Battery swap?

[richard]

I have a Yuasa 12N12A-4A1 battery I bought for a 72 and never used. Other than the difference in terminals it there any reason I couldn't run it in my 1980 XS650. I've been trying to find out the difference in cranking amp and amp hours between the two batteries and I'm not having much luck on finding detailed specs.

Does anyone have any recommendations on those new lithium battery replacements. They are a whole lot more money($148 bucks)and I'm not sure if any advantages would justify the increased cost.

I bought my 1980 figuring to make a bunch of changes to it, but after riding it around as is, I liked it so much I ended up leaving it all stock, except for the handlebars and fuse box. It has the original battery I bought it with and that is getting a little tired in the cold winter air.

[grizld1]

Richard, I haven't tried one myself, but there have been reports of lithium batteries melting down and even catching fire on some bikes, and a friend of mine in the Yamaha 650 Society had that experience in his older BMW. He tried twice; the first battery stopped charging and overheated. My friend metered out his charging system, found no grief, but paid a BMW shop to go through it again just to be sure. There were no defects.

Ballistic replaced the battery. The replacement caught fire--fortunately after it had lost charge and killed the motor, and after my friend had grabbed the smoking thing with a rag and removed it. A Ballistic service rep told my friend that the battery was incompatible with his charging system. When it was pointed out that Ballistic had the bike on their application list, the rep basically said "Can't help you" and hung up--no refund, no satisfaction, nothing.

Anyway, there's no difference in alternator specs between the 72 and the 80, so although later models came with the 14YBL, the 12N12A should work, though it's not as strong.

[richard]

Thanks Grizld1

I was kind of worried about that Ballistic or Shorai because after watching the Jeff Dahn's of Dalhousie University on lecture on lithium batteries, it seems they can be very unforgiving on anything off of nominal range depending on the compounds they are made of. Interesting stuff. I might try the 12N12A-4A1 for the 72 because it's newer. I have nothing to lose at this point. I might thin I'll hold off on the lithium after what you said. Anoter issue the occurs to me is that some of the lithium's are putting out over 230 CCA. It kind of make me wonder how they would effect a starting system that normally only sees about 115 CCA. If it hangs on the compression stroke it could fry cables starter windings and all. I have 13 volt on my existing and It starts the bike, but hangs a little sometimes on a cold start. I might need to check the amp draw too to make sure I'm not missing something else, and also I might be being too picky.