Triumphrat

suemchenry

Just trying to think ahead... I read somewhere that you can jump a motorcycle battery using a car battery provided you don't start the car. Is this true, and is it safe? Also, are there any tricky things associated with jump-starting a motorcycle battery so you don't blow fuses?

__________________
...living life abundantly!

bobshields55

That's right, do the jump start with the car not running. lHook up the leads as normal, positive to positive, negative on car battery to bike frame under the seat. The car's alternator will produce many more amps than you need, that's why you don't have it running.

I have the old battery from my wife's car in the garage, you know "just in case" sort of thing. I used it several times to jump my bike earlier this year before I changed the battery.

Disconnect as soon as the bike is running, you shouldn't have any issues with fuses.

__________________
----------
Bob
My Photo Album

suemchenry

Excellent. Thanks!

Sue

__________________
...living life abundantly!

asparago

I just bought a 2000 Sprint with 30,500 miles. Really nice bike... powerful and smooth and fast! What a wide power band. My R80 G/S is somewhat better on the tight back roads of the Santa Cruz mountains, and at low speed just tooling along and chilling, but the Triumph rules the more open roads along the coast, and the highways and byways. I bought it for my sometime-commute over Highway 17, which is a pretty fast and aggressive mountain freeway.

Anyway here's a lesson for y'all. For some reason my battery was totally dead after my first ride!!! :-( Do you think I might have left it switched past the lock position, to the parking lights on? I suppose so. If so, that's kind of a dumb feature... anyway live & learn. I'm also worried that perhaps the fan got stuck on due to a faulty thermostat? Anyway hasn't happened since.

So I jump the battery with the truck. Like an idiot I don't read anything first about how to do it, and so I leave the truck engine running. It starts fine, but then I ride it and it stalls. I jump it again and I ride it and it stalls, this time in traffic. Drag. I call my girlfriend and we jump it again... looking kind of like an idiot by now -- then finally nurse it back home and I dig in the garage and find that I do indeed own a trickle charger.

I get the battery nice and juiced up over 4 hours, and then it starts right up. But... the yellow engine light is now on!! Drag.

So I start reading about how I just fried the electronics of my new bike. I'm all depressed. But the bike runs OK so I go for a ride -- a little rich it seems, a little bit of subtle backfiring. I'm thinking I've fracked my bike and start looking for local repair shops, and they say I need to go see the dealer.

Than I read that I can reset the computer if I disconnect the battery and bring it to running temp, then cool, then running temp, then cool, 3 times. I do that. And it works!!!

Now the bike runs just fine. So let that be a lesson to y'all. If you jump start, be careful. If you can trickle charge instead of jump start, do that instead. And I'm still suspicious of what drained the battery totally dead in the first place... I don't think I put it into parking lights mode; could it have been the fan/thermostat getting stuck?

Anyway I'm glad to find this forum and look forward to discussions about Triumph and simple ways to keep mine running for a long time!

gregp

Interesting. Where did you read that? Can you elaborate (like, how did you start the bike if you disconnected the battery first...)? Does anybody know if this procedure in any way applies to our T-3C's? Does this only apply to his Sprint's dash computer or the ECM? The only computer-like component I am aware of on the T-3C's is the ECM....

jimmyj900

The Classics models don't have ECUs or ECMs -- just a simple electronic ignition that doesn't monitor any engine functions.

Jim

__________________
http://s279.photobucket.com/albums/k...0Head%20Stuff/

gregp

Thanks, Jimmy. I guess that I was just refering to the electronic ignition control as an ECM.