Battery/ Jump Start Questions

I finally moved into a place with a garage and went to get the FZ out of storage today. Believe it or not, the battery was dead. Apparently that will happen after a couple months of neglect. Anyway, I tried to bump start it, but no dice. I have a battery tender, but no outlet in the storage unit. Is it possible to jump start a bike via the SAE connector for the battery tender or do I need to get a couple friends and muscle the bike into the truck?

Strange you could not push start it. 2nd gear, kill switch off, kickstand up? Not sure about jumping from the tendor. I have jumped from a car battery a few times. Just make sure the car is not running.

The tender is not enough strength to jump start... you need yor friends with muscle i'm afraid.:BLAA:

Why do people say to ensure the car is off in a jump situation? 12 volts and change is 12 volts and change, no?

You can hook a charged battery to your tender and your dead battery will take a charge. Let it sit hooked up to the other battery for about 1/2 hour and see if it then starts.

Never hook a running car/truck to your bike battery to jump start it. Leave the car/truck motor off.

pookamatic said:

Why do people say to ensure the car is off in a jump situation? 12 volts and change is 12 volts and change, no?

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Yes you are correct about the voltages!

The difference is the bike regulator rectifiier. Voltage regulation on your bike is done by shunting. This shunting produces heat which is dissipated as heat into the heat sink. A cars alternator produces at least 60 amps at close to 14 VDC and the bike's shunt regulator cannot dissipate the heat fast enough and burns out. So you can hook up to the car battery but with the car engine off.

pookamatic said:

Why do people say to ensure the car is off in a jump situation? 12 volts and change is 12 volts and change, no?

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The output amperage of a running vehicle is far above the 1.5 amps you should charge the battery, My old ford truck has a 35 amp alternator but most newer vehicles are in the 100 amp range. Motorcycle batteries are relatively expensive compared to car batteries. For this reason, many riders get a battery charger designed for motorcycles, since proper charging extends the life of the battery. The important point to remember is that a motorcycle battery is small and must be charged very slowly. Using a regular battery charger, rather than one designed to produce a trickle charge, will ruin the battery and can be dangerous.

Uhh how old is your battery?

A motorcycle battery from what I've just done research on isn't really going to last more than 3 years with a high of maybe 6 years of constant use. If you ever leave it sit more than a month then you're killing the long term life of the battery.

If you can lift the 8 lbs of the battery and can deal with the loss of the ounces of the few $20 leaving your wallet then you shouldn't have to worry for another 3-6 years.

The lithium batteries that are now available will not only lighten the load in your wallet but will also relive the stress of lowering the 800 pound battery into the battery box. Best of all they do not discharge over time like the lead acid batteries do.

lghtmgr said:

The output amperage of a running vehicle is far above the 1.5 amps you should charge the battery, My old ford truck has a 35 amp alternator but most newer vehicles are in the 100 amp range. Motorcycle batteries are relatively expensive compared to car batteries. For this reason, many riders get a battery charger designed for motorcycles, since proper charging extends the life of the battery. The important point to remember is that a motorcycle battery is small and must be charged very slowly. Using a regular battery charger, rather than one designed to produce a trickle charge, will ruin the battery and can be dangerous.

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Yes! Use the proper charge rate for maintaining your motorcycle battery....

If you didn't have your regulator rectifier assembly attached to your bike you could safely jump your motorcycle battery with your car running. I wouldn't charge your bike battery with your car alternator but without the R/R it would be safe to jump.

The reason: Motorcycles use a shunt type regulator. Shunt regulation essentially produces a load on the stator reducing the charge to the battery. This excess energy produces heat which is heat sinked away.

It's not recommended using a running car to jump a motorcycle because of the regulator rectifier on the motorcycle.

The r/r can not dissipate the energy quick enough.

This year a rider came to me after he had his GSXR 750 jump started by a running car. He had purchase a new battery and it was now overcharging to the point you could smell the battery chemicals and plastic house and could not touch the battery.
This condition occurred when the regulator rectifier had it's shunt regulator burned open by the car's alternator.

As always, wear safety eye ware when jumping and working with batteries!

surfandsummit said:

I finally moved into a place with a garage and went to get the FZ out of storage today. Believe it or not, the battery was dead. Apparently that will happen after a couple months of neglect. Anyway, I tried to bump start it, but no dice. I have a battery tender, but no outlet in the storage unit. Is it possible to jump start a bike via the SAE connector for the battery tender or do I need to get a couple friends and muscle the bike into the truck?

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It is possible to jump start off an SAE connector but you'll have to do some slight mod's and have a spare plug to go into the bike harness.

Plug your spare harness into the bike SAE connector, then hook the other ends to a 12 volt battery (again, car not running)(the covered end of the SAE connector OFF THE BIKE should be POSITIVE, don't get them mixed up). Your charging thru a smaller "jumper cable" so let it charge a bit longer before trying to start.

Also, I looked on the BT site but couldn't find the answer.

Cliff, please correct me if I'm wrong. It's my understanding the Battery Tender has to read a minimum voltage for the dead battery before it will start charging. Its a pretty low #(4-6 volts?) so you'll need some charge before the tender will recognize the battery and start charging..

TownsendsFJR1300 said:

Cliff, please correct me if I'm wrong. It's my understanding the Battery Tender has to read a minimum voltage for the dead battery before it will start charging. Its a pretty low #(4-6 volts?) so you'll need some charge before the tender will recognize the battery and start charging..

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Scott: I don't know the actual threshold voltage for operation. I do know that there will be constraints on polarity and dead shorts. Of course dead short will be zero volt or very close to it.

Motogiro said:

Scott: I don't know the actual threshold voltage for operation. I do know that there will be constraints on polarity and dead shorts. Of course dead short will be zero volt or very close to it.

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I just got off the phone with "Battery Tender" company: Home page - Batterytender.com .

For the Battery Tender 1.25 amp charger, the drained/dead battery, has to have 3 volts minimum for the charger to recognize it.

For the waterproof .8 amp charger, again 3 volt minimum...


So if the battery is under 3 volts, it'll have to be jumped until it reaches 3 volts before the charger will recognize it and charge it...

Am I just wasteful? What's the point of jumping or reviving a battery like frankenstein if it's all the way dead like that? Won't it just be more likely to die in the future?

I know it's a point of pride it seems for some motorcycle owners to be able to keep their bike running with the least amount of funds and through the most adverse conditions. But, dang I hate riding/driving around worrying about being stuck somewhere brokedown.

I used to drive an old beater jeep and broke down I think on 3, maybe 4 different occasions. I definitely felt the sense of pride for being able to get her home, but my dad chewed my ass up and down one time when I was just pushing that limit too far, to the point I felt stupid for always pushing it.

Seriously for less than a $100 you can have a new battery or for $170 you can order a fancy lithium ion from Revzilla.

Ssky0078 said:

Am I just wasteful? What's the point of jumping or reviving a battery like frankenstein if it's all the way dead like that? Won't it just be more likely to die in the future?

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For some it's pride, others it is cost, and yet others are efficient... not wanting to throw something away before it's fully used up.

In the case of a battery, there are two types of "dead." One is the "oh I left my xyz accessory on and now my 3 month old battery is dead" and the other is, "my bike with a 5 year old battery won't start when it's 30 degrees F" dead.

Obviously, one of these types just need the defibrillator paddles and the other needs to be tossed.

Ssky0078 said:

Am I just wasteful? What's the point of jumping or reviving a battery like frankenstein if it's all the way dead like that? Won't it just be more likely to die in the future?

I know it's a point of pride it seems for some motorcycle owners to be able to keep their bike running with the least amount of funds and through the most adverse conditions. But, dang I hate riding/driving around worrying about being stuck somewhere brokedown.

I used to drive an old beater jeep and broke down I think on 3, maybe 4 different occasions. I definitely felt the sense of pride for being able to get her home, but my dad chewed my ass up and down one time when I was just pushing that limit too far, to the point I felt stupid for always pushing it.

Seriously for less than a $100 you can have a new battery or for $170 you can order a fancy lithium ion from Revzilla.

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I agree with you to a point. When mine was just starting to fail (voltage dropped to 8 when cranking), started fine. I got a new battery, I don't like getting stuck, getting jumped, etc.

As a side/related note, I was doing a carb clean and some other maintainance on a 4 wheeler (about a 500cc) about 3 years ago that didn't run. The battery was flat bone dry from neglect.. I put some distilled water in it, charged it and it fired up (after some other work) and worked fine. I don't know how long the battery lasted after that but it did last at least awhile.

IMHO, if the battery takes a charge and PASSES a LOAD TEST, I wouldn't replace it...

A long, slow, slight drain is the best way to ruin the battery..

pookamatic said:

For some it's pride, others it is cost, and yet others are efficient... not wanting to throw something away before it's fully used up.

In the case of a battery, there are two types of "dead." One is the "oh I left my xyz accessory on and now my 3 month old battery is dead" and the other is, "my bike with a 5 year old battery won't start when it's 30 degrees F" dead.

Obviously, one of these types just need the defibrillator paddles and the other needs to be tossed.

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Thank you for pointing out the difference. I'm assuming the 3 month old dead battery is saveable and the 5 year old one, you can say thank you for an approximate cost of $20 a year for 20,000 smiles on the bike.

TownsendsFJR1300 said:

I agree with you to a point. When mine was just starting to fail (voltage dropped to 8 when cranking), started fine. I got a new battery, I don't like getting stuck, getting jumped, etc.

As a side/related note, I was doing a carb clean and some other maintainance on a 4 wheeler (about a 500cc) about 3 years ago that didn't run. The battery was flat bone dry from neglect.. I put some distilled water in it, charged it and it fired up (after some other work) and worked fine. I don't know how long the battery lasted after that but it did last at least awhile.

IMHO, if the battery takes a charge and PASSES a LOAD TEST, I wouldn't replace it...

A long, slow, slight drain is the best way to ruin the battery..

Click to expand...

Ok, is there a particular tool/equipment that will perform the load test. I may just have a good battery but I'm getting mine replaced because the CCA's are sounding really weak and when cold the turnover is very slow. My bike is my primary mode of transportation and it's not like you can just go to autozone for a replacement, the shop by me even had to order one that will take 2 days to get here.

Ssky0078 said:

Thank you for pointing out the difference. I'm assuming the 3 month old dead battery is saveable and the 5 year old one, you can say thank you for an approximate cost of $20 a year for 20,000 smiles on the bike.



Ok, is there a particular tool/equipment that will perform the load test. I may just have a good battery but I'm getting mine replaced because the CCA's are sounding really weak and when cold the turnover is very slow. My bike is my primary mode of transportation and it's not like you can just go to autozone for a replacement, the shop by me even had to order one that will take 2 days to get here.

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Autozone, Walmart, most any auto parts shop will load test it for free. They just have to have access to the battery terminals. Most shops have a digital tester, they put in the CCA's and the unit loads the battery and gives a good or No-good answer.

I suspect, if its that slow cranking when cold, it's probably not going to pass. As stated earlier, my bike would still start, with a volt meter connected to the battery, voltage dropped as low as 8 volts... The FZ doesn't load a battery nearly as much as my old FJR. The FJR, religiously, needed a battery replacement every 3 years, give or take a month...

I have a cheaper one, (not digital) Schumaker:

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000AMBOI0/ref=oh_details_o05_s00_i01]Schumacher BT-100 100 amp Battery Load Tester : Amazon.com : Automotive[/ame]



Walmarts, Autozone, etc is much more accurate...