There's stupid, F%cking stupid and then there's me!

I wanted to fire up the bike because she hasn't been started for a couple of weeks. Because she's been standing idle, I hooked up a car battery to give her an extra boost. To cut a long story short, very tired blah blah, not paying attention, blah blah hooked up the negative first, then the live and then the sparks

Unhooked it as fast as I could, but electricity is faster than I am and the damage was done. The only hope I had was the ignition was not turned on, so I tried it, but alas nothing, no dash lights, just completely dead.

So far I have checked the 30 amp fuse on the starter solenoid, this is blown, I have checked all the fuses under the left clip-on and they all appear to be intact.

I replaced the 30 amp fuse, but still nothing just completely dead.

So what else can I check and what is the probable damage?

I bloody well hate electrickery at the best of times, but I've a feeling I'll need to learn a lot.

I do have a spare wiring loom, it's a bit butchered, but it may provide me with some spares.

Any help will be greatly appreciated as always.

If you just want to call me an idiot, that's OK as well.

 

To win the Darwin award you'll have to try harder.

I always tap the cables rather than clamp them down at first try. You should know better Hawk.

 

I've fallen over several times trying to kick myself up the ****!!

 

It's difficult to not kick yourself after something like that, but don't. The only people in this life who've never made a mistake are those who've never done anything.

I assume you have done a visual check for scorched wires soooo . . .

Were it me, I'd disconnect the battery terminals, grab an ohm meter and check for continuity down to the starter solenoid, then from the solenoid to ground. Since that is the fuse that blew it appears that's where the current went.

Next do the same with charging circuit.

If those circuits are good isolate circuits until a wire that didn't show continuity is found.

I wish you luck and one fried wire that keep curred from flowing.

Oh, for goodness sake. What am I thinking? Check the battery before doing anything. A good reverse charge from a car battery could cause in internal open in the bifke battery.

 

+1 for checking battery first, try jump startin it (Sorry).


Maybe you should invest in some jumper leads with polarity protection as well.


Michelin Intelligent Jumper Leads Starter Cables | eBay

 

Sorry Hawk, I may be falling to your second category of stupid but I can't actually see from your modus operandi what you actually did wrong. Putting jumper cables from a car battery onto a bike battery doesn't automatically mean a hollywood type explosion. Where did the sparks come from? Why? How did you manage to blow a fuse. Sorry, I'm just not getting this at all.

 

Hawkwind, I echo Henry's confusion. Did you switch jumper cable ends and not attach POS->POS and NEG->NEG on your bike batt? If that occurred, I can see why there might be sparks. I would also check all other fuses in the fuse block, there could be others burnt.

My other suggestion is to pull and test your bike battery. If it was hooked up backwards to another, stronger battery, it could have damaged the internals/plates in a cel(s) and now your battery is damaged.

 

I'm with the above two and have personally jumped bikes with car batteries more than a few times. I figure there's something I'm missing to the story.

 

The only thing I can see is that Hawk did negative first and positive second. Shouldn't it be positive bike to positive car THEN negative car to bike frame?

 

Given the sparks I assume Hawkwind connected the jumpers in reverse polarity, negative to positive and positive to negative. Perhaps I should not assume.