I tried jumping my bike and I think I blew something

[jimaug87]

I posted a thread in the general area the toher night telling of my dead battery. I tried jumping it last night, in the dark, and it didn't work. It didn't work because I hooked the cable to the negative lead on my bikes battery. It was dark, I couldn't see well, I feel stupid.

I tried jumping this afternoon in the daylight, when i realized my error and i thought i was home free.

I plugged my moms car to my battery. positive lead hooked and the negative cable grounded. When I turned the ignition to 'on', my oil light and neutral light lit up brighter then i have ever seen them. I was a happy kid thinking he was about to go for a ride.

Here is my problem:

When you jump a car you start the dead car while it's hooked up to the donor vehicle. I tried starting my bike with the cables still attached because I didn't know otherwise, there was a pop, a spark, and the lights went out.

My fuses are fine and i can't get the lights to coem back on. What did I blow?

[Doc]

Headlight bulb? Regulator/rectifier?

[Awesome]

Your description of whatever you did is vague and unclear. I don't know what you unhooked, hooked up wrong, or re-hooked up, or anything in between.

[KillBill]

I thought once your battery (on a motorcycle) was dead it would never hold a charge?? I killed my battery on my SV and had to replace the battery

[jimaug87]

I hooked the positive terminal from the car to the positive on the bike. I hooked the negative from the car to clean emtal on the bike as a ground. Right after I did that the neutral light lit up. I tried to start the bike with the cables hooked up. I heard the starter click, but not turn over. There was a spark, and a pop. The spark seemed to have jumped off of the grounded cable hooked to the bike. Then the neutral light and oil light never came back on.

[Degsy]

If it sparked you had a bad ground.

You had the car running....very bad move.

Cars (and bikes) have a floating ground (rubber tires are non conductive). The voltage (Potential difference) between the bike and car can be thousands of volts. 12V sits 12 volts above ground ON THAT VEHICLE. With the vehicles not running, when you hook the cables up, the grounds should be at the same level. If you have the car running, ground is floating anywhere it likes. When you hooked up the ground to the bike it SHOULD have been at the same ground as the car, but because you had a bad connection it could have been anywhere. Sooooo, you could have put thousands of volts through the bike's positive circuit. Probably not, but potentially you could have.

You could have fried any or all of the following:

Starter fuse, reg/rec, battery, ignition, wiring, ECU, instrument cluster.

The good news is that USUALLY, you just blow a fuse.

Got a multimeter? Start using it. Check the battery first for 12V across the terminals, then go from there.

derek

[keeena]

I posted a thread in the general area the toher night telling of my dead battery. I tried jumping it last night, in the dark, and it didn't work. It didn't work because I hooked the cable to the negative lead on my bikes battery.

That should have worked fine. Ground on jumper cables doesn't necessarily need to be to the motor/chassis; battery terminal would work (assuming bike's ground connection is still on battery as well). Chassis is a little better, but regardless...

Are you sure you checked all fuses? Sometimes there are a couple different locations.

Bottom line: if your jumper cable has voltage (meaning donor vehicle hooked up) and the bike does NOT get any lights after hooking up pos/neg, then some connection or component on the bike is toast (fuse or wiring). Basically what Degsy said - start testing fuses and wiring now.

[Paul_E_D]

it's likely you burnt some wiring. multi meter testing will tell...

[akira700]

On my bike there is one other fuse separate from the
fuse box that goes inline with the positive lead from the
battery. Check that.

Also get yourself a new battery while you dealing with all this stuff.
At least get that out of the equation.

[SSearchVT]

Chase the main leads from the battery through the harness - sometimes there are fusible links or fuses in line. Good luck...

[jimaug87]

Why do you start a car when you jump it, but not a bike? This is what got me into this whole mess. Thanks for all of the replies guys. I wouldn't suppose anyone knowledgable is in the northsore area? I'm in peabody and I fucking hate electricals. I'm going to search for more fuses, but the ones i saw are fresh.

[mycirus]

In the post yesterday I must have saw 4 or 5 different posts that said do not leave the car running!!!. Why did you not listen. But anyway yes I would look for another fuse block. What kind of bike is it again?

Bruce

[newgixxerchic]

did he ever say that the car was running...?

[mycirus]

did he ever say that the car was running...?

I dunno, the jibberish is hard to comprehend....

[newgixxerchic]

i don't think he did... just that he tried to start the bike with the cables still hooked up.... surely he didn't ignore every single post in that thread yesterday... surely... right??

[Dean_T]

More jibberish.

Jump Start The Battery From Another Motorcycle

Position the two motorcycles so the batteries are close enough together to facilitate the length of the jumper cable. Ensure the motorcycle with the good battery is NOT running.
Connect the RED clamp of the jumper cable to the positive (+) terminal on the dead battery.
Connect the BLACK clamp of the jumper cable to the negative (-) terminal on the dead battery, or to a grounded item on the motorcycle, such as the frame.
Connect the BLACK clamp of the jumper cable to the negative (-) terminal on the good battery, or to a grounded item on the motorcycle, such as the frame.
Connect the RED clamp of the jumper cable to the positive (+) terminal on the good battery.
Start the motorcycle with the good battery and wait a few minutes.
Start the motorcycle with the dead battery
Remove the RED cables first from the good battery, then from the bad battery.
Remove the BLACK cables from both batteries.
Leave the motorcycle with the bad battery running until you reach your destination and/or find a suitable place to re-charge the battery with a battery charger.
Jump Start The Battery From A Car
The procedure to jump start a motorcycle from a car is the same as it is for jump starting it from another motorcycle except for item (6). A car battery has more amperage, and the charging system for a car is much more powerful than that of a motorcycle. When jump starting a motorcycle from a car, DO NOT START THE CAR'S MOTOR because the extra power from the charging system will possibly destroy the motorcycle's charging system and could cause a fire. The car battery should have enough power to start the motorcycle without the car's motor running.

Compression Start The Motorcycle
Some times it may be easier to compression start the motorcycle, also known as a bump start or push start. It's possible to compression start a motorcycle by yourself, but it's easier if you have a couple of friends to help you if you're on flat ground.

Turn on the ignition, turn on the gas, and make sure the Kill Switch is turned to the RUN position.
Pull in the clutch and put the bike in second or third gear. (First gear may be too hard to turn the motor and may jerk the drive train too hard a may cause motor-mount failure.)
Coast the bike down a hill or have your friends push you.
Once you reach about 5 to 10 MPH, quickly release the clutch.
Apply a little throttle to maintain control and pull in the clutch.
The bike may not start on the first try, so repeat if needed. Also, a motorcycle with a completely dead battery may not start using the compression method.

Call For Help

[BostonSVkid]

Well I was ALWAYS tought NEVER EVER EVER EVER jump a bike with a car. Next time go out and buy a battery charger, put in on it over night and then give it a try. Its not worth waht you are going through to save $40 on a charger

[ZX-12R]

Why do you start a car when you jump it, but not a bike?

Car charging systems do not dissipate extra power in the form of heat like motorcycles do. They simply shut the field off in the alternator which reduces its output to zero. The rectification diodes in the alternator prevent current from flowing backwards through it. The higher voltage charging system will take over the charging duties for both batteries.

[keeena]

jimaug - I used to jump bikes with a running vehicle (before I knew it was a no-no) and never had a problem. I think it becomes more of a concern with extended periods of hookup to a running vehicle. Yeah, you should avoid it completely, but i doubt it would cause an instantaneous problem.

Like everyone has said, its most likely a fuse or poor/broken wire connection...not a toasted electrical system. If you were close I'd give ya some pointers.

Alternatively...I'll start the bidding on your ZX11: $500

[BostonSVkid]

Hey Keena
No offense but if there was a large quantity of electricity taht shot through that bikes system it very well could have fried some electrical connections before it hit a fuse I would get a schematic of your electrical system and slowly try everything from the battery out with a meter.

[jimaug87]

sorry for all of the exitment. New battery = problem fixed, and the bike runs.

[akira700]

Man that is anti-climatic !

Shoulda said its was totally toasted and you were gonna
make it a big paper weight !

[Cheese]

sorry for all of the exitment. New battery = problem fixed, and the bike runs.

Uh ... you still may want to check that old battery with a meter. The "dead battery" symptoms you described failure to jump and popping (arcing) using the bike frame may have indicated a loose battery connection. The fix would have been to tighten the connections which you have now done with the installation of the new battery. You may have just bought a spare battery for your bike. Alternatively, a truly dead battery would load your charging system to the point that you couldn't start the bike.

[jimaug87]

In the post yesterday I must have saw 4 or 5 different posts that said do not leave the car running!!!. Why did you not listen. But anyway yes I would look for another fuse block. What kind of bike is it again?

Bruce

If it sparked you had a bad ground.

You had the car running....very bad move.

Cars (and bikes) have a floating ground (rubber tires are non conductive). The voltage (Potential difference) between the bike and car can be thousands of volts. 12V sits 12 volts above ground ON THAT VEHICLE. With the vehicles not running, when you hook the cables up, the grounds should be at the same level. If you have the car running, ground is floating anywhere it likes. When you hooked up the ground to the bike it SHOULD have been at the same ground as the car, but because you had a bad connection it could have been anywhere. Sooooo, you could have put thousands of volts through the bike's positive circuit. Probably not, but potentially you could have.

You could have fried any or all of the following:

Starter fuse, reg/rec, battery, ignition, wiring, ECU, instrument cluster.

The good news is that USUALLY, you just blow a fuse.

Got a multimeter? Start using it. Check the battery first for 12V across the terminals, then go from there.

derek

I sugegst you guys read carefully before flaming someone. I said I tried starting my bike, not the car.

[Degsy]

1. I didn't flame you.
2. Multiple people thought you had the car started, look in the mirror.

3. You had a sentence in your first post about trying to start the bike AFTER disconnecting the jump leads. This leads us to believe you either:

a: Tried to charge the bike battery with the car running.
b: Were really dumb and thought you could just attach the jump cables, then disconnect them and the bike battery would magically be charged up.

In either scenario, maybe you shouldn't be around anything electrical

Now THAT was a flame. :-)