Now she won't start at all

[dogdoc]

Amy I took my dead bike battery to two auto places and they refused to LOAD test the battery. Said they only did full sized car/truck batteries. I got pissed and bought a new battery and fixed my dead Nomad. Good Luck

[blowndodge]

This is only for a test to see if it's not the battery mac. throwing 25 amps at a 20 amp (potentially dead) battery would take a long time to overheat the battery, a loooong time if it ever does. Nothing is going to happen to the charging system as the output was designed and made to handle that much amperage according to the owner's manual. The warning "DONT HIT THE STARTER BUTTON" is way overstated.

I've used a 330 amp car battery to jump my bike with no problem!

No offense taken mac.

[macmac]

BD yeah you can use a 1000+ cca battery no problem. The problem comes when a car/truck running sees the draw and has a 65 amp plus alt in it spinning...

It will dump full rate into a 42 amp or less system bike and fry the diode bridges.

If you were saying to not turn the bike ign on, I am in error... misreading you.

And then if the battery is really dead like toasted anchor bait dead, and you hit it with high amps you just might have made a bomb...

A frozen battery, I am tawkin ice, solid ice will blow sky high..

Not a problem where you live... A marginal dead battery not good enough to start a bike won't.


Me: I use the bike as the load tester, and DOC, I am not surprised anyone refused.. The carbon core load tester for car/truck, is way over kill on a 20 Ah battery.

I do this all the time on bikes lawn tractors and what ever else has a 14 Ah to 20 Ah battery..

The charging system/starter motor can be the tool with a volt meter hooked up..

More or less most start motors on bikes take about 365 AMPS. Just that motor does..

With a second hand on a watch and a volt meter you can gauge the battery be reading volts drop...

Everyone here knows how i blow my load, tawkin about auto chargers and battery's.

I do that in hopes of getting you mugs to do what I say, because i want to be prime Dicktater, err wrong site, because i want you to get full battery life..

[Kawhead]

Where are you at on this thing Kawgirl ??? You ain't chopping her into iddy biddy pieces of use to be Kawasaki are you ???

[kawgirl]

I can always count on you Mike! Nope, no iddy biddy pieces yet. Been too busy to tinker with it. I hope to check the fuses to make sure all are okay, then go from there. Ron Ayers will be open tomorrow if I need to haul her in. I hope not to opt for that one.

[macmac]

If you buy a test light which looks like a ice pick and has NO battery of it's own and a cheap walley world digital mulitmeter you can search a lot more real easy.

If at walley world there is a yellow mulitimeter I buy that one as I did, so anyone could have the very same tool. This is so I can see what you see.

I have 5 or 6 better ones, but then they won't match yours.

[Kawhead]

Or you can do the SMART way and buy stuff 'till you fix it. The symptoms were telling me my starter was bad but I guess my heart was saying "No, Kaw stuff don't go bad, and it kain't be the starter!". So I listened to my heart and bought a hundred and something dollar battery first. That didn't fix it, and then I bought a three hundred dollar rebuilt starter. ::) On the bright side, the battery was going to go dead in the nex two to three years. It's still cranking the ell out of my lawn mower. :-/

[macmac]

I guess I never work that smart... With the 2 tools listed, most of the time the ice pick light which I have several of, as these cost 4 bucks I can get a lot of testing done.

I spend some time testing, but then I don't buy stuff I don't need.

One time I can recall no amount of parts would have really cured a problem where a connector came free from the wire at the connector.

I suppose maybe had I bought all the parts effected and then the bloomin wire loom it would have fixed it finally. But the fix was free for a little soldering.

Many times I can find a wiring problem faster than if I looked in a book with just the ice pick test light.

The instance that come to mind was a RV and my buddy refused to not read the book. So I asked him to sit in the drivers seat to read with the key on and put his foot on the brakes.

I slide under the Rv and went to work finding the wire cut at the rear leaf springs, and fixed it. That took maybe 5 minutes total. No book will find a cause for something like that.

[Kawhead]

I like the ice pick light tester to mac. I buy at least 3 or 4 a year because I lay 'em down somewhere, step on 'em or leave 'em at a friends house. That and the multi-meter are only as good as the fellah using it. In my case, it was hard for me to believe a Kawasaki part (starter) would go bad within ten thousand miles!

[kawgirl]

I have the multi meter already. Not sure what I'm looking at on it but have had one for several years now. I can go get an ice pick tester. Now, what do I check with em?

[Top Cat]

Originally Posted by kawgirl (nckawgirl)

I have the multi meter already. Not sure what I'm looking at on it but have had one for several years now. I can go get an ice pick tester. Now, what do I check with em?

I like that. A woman with an open mind and is willing to learn.

[Kawhead]

Originally Posted by macmac

I have no idea where the connector is located. So if you have a ice pick test light or a ohm meter the way I would do this on line is to have you open the switch housing to test the red switch.

2 ways to test. Either dc volts or in ohms.

Mac said kill switches have gone bad and since that is one of the last things you used before you KILLED HER, open that puppy up and check her out. I'm thinking you have a multi tester and haven't used it. To check your kill switch, turn the switch on the meter to the thing that looks like an omega. You should have OL come up on the screen until you touch your probes together and then you have a lot of zero's and a couple numbers. Don't worry about the numbers right now. What you have is a complete circuit.

Now touch your probes to the leads coming from the kill switch. Switch on; you should read ZERO'S. Switch off you should read OL.

And let's hope the ell this is it!

[macmac]

if you have the digital GE 2524 mulitmeter
there are TWO main areas for use to get familar with for testing volts and circuits with NO volts..

2 ways to test.

There is 3 places to insert the probe test wires.

To start forget there is a 10A port. (not used)

COM (common/ground) always gets the black lead.

Red lead to port V.Ohms (upside down horse shoe)

On the meter scale to the left side of OFF is Direct current volts DVC. Do not worry about Alternating current volts for begining testing.

The internation symbol for dcv is
_
...
V
Best I can do...
For ALL testing on a Nomad set the dial to 20.

This might be a good time to get a marker and write DCV near the v mark

To start you might test flash light batterys.

I just grabbed a AA battery typical of a pen light. If you have one read the side and it says 1.5 volts... With the black probe against (-) touch the (+) button on the battery, and read the meter.

This battery has 1.6 dcv. and so is good, with 1/10th over 'shelf' charge.

At this point if you have a car you can go do the same thing on the car battery, still using the 20 volt scale you selected.

The car battery will read in a similar fashion to a Nomad battery in dcv.

So get a helper, and go test the car battery. Set the meter to 20 in the dcv scale, and read the meter. Write that down.

With the helper in the car in PARK, have the key turned to just ON, no more and read the meter, which will show some voltage drop, since the turning on the key is using some circuits.

A really good car battery standing with no load might read 12.8 dcv.

With the key On it might read 12.00

Then have the helper turn the key to 'crank' the engine over. it would be best if the engine ignition was disabled for this test.

If you look at the spark plugs, they each have a big cable running to a distributor cap probably. If there happens to be a wire dead center in that cap, if is safe to remove it for the test.

If not never mind... Since I have no idea what car this is and there is many types of ignitions, only do this if there is a main spark plug like wire dead center in the dist cap.

And if there is, set that end aside somewhere near metal on the engine or a inner fender.

Then with a second hand on a watch, have the helper read it for 10 seconds and crancking the engine, while you watch the meter drop, still holding the probes on the battery.

You won't be shocked no matter what at the battery. Avoid that cable though

10 seconds is not a valid test on a car, but it is on a bike.

A car needs 30 seconds, but that is hard on a start motor.

These test are designed to get you and the meter to be friends.

So a good battery standing should be 12.8 dcv.. probably the battery won't be that good. and might read an acceptable 12.4.

Cranking it might read 10.5dcv.

The meter can be used to test fuses..

The black lead ALWAYS stays on COM.

Radio shack sells clips one in red plastic and the other in black which makes a 3rd hand, just incase you like the idea of a free hand.

So on any 12 volt system all cars and all bikes and all pick up trucks newer than 1950 you can test all batterys and all fuses.

The modern fuse type has exposed metal on the holder and so all you need to do is turn the key on and touch the red prob to each bare metal spot on the fuse holder with the fuse in the fuse box.

If one side of the fuse lights and the other does not that fuse is blown.

That black lead can be placed almost any where.... A car body is nothing more than a big wire and is ground.

The Nomad frame, all bolts into the frame, all the metal of the engine, the fenders and the handle bars are all a great big wire all ground. The idea is to not damage paint or chrome.

But find a place you can clip the black lead on and leave it there for testing, unless the wire ends up too short and you must then move it.

Lets say you want to test the connector at the clutch lever.

Place a towel on the gas tank. Set the meter on it, and clip the black wire to ground say on the inside of the chrome fork cover where it wraps around the back of the forks.

Pull the wire connector off the clutch lever switch, and stick the red probe in one hole, turn the key ON.

Get a reading? no then try the other hole... get a reading? Yes

This shows the connector has power coming in and now you know what color that wire is.

Turn the key OFF and put the connector back on the switch.

Turn the key back ON, and back probe the connector. As you do pull the clutch lever in with the proobe in the wire that didn't turn on.

Sometimes you need to un-bend a paper clip and use it as part of the probe, clipping it in the jaws of that radio shack clip.

.................................................. .................................................. ...

There is no such thing as a 'Ice pick' test light, bit I call it that here so folks can find and buy one easier because they look like ice picks.

Techs just call it a test light. The type i use has no battery.

You can get a idea of what is going on with on, but the test is crude, but faster. This type of testing is GO/No Go.

Much faster than reading a numbers in a read out window. The light is on or it ain't...

Sometimes the light will be dim and that pretty much means low condition and calls for a meter.

So long as the test light is bright you have dcv.
.................................................. ................................................

The meter has another scale on the left side and a sort of upside down horse shoe

This is Ohms.... Ohms meters have their own battery and there IS a battery inside the meter.

ALL testing with the meter in OHM's mode SHALL be with any other systems battery DISCONNECTED.

IF you are in OHM's mode and test a live circuit, the best thing that can happen is blow the meter's internal fuse. The worst is you will forever more kill the meter.

For grins set the meter to OHM's mode at 20K and look arouynd for something metal to test..

Well the first things metal are the probe clips... touch them together. The meter will zero to 0.00 of it is any good.

Make that a habit. test the meter on Ohms before testing anything else.

A reading of 0.00 means the wire isn't broken, or a eatting utenisl isn't broken.

DO NOT test the AA Battery in ohms! Remember the meter has it's own battery!

Note when the meter leads are not touching anything you will see a 1--. (no dashes, but I needed to make space)

For kicks you can read you too. set the meter to OHMS setting 2000k wet your thumbs and grab the probes. Voltage will just rip thru you thmbs into yer hands and you will get a reading, and a shock so mild you can't possibley feel it.


.................................................. ................................................

Shocks: Lot of folks think they can be shocked on bike, car and truck batterys... Well you can't..... You can put a hand on each terminal and you will not be shocked.

Don't go and drop a crow bar or a big screw drive across the terminal though as that will conduct and cause a fire and possible explosion. That action would be called a dead short.

The spark plug cables can give you a nasty, but harmless shock, unless the tech has a pace maker.
.................................................. .................................................. ....
long enough I will see where this goes.

[macmac]

The above is too many ideas for me to cover at once... I left testing the clutch swith un-finished. Once i see where this goes, I will do this test for test... in better detail.

[Kawhead]

As always good job mac. That takes a lot o' patience to write that long.