Me and batteries fall out again

So I've been putting the NC30's battery on the Optimate every few
weeks. This morning, green light, put it in the bike and tried to
start it. Turned over, didn't catch, probably due to old fuel although
it had been treated with stabilizer. Only lasted a couple of minutes
or so of this intermittent abuse before the battery gave up. FFS,
isn't that a bit pants? Is it worth getting a new battery or is a
green light on an Optimate an indicator that the battery is tip-top?

Will bad things happen if I try to jump-start it from a cage? I don't
fancy the charge, fail, charge, fail for the foreseeable future.

 

Battery is only a couple of years old. Bike was in a relatively cold place -
on the street and it's not warm out. I can't speak for all NC30s but mine has
always been fussy after months of disuse, it always seems to get there in the
end though. I thought the fuel stabilizer would help this time, but
apparently not.

Then I'm going back later with some jump leads.

 

Had the carbs been drained before leaving the bike?

There is no substitute for spinning a motor over very smartly. My hill
climb tuned Nordwest would often require the jump lead treatment for the
first start of the season.

Even so, if you don't get at least a few encouraging coughs after a
short time it's always worth going through the usual checks for signs of
life.

--
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Pete Fisher at Home: |
| Voxan Roadster Yamaha WR250Z/Supermoto "Old Gimmer's Hillclimber" |
| Gilera GFR * 2 Moto Morini 2C/375 Morini 350 "Forgotten Error" |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+

 

No, FFS. I perhaps foolishly assumed that the fuel stabilizer would stop
things gumming up, hence left the fuel tap on. At this particular juncture,
on this particular machine, I would almost rather leave it to rot in the
street, as opposed to drain the carbs (I assume they have to come off to drain
them).

It was coughing, it was so nearly there, it wasn't quite, how you say...
catching.

I'll charge the battery again, and go back with some jump leads and fresher
fuel in a can. If that fails, I'll push it into a canal and claim theft off
the insurance[1].

[1] Note to watching law enforcement - the previous sentence was not true.

--
TD
2000 GSX1300RX (red and black)
1991 VFR400R NC30 (black and red)
1993 Eunos Roadster (supercharged)
Missing: SOB, Unreliable Italian exotica

 

""

I had similar problems with my bike; I ended up charging the battery, trying
to start, running out, recharging etc for 4-5 times before I decided to just
use jump cables and a car; worked a treat - twice.

Not sure if it applies in your case, but unlike my "stupid" charger which
gets the battery to ca. 13.3 Volts, the "intelligent" one from Lidl only
charges up to 12.7 so the battery runs low more quickly[1]. I now charge
with the intelligent first and then plug the other one in for a final boost.

My intelligent charger has a desulfation mode which kicks in when the
battery is between 7.5 and 10 Volts. My battery is half-shagged due to age
so I deliberately discharged it to that level and it seems to be working a
bit better now, after it got fully recharged. Of course YMMV.


[1] Volts doesn't equal AmpereHours but there seems to be a difference in
the stamina.

 

This may be of help (love the name):
http://www.startyabastard.com/

 

Can you not go five minutes without going on about the Good Old Days when
Batteries were Batteries etc yadda...

"Get an Optimate," they said.

"Optimates aren't the nuts," they said.

Nah, it says not to remove the cap and I'm a bit of a poof.

--
TD
2000 GSX1300RX (red and black)
1991 VFR400R NC30 (black and red)
1993 Eunos Roadster (supercharged)
Missing: SOB, Unreliable Italian exotica

 

That's a bit interesting. I just checked the voltages. It's currently on the
"charge maintenance" stage, which is the stage after the initial charge. The
manual says that this stage holds it at 13.6V for 30 minutes. However on the
meter, it was around 13.1. The meter is an Ebay cheapy, and the charger is a
Heinz Gherkin Optimate 4. I'm not sure what to believe.

--
TD
2000 GSX1300RX (red and black)
1991 VFR400R NC30 (black and red)
1993 Eunos Roadster (supercharged)
Missing: SOB, Unreliable Italian exotica

 

The battery is fucked.

Jumpstarting should not be a problem but how are you going to restart
it to get home.

Stop farting about and buy a new battery, preferably Varta or Yuasa
and dont let it get ruined by going flat again.

 

If I was going to bother with draining carbs, I'd just turn off the fuel and
let the thing run till it died.

 

True, but on some bikes it is a bigger faff to open up an orifice to
give it a whiff of the hard stuff than to do a quick drain and refill.

I've never had that great success with it anyway. The hardest beast to
coax in to life I've ever had was the high compression, big bore, trick
carbed Nordwest. When it was in a sulky mood even a touch of the vapours
wouldn't provoke it when stone cold.

A good rogering with jump leads from a battery with lots of cold
starting amps would do it, or, if not in a rush, careful checking of the
ignition sensor clearance and/or a softer plug.


--
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Pete Fisher at Home: |
| Voxan Roadster Yamaha WR250Z/Supermoto "Old Gimmer's Hillclimber" |
| Gilera GFR * 2 Moto Morini 2C/375 Morini 350 "Forgotten Error" |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+

 

It's (EasyStart) saved me on a number of occasions. The most memorable
one recently was driving back from France with a very sick diesel
Scenic[1].

I used it yesterday too. Bandit was a bit reluctant to start after
having been stood for a few weeks.

[1] The injection pump was on the way out, low pressure.

 

The only thing it used to produce on the reluctant Nordie was FOAD KSB
effect when the mixture accumulated in the exhaust system ignited.

Certainly worth a try before having to engage in serious spanner work in
brass monkey weather though.

I'm a great proponent of trick plugs for persuading recalcitrant engines
to fire reliably. NGK EVs would keep a Morini starting OK for a while
longer once the ignition charging coil resistance began to drop.

Having emasculated the alarm on the MX5 I was confident that the Westco
battery would crank it over OK the other week despite having stood
outside for a month, but I was pleasantly surprised by just how quickly
it fired up. I reckon the small premium for the modern equivalent of EVs
that I put in it was worth it.



--
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Pete Fisher at Home: |
| Voxan Roadster Yamaha WR250Z/Supermoto "Old Gimmer's Hillclimber" |
| Gilera GFR * 2 Moto Morini 2C/375 Morini 350 "Forgotten Error" |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+

 

I've done it many times on many bikes. I've been told you shouldn't do
it with the car engine running because the charge rate of a car at low
revs can be more than a bike's syetem can handle, but I'm not sure I
believe that.

Just don't do it from a truck's 24v system, eh, Hog?

 

I do that with the 400 Four.

 

I did, and eventually coaxed it into life. Took a good ten minutes of
intermittent starter-prodding. Let it splutter for a bit, then we were firing
on all cylinders. It would appear that every time I don't ride for a couple
of months, I forget how great it is.

Tomorrow's six-million dollar question: Will today's exploits be repeated if I
try to start it any time in the next few days? Past experience would indicate
that it will be fine, but always with that little "squeaky bum time" feeling
that only an aging V4 can give. I blame Lozzo.

But mainly I'm fucked off that the fuse holder is broken on the wires I added
so the bike can be charged without having to remove the fricking seat.

 

I thought that was a slight case of mixing up the red and the black?

 

No, that was a later episode.

A few years ago, Hog accepted a jump start on his old R100RS from a
friendly trucker, not realising that the truck was 24v.

The starter motor on the Beemer spun amazingly quickly

Almost as amazing, IIRC, the only casualty was the quartz clock.

Thinking about it, I don't ever want to accept a jump-start from Hog.