Cross-connected my battery!

[montmil]

OK. No lame excuses. No mercy.

After several short rides over the past few days, I rode the '81 R65 to work this morning only to discover, after work this afternoon, the dreaded "click, click, click" as the starter just wouldn't turn over the engine. Not enough long rides nor time on the Tender to keep the battery happily charged.

No bigee. Rolled it into the shop at work and grabbed a battery and cables. In my big rush to get home, I wasn't paying full attention and cross-connected; making a positive-to-negative connection with the unmarked jumper cables and then hit the starter. Well, shoot. What's that smell? Something's getting warm and very toasty. And the starter just isn't turning over. OMG...

I disconnected the negative battery cable at the transmission ground bolt. I did see the oil pressure light still lightly glowing even with the ignition switch off. BTW, head and tail lights remain operational after my foul up.

The bike will spend the night in the shop at work. I'll drive the truck and take my ramp to get Blackie home tomorrow morning. The weekend is looking busy already.

In the meantime, I'm looking for suggestions as to where to begin sorting out this issue. Starter relay? Then where away? Any ideas or prior experiences will be graciously accepted. I do expect to have to pull apart the wiring harness wrapping for wire inspections.

Looking for some ideas as to what the inspection sequence should be. I'm feeling pretty dumb about this.

At least the '83 R65 is available. The weather is mid to upper seventies with CAVU.

Monte

[Bob_Roller]

I'd check the battery cables for condition .

A general inspection of the wires, fuses .

Battery may be damaged, hard to say until you try to start it .

I'd say remove the battery from the bike and charge it up, see what kind of voltage it has afterwards .

Hopefully if you have any damage, it's limited to the battery area .

[montmil]

Thanks, Bob. I'll do that this weekend and report my findings.

Monte "This Month's Senior Moment" Miller

[Barry]

Monte

I'm trying to think what might have been damaged by the reverse connection. I wonder if the electronic ignition module would have been fried. Often electronic stuff has polarity protection designed in.

What you might consider doing in general is to pull all the fuses and with a newly charged battery installed, energise one circuit at a time to see what works and what doesn't. Could be done without the starter cable connected to eliminate the possibility of really big amps being pulled.

Just a thought... one guy who is very sharp on anything electrical and would know the answer to this - Snowbum.

[Lucky_Lou]

That "smell" is worrying could be youve fried the starter solenoid, the motor its self shouldnt be a problem with reverse polarity.
Best of Luck.
Lou

[montmil]

Just a thought... one guy who is very sharp on anything electrical and would know the answer to this - Snowbum.

I'm an ABC member and have received several nice responses from fellow ABC'ers. Expect da 'Bum to chime in anytime now.

Thanks for your thoughts, Barry.

Monte

[Barry]

I'm an ABC member and have received several nice responses from fellow ABC'ers. Expect da 'Bum to chime in anytime now.

I've been reading them too and while some good ideas are coming up I don't think anyone so far has actually experienced your problem 1st hand so we are all theorising to try and help you. Lets hope Snowbum or some of the other gurus have had 1st hand experience otherwise by the time you have this fixed Monte you could become the world expert !

[Rob Valdez 79 R65]

otherwise by the time you have this fixed Monte you could become the world expert !

Take notes, Monte!

[montmil]

UPDATE: Saturday afternoon

Battery was a bit low on voltage check so plugged in the BatteryTender on Friday evening and brought voltage up to spec.

Removed the fuel tank and began a visual inspection and "sniff test" of the wiring harness. Checked all fuses and they're good. I had earlier converted to the blade-style automotive fuses. Did not see nor 'smell' anything to indicate heat damage. Have not, as yet, unwrapped the wiring harness but this is on my high-probability list.

Reattached the battery negative cable. Noted the still glowing OP bulb. Bothersome. Pulled the spade fitting off the OP sender and the light went off. Wiggled and sniffed relays and regulator. Nothing noted.

Replaced the LED-with/resistor OP bulb but the bulb remains lit even with the ignition switch off. With ignition switch off and brown/ground wire connected to the OP sender, I checked the power lead to the OP light and noted a voltage reading of approx 0.66 volts. With OP wire removed from the sender, the voltage read was approx 0.24 volts.

Toggled the run/stop switch to the 'off' position and the OP bulb turns off. Hum... Pretty strange.

With the tank still off the bike but fuel remaining in the carb bowls, I switched on the ignition, pulled the enrichener lever, rolled the dice and hit the start button. Engine fired up without any hesitation and ran as normal.

Quick happy dance, then shut down as the bowls emptied.

Next, I plan to pull off the start/run-stop switch and look for evidence of arcing or any problems inside the switch body. Will run continuity checks as am able to do.

Previously, I have been noticing the need to "Tender" the battery more than the other R65 so I'm wondering if there has not been an undetected voltage leak going on for some time. May be unrelated as the constantly 'on' OP lamp is a new anomaly.

That's the current situation with the bike. Very pleased that the start system functions. Wondering if there may be a smoked wire inside the main harness that has damaged the insulation on the OP wiring thus causing a short to ground... ? As mentioned earlier in this post, I do think it a good idea that I open up the harness wrapping for a clearer inspection.

I remain very open to ideas and suggestions. Thanks in advance for directions in diagnosis.

Monte

[Hunsta]

Personally I`d call an Excorsist.

















Sorry couldnt resist that

[montmil]

Personally I`d call an Excorsist. Sorry couldnt resist that

Excorsist?   Say, what?

ex·or·cist
noun
1. A person who expels an evil spirit or demon.
2. In some religions an exorcist is a person who is believed to be able to cast out the devil or other demons. A priest, a monk, a healer, a shaman or other specially prepared or instructed person can be an exorcist.

dic-tio-nary
noun
1. A reference book containing an alphabetical list of words with information about them.

Sorry. I couldn't resist that, either

Monte

[Rob Valdez 79 R65]

Personally I`d call an Excorsist. Sorry couldnt resist that

Excorsist?   Say, what?

ex·or·cist
noun
1. A person who expels an evil spirit or demon.
2. In some religions an exorcist is a person who is believed to be able to cast out the devil or other demons. A priest, a monk, a healer, a shaman or other specially prepared or instructed person can be an exorcist.

dic-tio-nary
noun
1. A reference book containing an alphabetical list of words with information about them.

Sorry. I couldn't resist that, either

Monte

I would say Hunsta does not use a browser that incorporates an automatic spell-checker, or he simply ignored it.

Friends don't let friends use Internet Explorer...

[montmil]

UPDATE: Sunday morning

Starter button and run/stop switch all in primo condition.

Time to consider opening up the wiring harness and trace all wires coming off the battery plus any adjacent wires that may have been toasted.

Got my nose really close to the voltage regulator for a healthy sniff. Maybe my imagination but I thought I got a whiff of "burn". Could swap in the regulator from the '83 for a test/check.

Monte

[Barry]

Got my nose really close to the voltage regulator for a healthy sniff. Maybe my imagination but I thought I got a whiff of "burn". Could swap in the regulator from the '83 for a test/check.
 

Not too bad if that's all that's gone Monte.

Various substitute voltage Regulators around and if yours is the early electronic type with discrete components it might even be possible to repair it if you can identify the component that's blown.

Your getting closer to being the world expert by the day !

[montmil]

Got my nose really close to the voltage regulator for a healthy sniff. Maybe my imagination but I thought I got a whiff of "burn". Could swap in the regulator from the '83 for a test/check.

Not too bad if that's all that's gone Monte.

Various substitute voltage Regulators around and if yours is the early electronic type with discrete components it might even be possible to repair it if you can identify the component that's blown.

Your getting closer to being the world expert by the day !

I plan to open the regulator -believe it's electromechanical rather than solid state- and see if the components are burned/damaged. I can see nothing to indicate wiring harness damage but will open it up to confirm if yes or no.

Checking wiring diagrams and re-reading the Clymer manual, I'm also beginning to consider a diode issue within the rectifier/diode board. A damaged diode might be the source of the small electrical "leak" that's keeping the OP lamp glowing with the ignition switched off.

For now, I keep the battery ground cable detached until I need to check circuits. Engine starts and runs fine. Will also check voltage charge going into the battery with engine running. This could also help diagnose any regulator problems.

Monte