Author Topic: Wrong Battery, may have fried my ground strap (Read 2045 times)

fastbroshi · « **on:** February 19, 2011, 04:48:28 PM »

   So it's happened for the second time to my bike. It happened before I bought the bike, so I unwrapped the harness, repaired it, and it worked beautifully until today. My battery was dead so I'd gotten a replacement battery from Batteries Plus and checked the dimensions, and it was the right one. While at the store I specifically told the guy what year, model of bike and I bought what he gave me. Not only was it the wrong one (poles were reversed), but I had to go back because the dolt only filled one cell with acid. Yes, one. Didn't think I'd have to double check THAT before I left.

   I went back and got it filled properly, went home and put it on the charger to bring it up to snuff. Went to install it today and hooked it up and promptly got a bunch of white smoke. It was probably on there for maybe 10 seconds, max. I've yet to disassemble things to investigate the extent of the damage.

   Do you guys think 10 seconds is enough time to do enough damage as to render my charging system a writeoff? Would I be justified in asking them to replace my harness? I did after all identify what bike I wanted the battery for. I almost think I'm not, but think about it in terms of a car. If they did that with a car battery, it would be automatic, I'd ask them to foot the bill for repairs.

  What do you all think? Oh I almost forgot, the guy working there smelled like weed. He'd obviously just smoked a doobie before we did business.

bollingball · « **Reply #1 on:** February 19, 2011, 05:18:43 PM »

First you said (it happened before I got it) Then you said it was the right battery then you said it wasn't? You have a wiring issue. Hooking up a battery is not ROCKET SIENCE you don't have a claim in HELL. Own up to your own mistake. Who has been smoking here? One thing I have learned it does not matter how many post someone has it is what they learn by reading the other post. Hope that was not to harsh. Maybe you will get it this time. Use a ohm meter. until you learn more about voltage. Tell us what is not working and let's go from there

Gordon · « **Reply #2 on:** February 19, 2011, 05:21:39 PM »

A tenth of a second is plenty long enough to kill the rectifier, let alone ten seconds. It's toast.

wildcatmahone · « **Reply #3 on:** February 19, 2011, 05:25:02 PM »

Hey you can try to bull#$%* the store unlikely though if it was the correct battery. If you had a problem with your electric system BEFORE you tried the new battery you got some diagnosing to do good luck.

fastbroshi · « **Reply #4 on:** February 19, 2011, 05:26:36 PM »

Slightly modified what I typed up top so it would be understood the harness was fried before I bought the bike, so I repaired it. It's happened again. I did not modify the section stating that the poles on the incorrect replacement battery were REVERSED.

TwoTired · « **Reply #5 on:** February 19, 2011, 05:29:34 PM »

If they installed the battery with wrong polarity, it's their fault. If you installed the battery with wrong polarity, it's your fault. Even if they gave your the wrong battery. It's the installer's job to verify the correct part correctly installed.

Where did the white smoke come from?

At the very least, check the diodes in the rectifier, as passing 200-400 amps plus through wiring and connectors rated for 20 Amps is asking quite a bit for robustness.

As for 10 seconds, lightening can do a lot of damage in just a fraction of that time. Electricity in both cases. Electrons are quite fast. Far faster than human reaction time.

They should replace the battery with one that has the correct pole lug orientation. That's their error. The damage to the bike that was caused by you putting in the wrong part is your responsibility. IMO.

Cheers,

Gordon · « **Reply #6 on:** February 19, 2011, 05:32:09 PM »

Quote from: TwoTired on February 19, 2011, 05:29:34 PM

They should replace the battery with one that has the correct pole lug orientation. That's their error. The damage to the bike that was caused by you putting in the wrong part is your responsibility. IMO.

Agreed

fastbroshi · « **Reply #7 on:** February 19, 2011, 05:36:55 PM »

All good points you guys. I guess I just got in a hurry, I REALLY wanted to ride today, the weather was perfect. Was it not Gordon?

scottly · « **Reply #8 on:** February 19, 2011, 05:46:14 PM »

After you had repaired the harness, had you run the bike with another battery, or was this the first time you hooked up a fully charged battery? If it was, the rectifier may have already been shorted, causing the original damage??

fastbroshi · « **Reply #9 on:** February 19, 2011, 05:50:50 PM »

After I initally repaired the harness, I replaced the rectifier with a new one. Replaced the battery with a new one and ran it like that for 1.5 years. No problems until today.

bollingball · « **Reply #10 on:** February 19, 2011, 06:21:58 PM »

fastbroshi Sorry about spouting off earlier been a long day

I think you should take the batt. back for the correct pole layout witch seems to have caused all this. You will still have to check out the rectifier as TT said and as gordan said it is probably toast. So now you are back to square one

How bad does that ground strap look. Where did you see the smoke? what bike is this I may have a spare rectifier. However you may want to go with a solid one

fastbroshi · « **Reply #11 on:** February 19, 2011, 06:30:53 PM »

Don't worry about it bud. I probably put too many details in my first post judging by everyone's responses. It's just that with electrical stuff you have to be pretty detailed, I guess I just wasn't concise enough. I've got a line on one already, but he hasn't tested it yet to see if it's within specs. I'll probably end up getting another from here after all's said and done:

http://www.oregonmotorcycleparts.com/rectifiers3p.html

My first one worked reliably for me before I decided to sabotage it.

Gordon · « **Reply #12 on:** February 19, 2011, 06:34:31 PM »

Quote from: fastbroshi on February 19, 2011, 05:36:55 PM

I REALLY wanted to ride today, the weather was perfect. Was it not Gordon?

Absolutely!!
Luckily the only bike problem I had today was deciding which one to ride.

I definitely understand the rush to get it on the road. We only have this small window of nice temps before it gets back up into the sauna range.

crazypj · « **Reply #13 on:** February 19, 2011, 06:55:06 PM »

Quote from: TwoTired on February 19, 2011, 05:29:34 PM

Electrons are quite fast.
Far faster than human reaction time.

Brilliant understatement, made me LOL

fastbroshi · « **Reply #14 on:** February 19, 2011, 07:08:59 PM »

Ok, so I'm going through the instructions for a rectifier test as found in the FAQ. I'm trying to test an old rectifier I had lying around that I'm pretty sure is shot. Just trying to see if I can figure this procedure out as I didn't get it before and just ended up getting a new one. However I'd still like to know how to do this correctly.

This is where I'm looking, reply #1, part VI:

http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php?topic=1012.0

Positive I did the tests correctly, but the I'm only getting values for
B: 528, 520, 523 should fall between 5-40 ohms
H: 528, 511, 511 " "

I'm not sure what I'm measuring because of my results. I'm using the diode test on my mm, symbol looks like -->+.

crazypj · « **Reply #15 on:** February 20, 2011, 04:17:33 PM »

Switch to Ohms test (looks like a circle with open bottom and flat feet

)
Diode test will give funky numbers and most likely show current passing both directions.
An analog meter would be better bet for 'accurate' readings

scottly · « **Reply #16 on:** February 20, 2011, 05:09:54 PM »

Quote from: fastbroshi on February 19, 2011, 07:08:59 PM

Positive I did the tests correctly, but the I'm only getting values for
B: 528, 520, 523 should fall between 5-40 ohms
H: 528, 511, 511 " "

I'm not sure what I'm measuring because of my results. I'm using the diode test on my mm, symbol looks like -->+.

The diode test on digital meters doesn't read ohms, it measures the voltage drop across a conducting diode, in your case .528 V, .520 V, etc. Your readings look ok, as long as the readings with the meter leads reversed show an open reading (the same display as you get with the meter leads not touching anything).

Really? · « **Reply #17 on:** February 20, 2011, 06:01:57 PM »

I don't know that stuff on these bikes, I need to but I am in McKinney if you need some help. But I think you already know that.

fastbroshi · « **Reply #18 on:** February 20, 2011, 08:16:03 PM »

Quote from: scottly on February 20, 2011, 05:09:54 PM

Quote from: fastbroshi on February 19, 2011, 07:08:59 PM

Positive I did the tests correctly, but the I'm only getting values for
B: 528, 520, 523 should fall between 5-40 ohms
H: 528, 511, 511 " "

I'm not sure what I'm measuring because of my results. I'm using the diode test on my mm, symbol looks like -->+.

The diode test on digital meters doesn't read ohms, it measures the voltage drop across a conducting diode, in your case .528 V, .520 V, etc. Your readings look ok, as long as the readings with the meter leads reversed show an open reading (the same display as you get with the meter leads not touching anything).

Yup, they were open when the leads were reversed. I guess the part VI in the FAQ should state the instructions are for a resistance test, not a diode test.

scottly · « **Reply #19 on:** February 20, 2011, 08:32:49 PM »

Quote from: fastbroshi on February 20, 2011, 08:16:03 PM

Yup, they were open when the leads were reversed. I guess the part VI in the FAQ should state the instructions are for a resistance test, not a diode test.

Don't know about part VI in the FAQ; Maybe it should be amended to include a diode tester, since most of the digital meters guys are using have one?

bollingball · « **Reply #20 on:** February 20, 2011, 09:02:40 PM »

Part VI say to expect 5 to 40 ohms and 2000 ohms these are resistence reading so you would expect to use a ohm meter

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Author Topic: Wrong Battery, may have fried my ground strap (Read 2045 times)

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