sorry to be a pain on the forum but need more help, getting the xt500 somewhere near ready for mot so needed the horn to work, long story short, charged the battery 5.8 on the meter, connected up-ignition on-neutral light on, tried horn and can hear sort of click but very faint, looked at neutral light and its very faint so turned ign off tried the meter on the battery which read 3.6 turned ign on and drops to 1.6 and dropping like watching a digital clock seconds. what can cause this? battery is only 3-4 months old. dont know what i am doing with a multimeter so please try and keep things simple

cheers wayne

Does the XT have a 12 volt battery? If so then 5.8 volts is very low.

Does the horn work with the engine running and what is the battery voltage with the engine running?

its a 6volt battery, the regulator is not on the bike at the mo, got a tech in work checking it out for me, i have put a new rectifier on. seem to remember i tried it but no surge in voltage. will try when i get it back and let you know

I thought the 500e 86 on were 12 volts and the 84/85's were 6v. This needs to be checked. What age is the bike as your profile says XT500e? There are 6 to 12v conversions kits available.

I am guessing that the horn is the same volts as the battery. Have you tried putting the horn directly across the battery to see if it sounds?

sounds like a duff battery to me! a good charged battery should have read more than 5.8v in the first place.

What battery charger have you been using to charge it with?

the bike was registered on 21/6/78 so i believe thats a E model, definately 6 volt and battery is only a cple of months old, using a cheap trickle charger overnight. if its a dud battery would it lose charge that fast?

a good test of the battery without any sophisticated equipment would be to

remove it,

charge it fully.

disconnect the horn.

connect battery - to one side of the horn and dab a wire connected to battery + to the other side.

leave it a few days if you can stand the wait and do the same again

if it hold up ok then you have other issues than the battery

the bike was registered on 21/6/78 so i believe thats a E model, definately 6 volt ..............

I stand corrected.