electrical problems

[davidh274]

I have a 2000 Screaming Eagle Road glide, that my battery tender deided to stop when I was gone for a while. The battery is almost 2 years old , I tried to jump it but when I did sparks shot off the battery, the battery has 11.2 volts, the fuel pump wont turn on and one of the relays in the rubber grommets behind the battery is buzzing, I am thinking there is more than just a bad battery.
Can anybody help?

 

[Bodeen]

Take the battery out and have it load tested first. Then go from there. Jump starting, depending on how its done, is a bad idea.

 

[03HD883R]

From the sounds of it, you jump started it wrong.

You really needed to connect to the positive terminal with the jumper and the negative or common wire to the clean piece of the frame to jump it.

On a car you want to connect the positive to the battery, and the common to the engine hoist bracket for excellent results.

Otherwise you can fry things and pop fuses which is the last thing you need because fuses can only protect the wire from heating up and possibly catching fire -- not really for protecting sensitive electronics.

As far as the buzzing and other stuff can be associated with low battery voltage. But let's hope so, and not the jump start you tried.

 

[wazzle]

Connecting both cables to the battery won't cause problems. You had cables reversed if you got that kind of sparking. You have blown a fuse or two if you are lucky.

 

[flst89]

Connecting both cables to the battery won't cause problems. You had cables reversed if you got that kind of sparking. You have blown a fuse or two if you are lucky.

Connecting both cables can cause problems.

If the battery is giving off a lot of gas (as batteries do when they struggle to crank an engine) and a spark occurs, the battery will explode.

That is why you develop the habit of connecting the last cable to the frame, so if there is a spark, it is not near the battery.

 

[dbmg]

Replace the battery and check fuses. Hopefully all that has been done is the main fuse has blown.

 

[03HD883R]

Connecting both cables can cause problems.

If the battery is giving off a lot of gas (as batteries do when they struggle to crank an engine) and a spark occurs, the battery will explode.

That is why you develop the habit of connecting the last cable to the frame, so if there is a spark, it is not near the battery.

Yep, that too.

I've seen some and done pretty crazy stuff with batteries and if you get them at the right moment, they let off a big bang.

On most Harleys I've found it is easiest to jump from the positive to the battery, and then clamp the common to the frame, almost like it was designed for it.

I know on my Sportster, it is totally impossible to connect the leads directly to the battery. Only the positive will fit, and then you are forced to use the frame for the common.

And it's not because I needed a jump start, but rather obvious reasoning.

 

[Bodeen]

Its more than just getting the cables right. The output of the jump starting vehicles charging system would be more of a concern to me.......

 

[wazzle]

Its more than just getting the cables right. The output of the jump starting vehicles charging system would be more of a concern to me.......

If the battery of the vehicle you are jumping with is fully charged, the amperage out of the alternator is minimal. The voltage is the same as the output of the alternator on the bike. As far as the gassing issue, the age of the battery has an effect on that. The older, the more potential . Batteries explode when the electorate level falls below the grid. If your battery is fairly new and it went dead due ignition being left on, jump it. If the battery is more than 3-4 years, replace it.

 

[Bodeen]

There's been more than one ECM fried from jump starting.

Here is a great post on the topic from one of our retired mods. NEWHD74FAN


Your friends' computer was fried because of voltage transients when trying to start a dead battery and motorcycle while running with a fully charged on board battery with surface charge. Power supply design is my bag...

An automotive charging system would supply greater than 17V, if not for the voltage regulator to shunt away the excess voltage, but if momentarily attached while running to a fully discharged battery and motorcycle starter trying to start, plus inductive "flyback" energy stored in your alternator windings can induce spikes easily exceeding the voltage regulator ability to shunt the excess voltage away at the same time the load goes almost to 10V during the attempted starting, the voltage swings could go from no load (hi voltage/lo current) to full load (lo voltage/hi current) in milli-seconds...plenty of time to provide excess voltage spikes to fry motorcycle computer electronics downstream which utilize a secondary "point of load" step down DC-DC converter/regulator from the 12-14V battery/alternator to the 3-5VDC the for your computer micro-circuits run at...no big surprise there, sorry for the expensive lesson.