Topic: Please help! New battery lead killed my bike? REBORN

[Nortstudio]

I had been inquiring about new negative/ground battery leads recently because the one on the bike seems a little flaky.

I got a new wire, put some ends on it, and hooked it back up.

I had just ridden in before I started all this - and everything was fine. Tried to turn it over with starter and it sounded like it was cranking with a slight clicking noise, for about 2 seconds. Hit it again and nothing. Tried briefly to kick it. No luck.

I detached the wire, checked the connections of the wire to ends, put it back on and it did the same thing. sounded like it cranked over, clicking for a second, then nothing.

After triple checking the wire looked good, both bolt to frame and screw to battery tight, I put the key in the ignition (I had been removing it each time) and when I turned ignition on, it made same crank/click noise, but I realized i hadn't even turned on the kill switch yet.

What did I destroy here?  

Thanks in advance. Not feeling very coordinated today

[Nortstudio]

This is a photo of What was buried beneath the hump of electrical tape that made me worried. Should have left well enough alone.

Is this thing supposed to be in there?  It's sorta a junction to extend the cable???

[OldSchool_IsCool]

No, that junction shouldn't be there.  Prolly not dangerous, but certainly not ideal.  You mentioned that the cable runs from the batt to the frame?  I think the standard setup would have it run to the engine block.

As for cranking, is your battery fully charged?

[Nortstudio]

The wire goes down to a bolt that goes through the frame on the right side. On the back side of that location I noticed it connects to the engine block, so that was working ok, before I monkey'd with it and messed it up 

I just put it on the tender to refresh it, after a couple tries I decided to test the battery, it was at 11.4 (usually at 12.x when fully charged - which has been working great).

Not sure what the clicking noise would be, nor why it would do that the first try, then nothing after that. And then do the identical thing again a few moments later???

[mlinder]

Put battery back in.

Attach multimeter to battery.

Check voltage.

Turn key on.

Check voltage.

Push starter button, check voltage while pushing starter button.

Report back.

[Skunk Stripe]

That click sounds like a starter not getting enough juice. So either battery is tanking or something is making a bad connection.

[Nortstudio]

Unfortunately I have lost the light here folks (Brooklyn curb for a workshop sucks sometimes!).  Let me see if I can get a reading in the dark.

Be back shortly....

Thanks for all the help

[octagon]

i'm asking more than advising here. can't you connect volt meter leads between the positive battery post and the positive cable (in other words, the positive cable is disconnected. but the negative cable is in place on the negative battery terminal) and measure if you have a current drain? with the key off the meter should measure zero.

[dave500]

maybe the starter relay is sticking?if you turned the key and it tried to crank?

[Nortstudio]

Ok folks.  False alarm (hopefully).  I went down to get measurements, and when I got to the last measurement with starter on...it cranked over. 

The measurements were as follows:

No power - just battery: 11.8
Key on - no starter: 11.0
Starter on: 7.8

Starter gets stuck sometimes, so it sort of drained out after that, before I could unstick it (couldn't measure, start and give gas all at once).  But I was able to kick start it immediately.  Took the battery back inside to charge fully. 

I guess the starter needed more juice.  Weird thing is, this winter when it got really cold, and the battery was drained, it never sounded like that when I attempted to turn it over.  It sorta sounded like it was dying a slow death, but I don't recall hearing the clicking.

I can now officially testify to the fact that not only do responses to questions fix things here, but even just POSTING fixes things here . Just by knowing you guys are on the case, these CBs fall into line for you people!!!

Thanks so much for all the help. 

The irony is that I just received some aftermarket turn signals today, and figured I would be "smart" about it, and fix the weird wire before attempting that replacement.  One thing at a time seems to be the smart way to work, except it gets frustrating when you end up braking the first thing in the chain....

[mlinder]

Battery is toast.

7.8 won't turn jack crap.

[Nortstudio]

Really?  Is there something I did with replacing this wire to toast it?  Because it was turning fine just moments before I changed this damn wire.

Ugh, sometimes I need to leave well enough alone....

[mlinder]

Really?  Is there something I did with replacing this wire to toast it?  Because it was turning fine just moments before I changed this damn wire.

Ugh, sometimes I need to leave well enough alone....

I don't know what you did. You didn't happen to reverse polarity, even for a moment, did you?

[bollingball]

Nort fully charge the Batt. over night. let it sit off charger for two hours and take a volt reading look for about 12.6 VDC report back do test off bike.keep water level up.

[Nortstudio]

I didn't reverse the polarity.  I'm afraid that maybe the connections on the wire/ends were not crimped well enough at first.  I definitely knocked 'em down good when I took it off to check.  They are rock solid now, but of course I cut the shrink wrap off that I had put on there, to check my (not so) handiwork. 

I will charge it overnight.  It usually hits 12.6, in the past anyway.  Hopefully this was some weird fluke and I somehow drained the battery with my ignorance, but its not permanent.

Good grief.  And I was all excited to move on to installing turn signals that are not attached to clamps that have been hammered down toward the ground by an illustrious PO

[Nortstudio]

Nort fully charge the Batt. over night. let it sit off charger for two hours and take a volt reading look for about 12.6 VDC report back do test off bike.keep water level up.

Here seethe results after charging overnight, and then letting it sit for 2 hours:

After charge:
No power: 12.7
Key on: 12.0
Starter: 11.9 or 12.0 if I rev'd a little.

It's up and running. Not sure if it will drain weird or not. I'll have to take it for a spin later and then test again.

Thanks for all your help. Sorry for the panic

[mlinder]

Rev to 5 grand with multimeter on the battery terminals. If the voltage does not rise, and rise to around 13v, you are not charging. Time to check ground connections for reg-rec, and test if reg-rec are working.