Baja Designs Battery Explosion???

[Firemnwhyt]

Anyone with a Baja Designs Dual Sport Kit ever had the batteries completely come apart? They didnt actually explode, just came loose and rattled themselves apart in the airbox. The cheap double sided tape and zip tie they use to mount them in the airbox didnt seem to hold. The only two that stayed together were the two with the positive and negative wires attached to them.

Would there be any problems running without the batteries or should I try to series them back together or should they be replaced with a battery isolator?

Any other suggestions?

[freestyle111]

if the batteries broke apart you better wash everything real good otherwise in a few month everthing will be corroded.it happened to me before on my kdx.use baking soda in water to wash bike it neutralizes acid.

[RLucky82]

wash wash wash... No there shouldn't be a problem without the battery. altho I haven't tried it yet. the only problem should be when you use you turn signals or hit the brakes your headlight will dim. Let me know if you try this. the main reason for the battery is because some states require your parking lights to be able to remain on for atleast 1/2 hour after you turn your bike off.

[MotoGreg]

The voltage regulators those kits use go bad after a couple years of use and they overcharge and smoke the battery. Mine also burnt out all the bulbs at high rpm when the regulator went out. You need to hook a voltmeter up to the battery leads and rev the bike up and make sure it's not going past 14-15 volts. I had to replace my regulator and I'm using this battey (click here).

[needsprayer]

The battery acts as a load on the AC/DC regulator/rectifier unit and helps protect the reg/rec unit. If the battery is removed an electrolytic capacitor must be put in its place.

BAJA DESIGNS sells this capacitor for $19.95. Its a 4200 micro farad unit. I have one on my bike.

[Cool6t5]

Mine actually exploded in the air box (what a mess). I spoke with Baja Designs and told them that I mainly ran w/o my head light on. They said to always run with my headlight on unless the battery is discharged because the head light load is needed to reduce the power to the battery. I took their advice and have not had a problem since.

[Firemnwhyt]

Thanks for the info Guys:

RLucky82- The bike runs fine without the battery, however the lights, turnsignals, horn, etc. do not work-at all.

Motogreg- I did ride the bike this weekend with just the two AA batteries hooked up (just hafta ride)so I may have screwed up the regulator also. I have not tested it yet but I will. Where do I find the Power Sonic battery you listed? I'd much rather use a battery than the eliminator (capacitor).

Thanks Scott

[MotoGreg]

You can look for the battery online but I got it at a local electronics store for $17.

[techman]

If you go the capacitor route (which, by the way, you can leave connected in whether the battery's there or not, NiCad or lead acid) you can get one at an electronic surplus store for a few bucks. To be safe, get 20Vdc or higher rating and probably 4500 uF or larger, depending what size and shape you happen to find on the shelf. Higher voltage rating and higher uF both = bigger physical size.

On the batteries falling apart, if they're NiCads (10 little guys made into a series bundle) odds are they over charged and overheated from the overcharge. As NiCads get older, their "full charge" voltage drops from just over 14V for a 10 pack to perhaps 13.something volts. Give them say 0.3 volts beyond full voltage (when they have already achieved full charge) and they'll just keep heating up till they can melt the plastic wrap and even the solder.

An additional solution to keeping the headlight on to lower the system voltage and draw down the NiCad voltage periodically (avoiding the fully charged state plus still trying to charge circumstance) is to put a parallel diode and resistor in the charge line to the battery - let it deliver power through the diode and charge through the resistor (point the diode away from the battery positive terminal). You could experiment with 10's of ohms sizes. The test would be whether your batteries got hot after a long road ride, when they started out near fully charged. Bigger R reduces charge current and battery heating. Too big of R and you'd have trouble getting the batteries fully charged in too much stop and go riding. Overcharging is relatively a non-issue with lead acids except when severe and that usually just causes faster water loss.

You'll note the PowerSonic Ps1208 is 800 mAhrs. The little Nicads can easily be twice that capacity with smaller size (perhaps) and for sure equal size, which is why BD would go for NiCads in their design.