pdes Posted September 2, 2009 Share Posted September 2, 2009 I was greeted by a flat (as a pancake!!) battery this morning. No problem, I thought, I'll jump start it from my portable power-pack. So, I hoooked it up and hit the starter. The engine turned for half a rev then there was a loud "clonk" and nothing. Tried again and the same happened. So I decided to hook it up to the car battery - brand new landrover so no shortage of power. The same happened! So, I started the Landrover engine and tried again. Success! So, could someone please tell me why the first two methods failed and what the "clonk" was? I am presuming that there was insufficient voltage to get things going until the Landrover alternator assisted but the bike battery would normally start the bike so why wouldn't the car battery? BTW, I also had a large "EWS" message on the dashboard and some of the trip data cleared - What was this message? Cheers Link to comment
Boffin Posted September 2, 2009 Share Posted September 2, 2009 The Clonk was the solenoid on the starter only partially engaging. The trick for jump-starting any vehicle is a little patience. Connect the jump-supply and then go have a cup of tea. Give the donor battery a few minutes to put some charge into the flat battery - otherwise there is no power available to turn the starter motor - it is all going into the battery which is a much lower resistance than the starer motor. Once there is some charge in the dead battery, the vehicle will start easilly. I strongly suspect the reason the bike started had nothing to do do with the land-rover running but more to do with some charge having been put into the dead battery. BTW, it is not good practice to use a running car engine to jump a motorcycle - the car's charging circuits are designed to supply a much bigger battery and so there is a small risk of damaging the bikes electrics. I do not know about the EWS message - EWS is the chip-key system - but I would guess that the flat battery zereod all of the non-flash memory and so the bike had to re-learn from scratch. Andy Link to comment
pdes Posted September 3, 2009 Author Share Posted September 3, 2009 Makes perfect sense! Thanks Link to comment
motorman587 Posted September 3, 2009 Share Posted September 3, 2009 What Andy says. We do that all the time on RTPs with flat batteries and jump packs. If they are low the bike will make that sad pissed off click, click, click noise. Link to comment
motorman587 Posted September 3, 2009 Share Posted September 3, 2009 For got to add, make sure the teeth of host cables are making good contection. Happened to me once or twice. Sometimes you have to move the clips back and forth to the teeth to bite. Link to comment
B-1 Pilot Posted September 3, 2009 Share Posted September 3, 2009 I put twin Xenon HIDs in for my low beams on my R1200RT.... everyone thinks I am driving with my brights on... have to flash my high beam back to show Ive got even more... maybe some annoyance for those in their cages, but I see EVERYTHING and they see me coming... Link to comment
Don_Eilenberger Posted September 3, 2009 Share Posted September 3, 2009 I put twin Xenon HIDs in for my low beams on my R1200RT.... everyone thinks I am driving with my brights on... have to flash my high beam back to show Ive got even more... maybe some annoyance for those in their cages, but I see EVERYTHING and they see me coming... That's nice - but it has what to do with jump starting a bike? Link to comment
B-1 Pilot Posted September 4, 2009 Share Posted September 4, 2009 That's nice - but it has what to do with jump starting a bike? oops too many windows open, responded to wrong one... cant delete for some reason? Link to comment
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