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Jumpstarting question

S

slammadew

Tricycle
I did a search for an answer to this question but couldn't come up with one, so here goes:

Earlier this week I rode my bike to work and stupidly forgot to turn the ignition off when I got there.  Needless to say, when I came out at the end of the day, the battery was dead.  I was able to jump start it and get home.  I keep it plugged into a battery tender all the time when it's parked in the garage and haven't had any problems with it sense.  Hopefully I didn't do any major damage to the battery.

My question is this: I have the battery tender cable permanently connected directly to the battery. The battery tender also came with alligator clips for temporarily connecting a battery.  Since the battery is such a pain to get to, could I carry the alligator clip connection with me, plug it into the battery mounted cables and then connect the alligator clips to the jumper cables and jumpstart the battery that way? Or would the positive and negative cables be getting crossed somewhere along the way?  I hope that makes sense.  Would it work?

Thanks.
 
I would not use those wires with jumper cables. Jumper cables are normally much higher gauge wires. Besides, it may not be the best idea to jump start the bike anyway. But if you did any damage, it might have shown up right away. You may be OK.
 
IIRC, most battery tenders are trickle chargers. That is while it charges at 13.8V, the current is limited. Looking at the Deltran web site, the current output of their line of Battery Tenders range from 0.75A to 1.25A.  The wiring provided with the tender is sized for these current loads. The danger of using the wiring that can with the tender  with jumper cables to another battery could result in much higher currents being drawn through wires.

 
Cap'n Bob said:
I would not use those wires with jumper cables. Jumper cables are normally much higher gauge wires. Besides, it may not be the best idea to jump start the bike anyway. But if you did any damage, it might have shown up right away. You may be OK.
Click to expand...

Sorry Bob, you mean lower gauge right? Lower guage = larger wire.
 
Conrad said:
Cap'n Bob said:
I would not use those wires with jumper cables. Jumper cables are normally much higher gauge wires. Besides, it may not be the best idea to jump start the bike anyway. But if you did any damage, it might have shown up right away. You may be OK.
Click to expand...

Sorry Bob, you mean lower gauge right? Lower guage = larger wire.
Click to expand...


Correct. my bad! lower gauge.
 
The problem is two fold.  First off, you would need to test the polarity of the jumper leads after connecting them to the SAE connectors. If you are using jumper leads that came with your battery charger, I suspect you'll find that they are reversed when you hook them up to your SAE connector for the bike. So black would probably be positive and red would probably be negative. You would need to put a volt meter on them and test them to be certain.

Second, if you have a fuse on your hard wired lead for your battery charger (and you should), it will blow when you try to jump start it. The best you might be able to do would be to hook a battery from another vehicle to it (with the engine OFF on the donor vehicle) and let current flow and try to recharge your battery. Then just let it sit for about 10 minutes and then disconnect the jumper wire and see if it was recharged enough to start itself.
 
Thanks for all the replies.

Fred, the first problem you described is the one I was worried about.  That's what I thought might happen.

I hadn't considered the issue of the difference in wire gauges and blowing the fuse on the tender wire.

Needless to say, I don't plan to drain my battery again (like I meant to the first time  :-[).  But I guess I won't be trying this solution if it happens.

I was aware it's not a good idea to jumpstart a bike (although I don't really understand why) but I really didn't have any choice in this situation.  It was late in the day and I was about an hour from home with no other solutions available to me.

Like I said, so far the battery seems to be working ok and no other electrical problems have surfaced.  I've put about 350 miles on it over four days since the incident.  Do you think I'm in the clear or might there be delayed problems lurking?

Anyway, thanks again to everyone for your input.
 
Actually, it's fine to jumpstart a motorcycle from a donor vehicle, as long as the donor vehicle is not running when you do it. The problem is that the alternators on most cars put out so much current that they can cook the plates in a motorcycle battery in short order. Motorcycle batteries just can't handle a lot of recharge current like car batteries can.

The polarity on the SAE connectors for most of the short little jumper cables that come in the box with your battery charger are meant to be hooked directly to the battery. So if you plug them into a connector that is hard wired to the battery, you'll probably result with reversed colors on the alligator clips. It's not a big deal as long as you are aware of it, because now Black is Positive and Red Negative.
 
Thanks Fred, that makes sense.

Unfortunately, I didn't know about turning off the donor vehicle.  It was running when we did the jump start.

Do you think I know right away if I had done damage to my battery or could I have just shortened it's life and will only know for certain when it dies prematurely?
 
Slammadew said:
Thanks Fred, that makes sense.

Unfortunately, I didn't know about turning off the donor vehicle.  It was running when we did the jump start.

Do you think I know right away if I had done damage to my battery or could I have just shortened it's life and will only know for certain when it dies prematurely?
Click to expand...

I wouldn't loose a lot of sleep over it. It sounds like you probably got away with it without any problems, and if your connections ran through smaller gauge wires, they may have acted to reduce the current flow which would protect the battery. I've seen folks leave vehicles running in the past and get away with it, but its safer if the donor is shut off. Usually if the battery is damaged it's because the plates overheated and then shorted together, which will cause an immediate loss of one or more cells on the battery, and you'll know it right away.
 
That's an interesting setup there Phil.  I might get one for my vehicle but, although it is fairly small, it still looks a little big to carry around on the bike all the time.  Maybe if I was going on a long trip or something, but for day to day riding, I think it would get in the way.
 
I recently had a rash of trouble with my 2010 C-14 battery.  The first thing I noticed that the cranking speed was diminished, then the KIPASS would not work and I had to use the emergency start trick, then the bike was dead at the gas pump just after I turned it off after the fill up.

I did jump the bike at the gas station with a car, that was running, and had no noticeable effects.  I know that this is not the recommended practice as Fred mentioned, but I did not realize the dangers of doing so.

I later had the battery load tested by Kawasaki and it failed.  They replaced it under warranty.
 
Phil said:
What about this to solve your problem?

http://www.porta-jump.com/

Just plug into your cig lighter and N a few minutes your read to go! I used one on my BMW (B&D Brand) it worked PERFECTLY....

Regards
phillip
Click to expand...

The accessory (cigarette) outlet on the C-14 is only active when the ignition is on, so if your battery is dead there is no way of connecting to the battery throught the outlet.
 
Jonathan
That's a Good Point about having to some chg on your battery to go to accessories! I also have a BMW cig recepticle on my bike in lieu of using the stock cig lighter could I go through the BMW port? I did not wire this in so I guess it might have to be trial and error?

regards
phillip
 
Phil said:
Jonathan
That's a Good Point about having to some chg on your battery to go to accessories! I also have a BMW cig recepticle on my bike in lieu of using the stock cig lighter could I go through the BMW port? I did not wire this in so I guess it might have to be trial and error?

regards
phillip
Click to expand...

Just test it with the bike turned off. See if it has power with a test light or test meter.
 
Phil,

I will find the info and send to you.  I am out of town and will look in the manual when I get back.  Basically you place the key fob directly on the ignition of the bike and press the key switch in.  I'll get you the specific page in the manual and send this weekend.
 
Phil,

Ok, start on page 80 of the manual and specifically look at page 84.  It explains how to use the key fob in the emergency start mode.

Hope this helps!!!!!!

Doug
 
An aside, really. My Garmin 276C includes a voltmeter display field, and if the GPS is plugged into a live cig socket it conveniently displays the voltage of the cig socket and hence the bike's battery.
 
I had an issue this fall with my bike...wasn't sure if the battery was toast or not.  I called my local shop that I deal with and as far as stealerships go...I love. 
They told me specifically to NEVER jump start our bikes.  The circuitry is too sensitive.  They said to just take out the battery and charge it....then try again.

Just passing trusted info....
 
Grumpy Goat said:
An aside, really. My Garmin 276C includes a voltmeter display field, and if the GPS is plugged into a live cig socket it conveniently displays the voltage of the cig socket and hence the bike's battery.
Click to expand...

Or there's the voltmeter screen on the multi-function display. D-oh!  :-[
 
Grumpy Goat said:
Grumpy Goat said:
An aside, really. My Garmin 276C includes a voltmeter display field, and if the GPS is plugged into a live cig socket it conveniently displays the voltage of the cig socket and hence the bike's battery.
Click to expand...

Or there's the voltmeter screen on the multi-function display. D-oh!  :-[
Click to expand...



That's just plain mean!  :rotflmao:
 
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