BikerThomas.com

Red goes on red and black on black…

Manufacturers don’t recommend attempting to jump start a motorcycle battery from a car… but when in a pinch without alternatives here’s how to do it.

WARNING! I am NOT an expert. I mostly learn from reading online just like you. This is meant as a guideline only. Please do contact a certified motorcycle mechanic if you do not know what you’re doing…

Car batteries usually pack more power (ampere) than a motorcycle battery, so be careful! …and stomp out that cigarette before starting! On the bright side, newer 12-volt systems can usually be jump started with a 12-volt car battery without any help from the car’s engine with little risk of ruining your motorcycle or battery.

1.

Take the keys out of both vehicles. Make sure the car does not touch the motorcycle. Leave the car turned off until you are finished jump starting the motorcycle and have disconnected the jumper cables. Failing to do so may result in an overload on the motorcycle’s electrical system.

2.

Remove any protective caps that cover the battery terminals. Connect the RED jumper cable to the positive (+) terminal of the dead motorcycle battery. Keep the red jumpers away from any other area of your bike at all times (especially if you try to hook the red cables with the car battery first as this could send an electrical charge through your bike and do damage to the electrical components – which surely sucks bigtime!).

3.

Connect the other end of the RED cable to the positive (+) terminal on the battery of the car.

4.

All right, so now you got red on red right? Good! Now go ahead and connect the BLACK (negative) jumper to the negative (-) terminal of the car’s battery. Again, make sure you don’t fiddle around with the clamp and accidentally touch the positive clamp with it or something, you want to keep these apart at all times.

5.

Now go ahead and connect the BLACK (negative) jumper to the motorcycle frame and away from the battery. (You don’t connect the negative jumper to the negative (-) terminal of your motorcycle battery because that increases the risk of damaging your battery).

6.

Double check! red on red and black on black, right?

7.

Leave the car off. Start the motorcycle.

HINT! If you at this point is actually hooking up your motorcycle battery to another motorcycle battery instead of a car battery, you should actually turn on the motorcycle with the good battery first and then turn on the motorcycle with the bad battery last.

If the battery’s not entirely flat, the motorcycle should now start. Leave the motor running for a few minutes to warm up the engine.

8.

Disconnect the jumper cables in the reverse order you connected them.Make sure the clamps don’t touch metal in the process.

- Disconnect the negative lead (BLACK) from motorcycle
- Disconnect the other negative lead (BLACK) from the car battery
- Disconnect the positive clamp lead (RED) from the car battery
- Disconnect the other positive lead (RED) from the motorcycle battery

DO NOT turn off the motorcycle engine – or you’ll have to do the entire process all over again. Leave the motor running until you’re ready to drive home or to the mechanic to properly recharge or replace your battery. Ride your bike on high revs for the first few minutes.

That’s it! Pretty easy when you know what to do, huh?

Please do comment if you feel that the instructions are wrong or needs improvement in any way. Oh, and also, if you found these instructions helpful, please do tell your story in the comments field or sign my guestbook …or send me an email.

Sources:

How to Jump-Start a Motorcycle Using a Car Battery
http://www.ehow.com/how_7310322_jump_start-motorcycle-using-car-battery.html

How to Jump Start a Motorcycle
http://www.ehow.com/how_2221369_jump-start-motorcycle.html

Jump starting a motorcycle battery
http://www.cyclemaintenance.com/elec/jump_starting.htm

How to Jump Start a Motorcycle Battery From a Car
http://www.ehow.com/how_4842968_jump-start-motorcycle-battery-car.html

Wikipedia: Jump start (vehicle)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jump_start_(vehicle)

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I called my mechanic today about the problem with my engine not starting up despite my battery being fully charged. He told me that there are almost never anything wrong with the starter on Kawasaki motorcycles so it had to be something wrong with the battery. I changed to a new YUASA YTX12-BS battery and the engine fired up just fine! You should have seen the smile on my face hearing the engine starting :)

 
The new battery, YUASA YTX12-BS, same type as the old one.

 
There’s a set of tools under the seat, you’ll need a standard screwdriver.

Remove the old battery (negative/minus side removed first) then insert the new battery (positive/plus side connected first).

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I picked up my battery today, it was fully charged at 13V. I connected it to the bike and held my breath… YEEEESSS! The headlight lights up and so does lights on the panel.

Now let’s fire up the engine  Krrrkk kkrrrkk krrrk kkkkrrkk – yikes, the same horrible horrible sound as earlier, not good. Now what? Let’s try push-starting the bike! So I get a friend to help push the bike as I put it in first and hold in the clutch and get ready to fire up the engine once I get enough speed. It starts up at first try! I drive around a little bit and it works fine. I turn off the engine, but when I start it again I get that same horrible noise. I think I might have a problem with the starter so I’m gonna have to get it to the closest authorized Kawasaki mechanic to fix it. I’ll keep you updated.

UPDATE! There was nothing wrong with the starter – there was something wrong with the battery, I changed it and the engine fired up just fine :)

Not an actual Kawasaki starter, but you get the idea…

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It’s finally spring! The sun is up, it’s a few degrees Celsius above 0 and people are getting their motorcycles on the road. It’s that great feeling that only motorcycle owners get. My Vulcan 900 has been sleeping in my garage all winter for the first time. Last year I had it wait for me in a warm and cozy room at the local mechanic/motorcycle shop where they took care of it and changed the oil and filtre, checked the tire pressure, hosed it down with some soap and water and so forth before I got it back. But not this winter, oh no! I was gonna save some money and do this myself… stupid stupid stupid…

12V 10Ah YTX12-BS Battery

If you’re gonna be dumb, you better be tough right? Rite! So I should have read up on how to prepare my bike for winter instead of just parking it and leave it for 5 months. It turns out that everyday you leave your bike without riding it your battery lose 1% of its’ charge, so leaving it for 3 months and it’s practically dead. Leaving it for 5 months and the battery is, uh well, dead… even deader than dead, in fact it’s exactly 4,23Volts of wasted-acid-dead. What I should have done is buy a maintenance charger and had it connected to the battery all winter or at least charge the battery for a few hours once every month. Oh well, I learn everyday! And since I don’t have anyone teach me all this stuff (damn it would have been fun to do a Bachelor of Kawasakis at uni!) I’ll have to learn through trial and error and doing a hell of a lot of googling.

The first remedy I tried was using a friends motorcycle (a sweet looking 125cc Honda!) and hook his battery to mine and jump start it that way. It pumped some juice into the beast, but not enough to get the engine running, not even after we tried push-starting the heavy bastard bike.

Stein Arne and his 125cc Honda

Anyways, after calling a mechanic I got around to buying a battery charger, a CTEK XS 800 designed for 12V batteries like mine. The dealer told me that it probably wouldn’t be able to charge my battery but it would be perfect for next winter so that I didn’t have to end up in the same mess again so I got one and brought it back to the garage and tested it anyway. Just as he had told me, 15 hours later the battery still wouldn’t put out the juice to to even light up the small light indicators or anything.

 
IT Apprentice Alexander checking my motorcycle battery with the multimetre at work :)

Now what? I’m not known for giving up easy, so I took the battery to the shop that I bought the battery charger from and he is now charging it over night with his über-super-mega-charger and we’ll see if that helps, if not I simply have to go and buy a new battery. I’ll keep you updated! :)

Important! If you’re going to fiddle around with your battery, read the section on battery removal, charging and reinserting the battery in your motorcycle manual! Also, read the manual of your battery charger and never jump start your tiny little motorcycle battery using some ones oversized car battery! Apparently, if you hook up your battery in the wrong way sparkles will fly and the acid inside your battery might end up in your face… that’s right, it could actually explode, so take care and read up on handling batteries. Check out Dan’s MC for more information on motorcycle batteries.

Dan’s MC’s Battery article

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