Author Topic: It effing figures...... (Read 2447 times)

Geeto67 · « **on:** March 16, 2008, 03:31:42 PM »

So Thursday I waited 3 hours at the DMV to get plates for my cb750F cafe racer. After a year of it clogging my handy lift with little pain in the rear tasks caused from its former life on the streets I said screw this I am going to ride this bike come hell or high water. So yesterday I take her off the lift, install the license plate, filled the tired to the proper pressures, check the brakes to make sure they were not sticking (a 1982 cb750F brake upgrade is in the near future), and give her a good once over.

I turn the key, make sure I am showing idiot lights, pull the choke, prime the carbs, hit the starter......and I get a loud pop before the entire bike goes dead. So I put the battery tender on the battery and get good but slightly low reading. Pull all the fuses and they check out ok. Replace them just in case anyway. When the key is off I get a normal reeding from the battery tender, when I turn the key to the off position the tender goes back to reading as if it is not connected at all. When I turn it to park I get the taillight and the battery tender is reading that the battery has a charge.

so the question is, was that audible pop my starter solenoid or my ignition switch going bad?

Tim2005 · « **Reply #1 on:** March 16, 2008, 03:42:04 PM »

Sounds familiar...I'd check the earth lead connection on your battery first, then the other end of it.

Aaron J Williams · « **Reply #2 on:** March 16, 2008, 03:53:45 PM »

Not to go off-topic but how do you like that handy lift table? I have been thinking of buying one if they work good.

cafe750 · « **Reply #3 on:** March 16, 2008, 03:56:50 PM »

Quote from: Aaron J Williams on March 16, 2008, 03:53:45 PM

Not to go off-topic but how do you like that handy lift table? I have been thinking of buying one if they work good.

I dont have a Handy lift, but I do have one of the full platform lifts from Harbor Freight and it makes working on motorcycles a dream. Everything is at eye level, and no more playing "super-contortie" to look at the underside of the bike....

heffay · « **Reply #4 on:** March 16, 2008, 04:01:37 PM »

Quote from: Geeto67 on March 16, 2008, 03:31:42 PM

so the question is, was that audible pop my starter solenoid or my ignition switch going bad?

doesn't matter... go crank that thing again and get it started.

no really, loud pop, something went south somewhere. i had an exposed wire once... guess what it took to arc the spark... gasoline! if it had happened while the bike was running and the fuel pump was continuously running i'd been a fireball screaming down the road. instead it pumped a bit out of a leaky connection, enough to spark and blow the main fuse.

interesting thing that made me remember this story is that i checked the fuses... everything was fine

on that bike... the main is on the opposite side of the bike to make it seem like i'd checked them all $:-\$
i actually had to get out the manual to find all the fuses.

Geeto67 · « **Reply #5 on:** March 16, 2008, 04:15:46 PM »

Quote from: Aaron J Williams on March 16, 2008, 03:53:45 PM

Not to go off-topic but how do you like that handy lift table? I have been thinking of buying one if they work good.

I love my handy lift. Not like it, love it!!!! I got spoiled by them when I was working in a shop with them and it made life so much easier. Even cleaning a bike is better on a handy lift. It was expensive, but to me worth every cent.

To be fair harbor freight does sell a decent lift at a fraction of the cost. I did hang out in a shop that had a HB lift and it actually broke under the weight of a fully dressed VTX1800 (the seals blew out of the air lines - had to get a high lift jack and jack it up and back it down). To be fair they warrantied it but I just don't personally like them.

if you have the money, and you know motorcycling is not a passing fad for you, I suggest you buy one. Try to look for them used, the handy lifts are indestructible, If I could have found one used I would have bought one.

as far as the battery is concerned i'l check it. Any other ideas?

I have a DOHC starter solenoid around here somewhere, I think I will try it on the bike to see if that makes a difference. With the DOHC solenoids there is a fuseable link, surprised there is not one on the SOHCs.

paulages · « **Reply #6 on:** March 16, 2008, 04:21:42 PM »

i just spent a while chasing a short out on one bike... real pain in the ass. not that hard really, but it was of course in the last connection i tested. anyway, just take a test lamp and hook the clip end to the positive terminal on the battery. touch the other end to the frame to test for ground. if it lights up fine, start poking around at the hot connections on the bike. you'll find the ground when your test lamp lights up. theoretically, no black, black/white, red, brown, brown and white, blue, or orange wire should light it, as these are all the powered end of their respective circuits. i'd start at the solenoid connections and work my way to the ignition switch and fuse box.

by the way: love my harbor freight lift, but i've only had it a year and has already started deteriorating...leave a bike on the lift overnight and it's a couple feet lower in the morning. i really doubt HF has refurbushing parts for the hydraulics.

Jerry Rxman Griffin aka MuthaF'er · « **Reply #7 on:** March 16, 2008, 05:02:21 PM »

Only time my 91 Acura Legend let me down I turned the key only to hear a loud pop. Thought I'd blown open the muffler. Turned out to be the battery shorted internally and blew. Check your battery voltage. I didn't have any external damage that I could see.

ProTeal55 · « **Reply #8 on:** March 16, 2008, 05:12:04 PM »

Def. sounds like you have an exposed wire somewhere.
I had something similar happen on my old CB750.
I would be riding down the street, then hear this "pop" and the bike would shut off.
After pulling over to the side of the road, I would restart the bike and all would be fine.
After this happening 4 or 5 times I took the tank off and looked at my wiring, just to find a small piece of bare wire sitting aginst the frame. Alittle electrical tape and all was well...

Geeto67 · « **Reply #9 on:** March 25, 2008, 08:46:24 AM »

Pulled the old battery out of the bike. It was a sealed yausa battery. Put a new bike master battery in - bike starts right up and runs fine.

Never heard of a sealed battery popping before, has anybody else?

fastbroshi · « **Reply #10 on:** March 25, 2008, 08:58:27 AM »

It beats frying a quarter-inch ratchet by laying it across the poles.

heffay · « **Reply #11 on:** March 25, 2008, 09:19:31 AM »

Quote from: Geeto67 on March 25, 2008, 08:46:24 AM

Pulled the old battery out of the bike. It was a sealed yausa battery. Put a new bike master battery in - bike starts right up and runs fine.

Never heard of a sealed battery popping before, has anybody else?

obviously... that yuasa crap was the weakest link in the entire bike.

i don't see why any battery wouldn't just zorch itself if it felt like it... sealed or not.

Geeto67 · « **Reply #12 on:** March 25, 2008, 01:04:15 PM »

I always thought yausa batterys were supposed to be good....better than my bought at wallmart $15 bikemaster battery anyway....

heffay · « **Reply #13 on:** March 25, 2008, 01:27:37 PM »

was comparing to honda!!! yuasa is OBVIOUSLY weakest link.

TwoTired · « **Reply #14 on:** March 25, 2008, 02:58:56 PM »

Quote from: heffay on March 25, 2008, 09:19:31 AM

i don't see why any battery wouldn't just zorch itself if it felt like it... sealed or not.

Um, plate separator technology? Manufacturing consistency? Quality control procedures?

I haven't done the research. But, I wonder if gel batteries are made for vibration environments?
Just thinking out loud...

Cheers,

heffay · « **Reply #15 on:** March 25, 2008, 02:59:44 PM »

jesus christ! IT WAS A JOKE, HOWDY.

heffay · « **Reply #16 on:** March 25, 2008, 03:08:52 PM »

will somebody PLEASE get that guy a funny bone.

Gordon · « **Reply #17 on:** March 25, 2008, 04:38:45 PM »

Quote from: heffay on March 25, 2008, 03:08:52 PM

will somebody PLEASE get that guy a funny bone.

There was a transplant attempted once.

Unfortunately, it rejected him.

Geeto67 · « **Reply #18 on:** March 25, 2008, 05:12:58 PM »

insert ubiquitous rim shot here.....(no wait not that kind of rim shot....ewwwwwww)

anyway - put that sealed sucker on the batt tester and she tested fine. Hook it up to a bike and she is deader than Elvis (no actually movement but occasional sightings of life). Put the bike master on the tester and she comes up with the same readings but put her in the bike and the bike has full power and that e-start spins her up quick. hmmmmmm. Tested and cleaned all the cables and she all looks a-ok.

I think this weekend I'll put her on the charger and see if I can't pull a Lazarus (wow biblical references - Jesus Christ I'm entertaining on a whole new level now)

Interestingly enough this is the third sealed battery to go bad on me in under a year. Yet the cheap-o vented batteries I keep buying seem to last me forever. I still have a battery I bought in a walmart in joisey in 2001 in my K5 when the old one refused to charge. Maybe it is because at $15 a pop the walmart batteries haven't been in some store room somewhere since the carter administration.

and BTW, I know they are the devil and all and ruining America and such, but really can you beat $15 for a motorcycle battery? It is like they know me too because every time I walk in there the motorcycle/atv batteries are on sale (normally they are like $20 but I have never paid that price).

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Author Topic: It effing figures...... (Read 2447 times)