famous556
TV4 Rider
Hello everyone.
I recently had the wonderful experience of having to try and pop start (push start) my FZ with an entirely 100% dead battery. To make the lead up story short, I was putting on my gear and had turned on the key when I saw an old friend. We ended up chatting and catching up for about 2.5 hours. I had made the mistake of leaving my key on the entire time :spank: :spank: :spank: . So I went to hop back on the bike, and had no display, or lights of any sort. I was lucky and unlucky in the fact that I was in a hilly part of town. Lucky on the way down the hill, unlucky on push back up . I tried a number of techniques, letting out the clutch slow from 10-15mph in 2nd. I tried 3rd and first from this speed too. I tried letting out the clutch fast, I tried it all. Each time I tried the bike would turn over and occasionally the display and lights would flicker, but I did not ever have a sputter or anything. Lets just say I had a hell of a time. I realized after the first attempt that the bike is EFI and therefore requires power for the fuel pump, ECU, fuel injectors at a minimum to even think about starting. After probably 20 unsucessful attempts, I decided to come up with a new game plan. I thought of something I had read on here. I remembered reading on here that the bike actually uses more power than it makes to idle and that the headlights were a huge drain on the electrical system. Using my quick thinking skills (an hour too late into the fiasco), I pulled the plugs from both headlights to allow more of the generated power to be used for the computer and fuel systems. Eureka!!!! First attempt with the headlights pulled was from about 15 MPH and in 2nd gear. The bike turned over from the road first with no attempt to start, then sputtered, then right as it was about to either stall or start it decided to fire up. I rode it around the block with the headlights pulled still. The bike was MAD! Hardly any power, orange engine light on, sputtering and angry but it was idling good and was actually running. Before riding home I plugged the headlights back in and set off for home 20 minutes away. The headlights were very dim, and the bike still angry, but things went good on the way home.
When I was comfortable that I had no traffic around me and could attempt a rolling start to test the battery, I pulled the clutch at speed, hit the kill switch, and attempted to restart the bike with the starter.... All I got was a single click and a dead display. Letting the clutch back out slowly to avoid skidding the tire, the bike fired back up and although still angry.. gave me no issues the rest of the way home. After a night of putting the battery on a 1 amp 10 hour charge, the bike turns over faster than ever and is now happy again.
Lessons learned!
#1 Don't leave your key on, a few hours will absolutely 100% drain an otherwise healthy battery that has never given me a single issue.
#2 If you have to push start a fuel injected bike, pull the headlight harnesses, or if you can access a fuse panel easily, pull some non-essential fuses to allow all the power to go to vital systems, a simple push won't cut it when the battery is that dead and the stator is trying to power all the systems at once!
Learn from my mistake and maybe you can avoid all the trouble I went through to get the thing to start!
Comments appreciated, heckles accepted with humility :Flip:
I recently had the wonderful experience of having to try and pop start (push start) my FZ with an entirely 100% dead battery. To make the lead up story short, I was putting on my gear and had turned on the key when I saw an old friend. We ended up chatting and catching up for about 2.5 hours. I had made the mistake of leaving my key on the entire time :spank: :spank: :spank: . So I went to hop back on the bike, and had no display, or lights of any sort. I was lucky and unlucky in the fact that I was in a hilly part of town. Lucky on the way down the hill, unlucky on push back up . I tried a number of techniques, letting out the clutch slow from 10-15mph in 2nd. I tried 3rd and first from this speed too. I tried letting out the clutch fast, I tried it all. Each time I tried the bike would turn over and occasionally the display and lights would flicker, but I did not ever have a sputter or anything. Lets just say I had a hell of a time. I realized after the first attempt that the bike is EFI and therefore requires power for the fuel pump, ECU, fuel injectors at a minimum to even think about starting. After probably 20 unsucessful attempts, I decided to come up with a new game plan. I thought of something I had read on here. I remembered reading on here that the bike actually uses more power than it makes to idle and that the headlights were a huge drain on the electrical system. Using my quick thinking skills (an hour too late into the fiasco), I pulled the plugs from both headlights to allow more of the generated power to be used for the computer and fuel systems. Eureka!!!! First attempt with the headlights pulled was from about 15 MPH and in 2nd gear. The bike turned over from the road first with no attempt to start, then sputtered, then right as it was about to either stall or start it decided to fire up. I rode it around the block with the headlights pulled still. The bike was MAD! Hardly any power, orange engine light on, sputtering and angry but it was idling good and was actually running. Before riding home I plugged the headlights back in and set off for home 20 minutes away. The headlights were very dim, and the bike still angry, but things went good on the way home.
When I was comfortable that I had no traffic around me and could attempt a rolling start to test the battery, I pulled the clutch at speed, hit the kill switch, and attempted to restart the bike with the starter.... All I got was a single click and a dead display. Letting the clutch back out slowly to avoid skidding the tire, the bike fired back up and although still angry.. gave me no issues the rest of the way home. After a night of putting the battery on a 1 amp 10 hour charge, the bike turns over faster than ever and is now happy again.
Lessons learned!
#1 Don't leave your key on, a few hours will absolutely 100% drain an otherwise healthy battery that has never given me a single issue.
#2 If you have to push start a fuel injected bike, pull the headlight harnesses, or if you can access a fuse panel easily, pull some non-essential fuses to allow all the power to go to vital systems, a simple push won't cut it when the battery is that dead and the stator is trying to power all the systems at once!
Learn from my mistake and maybe you can avoid all the trouble I went through to get the thing to start!
Comments appreciated, heckles accepted with humility :Flip:
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