Why did my battery explode ???

This topic has 7 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 6 years, 5 months ago by Jim.

Viewing 8 posts - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)

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March 12, 2018 at 12:23 pm #1840
oldmgs Member	What would cause my battery to explode? This what happened. When I finally got the Nzeta on the road last year the electric start was working fine. Then about six months ago it stopped working – would try to turn the engine, but couldn’t quite do it. So I have been using the kick start. On Sunday afternoon I was working in the shed when this high-pitched whistle appeared. Eventually traced it to the battery under the Nzeta seat – which was boiling and swelling up like a balloon and the whistle was steam escaping – it is a 14 amp sealed battery. I do have a battery isolator which I usually use when parked up, but I had left the battery connected since a week past Saturday. I switched the battery off in some haste and retired to a safe distance while it cooled down. The heavy cable from the solid-state rectifier to the starter was also very hot. Once it had cooled I had to saw off one side the swollen casing to get the battery out the hole in the seat bottom! So definitely need a new battery. The good news is that I connected another smaller battery and the scooter started – so no permanent damage to the wiring I think. What might have caused this – could the battery be faulty? Should I just disconnect the starter? Will the dynamo still work? Advice gratefully received. Douglas
March 12, 2018 at 12:53 pm #1841
Jim Keymaster	Bloody hell. You are the second person I have heard of with an “exploded” battery issue. Was it a motobatt one Douglas ? I think the issue the other guy had was the battery could short out against the seat bottom. I have also heard that those batteries can be overcharged which also causes them to swell up and motobatt recommend their charger /tester. http://www.motobatt.com/FAQ-MotoBatt-Battery-Tester&p=65&b=61 Will the scooter run without a battery ?
March 13, 2018 at 9:09 am #1842
nzeta_mike Member	Generally that will only happen if it’s being overcharged. Did you happen to check charging voltage when it was running? It should be possible to fit an after market generic voltate regulator and keep it in check. Happy to help figure out a solution if this turns out to be the issue. Cheers Mike
March 13, 2018 at 1:14 pm #1843
oldmgs Member	Well it has not been run much. about 200k in a year. Had not been out for 8 days and just sitting with the battery connected to the electrics. Looking at it again I now see that it was the battery to rectifier wire that was very hot – and the rectifier was hot too. So to draw that sort of current there must be a short to earth? Cheers Douglas
March 13, 2018 at 2:13 pm #1844
Jim Keymaster	Hello Douglas, I’m scratching my head about this one… I found with my 502 that if I have the battery in it and leave the key in the ignition switch but in the off position, it drains it almost overnight. I haven’t got around to fixing this yet but if I leave the key out it will take ages for the battery to drain. Also didn’t you change the old PAL regulator for a newer one ? Do you still have the old one? cheers Jim
March 13, 2018 at 2:19 pm #1845
oldmgs Member	Yes I changed it for a sold state one – I think I have a couple of the old ones – do you need these? Looking at the wiring again it was the heavy lead from the battery to the regulator that was hot and the regulator was hot. So must have been drawing a big current over the week it was left on – perhaps a short in the regulator. I have left on connected before for periods with no trouble. Cheers Douglas
March 19, 2018 at 12:20 pm #1846
oldmgs Member	So, I checked the wiring and could find no evidence of a short, and it would start and run on the small scooter battery I bought before I got the 14.4 Amp Motobatt one. So I bought a new battery – same Motobatt one, looked at different makes but all too tall. Installed the battery and first thing is that the starter started working again! I had thought that it had probably stopped working because of a fault in the starter, but it now seems that the original battery must have been short of power – an internal short perhaps. I left it sitting for a few hours and no sign of heat in the battery, cable or rectifier – which were all hot when the blow up occurred. So perhaps I overcharged it – I did run it flat when I was having starting problems. So kick start now back under the seat. Cheers Douglas
March 19, 2018 at 3:08 pm #1855
Jim Keymaster	Good job Douglas. Some people really rate the motobatt batteries. I have only used one and it worked fine but their physical dimensions don’t suit some bikes or scooters. cheers, Jim

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