator if you do so! Car battery, if you start car, run for five minutes to ensure charged, then switch off, ought to supply enough amps to start bike, and not be depleated so much you cant re-start car after.

Or you can 'push-start' or 'bump-start' the bike, (if you dont have a kick-start lever!) pushing the bike along the road in perhaps second gear, clutch in, then when you have some momentum, releasing the clutch so that you are driving the engine, like the starter would.

On a small bike, often possible to push start purely on the clutch, it not taking much effort to turn the engine over; other wise may need a 'bump' sitting on the saddle as you release the clutch to load the back wheel and get some traction so it doesn't 'lock' against resistance of engine...

Hills are a double edged swrdt. Bumping down them is great; you can use gravity to start the engine. Not so good if the engine doesn't catch and you have to push them all the way back up again!
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My Webby'Tef's-tQ, loads of stuff about my bikes, my Land-Rovers, and the stuff I do with them!
Current Bikes:'Honda VF1000F' ;'CB750F2N' ;'CB125TD ( 6 3 of em!)'; 'Montesa Cota 248'. Learner FAQ's:= 'U want to Ride a Motorbike! Where Do U start?'

[CEDR]

Some interesting bits in there Teflon Mike, I am taking note as I've also had problems with my SR125 (1998).

I would say that Halford don't stock the right battery for the SR125 (or at least my two local ones didn't), so I bought one from ebay.

I've had problems with my bike starting- the reg/rec went, dusted the battery and blew most my bulbs. New reg/rec, new battery and the bike still won't start- starter button isn't doing anything. Husband has checked the switch and it seems to have a continuous circuit... but doesn't work!