Old owner used to jump the bike with the car running....help
 

:confused:

I just spoke to the old owner of my 99 curvy - i knew it had some charging problems - as it seems lots of people do. he is a friend so i rang him to ask if i take it out for a long ride tommorrow shoudl the abttery charge up - as it is completely dead at the moment.

He said a 2hr ride shouldproperly charge it up - but...........

he said he usually jump starts it from a car with the engine running- i am sure this is not right and might fry the bikes electrics.

My questions are ... am i right
do i need to check any parts of the bike after finding out he used to do this ?? an will this be the reasonhe had a reg/rec replaced 6 months ago??
will the battery also be knacked?

i will post after my ride tommorrow and i will also perfom a check with a multimeter on the chargin circuit!

many thanks - i await your helpful responses -
Andy

Re: Old owner used to jump the bike with the car running....help
 

dont know about curvys... but i would say ur battery is knackered m8.

if the rectifier has been replaced recently and its the original battery chances are its buggered.

Re: Old owner used to jump the bike with the car running....help
 

Check the battery, it might not be too bad, but age is against it...aswell as the owner jumping it from the car!

Reg/rec failiure on a 1999 curvy is a fairly common thing, it happened to my bike, so dont worry about it too much. Do check it though

Matt

Re: Old owner used to jump the bike with the car running....help
 

I ran my batter fat once after accidently leaving my parking lights on. I used a 12 volt power pack to get it started again, positive connector on the starter motor connection and the earth to the brake lever, span the motor over and got it started, as of yet i've had no problems with the electircs on the bike so jumping it from a car shouldnt cause any problems.

Re: Old owner used to jump the bike with the car running....help
 

So anyway... battery doesn't like to be deep cycled. Don't do it.

Re: Old owner used to jump the bike with the car running....help
 

i think you should trust Mr Y. Chris. He is a well informed voice :cool:

Re: Old owner used to jump the bike with the car running....help
 

A well informed and sober voice. Which I intend to do something about immediately. Good night to you sirs.

Re: Old owner used to jump the bike with the car running....help
 

Thats what I've had to do with this battery a couple of times, did it Monday actually, cause its been sat for 3 weeks......and before everybody says oh it must be your reg/rec....no it ain't, I have one battery that I use on both SVs and it has served many many miles that way...funnily enough I've only had to do it at this time of year. No direct problems from doing it this way either. Take bike for good run to charge the battery and its fine....and believe me the damn thing has gone thousands of miles and refuses to die...sods law I'll go in the shed tomorrow and it will have for good:rolleyes:

Re: Old owner used to jump the bike with the car running....help
 

Oh heck, I used to jump start my BMW F650 from the car when the battery was flat, is this really so bad? Did buy a new battery in the end and a 12 volt charger though.

Re: Old owner used to jump the bike with the car running....help
 

Right then ... sobriety has been dealt with...

Car battery is still nominally same voltage as a bike battery, same number of lead acid cells, same voltage. Both charge at same voltage. Can jump start bike from car no problem.

(12v systems but you're not on about jumping the bike off an ex-mil land rover are you?)

Any further quesrions?

Re: Old owner used to jump the bike with the car running....help
 

well if you can jump a c-90 off a car ......... ;-)

Re: Old owner used to jump the bike with the car running....help
 

+1 ... 12v is 12v. the only difference is a car will be able to sustain a far greater load (drain) for longer.

as has already been mentioned, I've jump started my SV with a 6 litre V8 before! mmm burble

Re: Old owner used to jump the bike with the car running....help
 

I was always told to avoid keeping the jump leads on with both engines running.This is because having two alternators charging into the whole circuit can upset the regulator system.In practice this means you whip the leads off as soon as the engine fires up.
The other snippet of advice I was given was to avoid jump starting bikes with modern electronic FI as it can cause a current spike which upsets the ECU.
Dont know how much any of that is true though.

Re: Old owner used to jump the bike with the car running....help
 

You don't need the car running. Typical car battery won't notice cranking a bike.

One thing to be weary of is jumping a bike which has been stood for a very long time, apparently can be unsafe.

Re: Old owner used to jump the bike with the car running....help
 

+1 to both of those. I've jumped the bike before now using the Galaxy battery with the engine off.

I've also seen pictures that were the result of a bike being jumped from a car. The bike had been restored, it'd been sat for a few years, and the first crank was done using a car (engine on). I think the owner had made a ham of a job doing the 'restoring' though, as the resultant fire destroyed the garage! I think that bike still had some dodgy wiring.

Re: Old owner used to jump the bike with the car running....help
 

Thanks for the info everyone. I jumped the bike with the battery off and went for a 2hr blast. It felt good and made me smile a lot!!

I came home and the battery is charged fine.
I did a quick carging system test and it all looks ok too.

Leakage was 0.02

Output test - 14.9 @ 5000 revs with lights on high beam.

So it looks like i have nothing to worry about for now on the charging system - what do you reckon?

thanks

Andy

Ps and i have another quick question there is a few scratches on theright fairing where it has been dropped in a carpark - can any one suggest some good sticks for the side? i'm open to suggestion or if you can send me pics of what you have on your bikes!!

Re: Old owner used to jump the bike with the car running....help
 

anybody tried one of these??? http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=98358

Re: Old owner used to jump the bike with the car running....help
 

Q) What is charge rate? -
A) 125mA in perfect conditions. (Design change, now blue LED's continually flash)


Sums maplins up really - chavvy tat.

Re: Old owner used to jump the bike with the car running....help
 

Not sure if Maplins answer to this guy's question re using the solar panel (produces 125mA in perfect conditions) on a motorbike battery was correct?


Q) I would like to use this unit to trickle charge my motorcycle battery over the winter. is it possible to overcharge the battery? - robert dawtry

A) This will not over charge the battery on a car but may on a motorcycle because the capacity is a lot less.

Any views?

Re: Old owner used to jump the bike with the car running....help
 

There's no sun in the UK to overcharge it :mrgreen:

Re: Old owner used to jump the bike with the car running....help
 

Just the extremities of the UK methinks;)