Reversed polarity
A couple of weeks ago, I turned on the key (81 6-volt Passport), and I have dash lights but the starter wouldn't crank. This is typical after the bike sits a while. So I kick start it, it runs great and I ride around for about 2 hours, thinking that I'm doing the battery some good.
The bike sits for a couple of weeks again until today, I turn on the key and I have NO dash lights. I don't want to start it and blow out bulbs with a dead battery, so I immediately remove the battery and hook it up to a meter which shows zero volts/amps. The electrolyte level is good. I figure the battery is probably shot, but with nothing to lose, I hook the leads up to my wall-wart trickle charger, and while looking for an outlet to plug it in, I notice the charger getting really warm really quickly and look down and see smoke coming out of the little charger, and by now it's really hot! So I disconnect it, but now I'm wondering where it got enough energy from the battery to do such a thing.
So, I hook up the meter again, and it still shows zero volts/amps. So I reverse the connectors, hooking negative to positive, etc., and now the battery shows fully charged, and tests good except for the polarity being reversed.
What caused this? I assume that both the battery and charger are trash, but I'm wondering what I might have done to cause this.
The bike sits for a couple of weeks again until today, I turn on the key and I have NO dash lights. I don't want to start it and blow out bulbs with a dead battery, so I immediately remove the battery and hook it up to a meter which shows zero volts/amps. The electrolyte level is good. I figure the battery is probably shot, but with nothing to lose, I hook the leads up to my wall-wart trickle charger, and while looking for an outlet to plug it in, I notice the charger getting really warm really quickly and look down and see smoke coming out of the little charger, and by now it's really hot! So I disconnect it, but now I'm wondering where it got enough energy from the battery to do such a thing.
So, I hook up the meter again, and it still shows zero volts/amps. So I reverse the connectors, hooking negative to positive, etc., and now the battery shows fully charged, and tests good except for the polarity being reversed.
What caused this? I assume that both the battery and charger are trash, but I'm wondering what I might have done to cause this.
posted by Rodney at 7:55 PM
1 Comments:
Not sure if the charger is toast (if it's one of the Schumacher
'smart' units - it's supposed to have reversed polarity protection),
but batteries that are deeply discharged can reverse polarity.
I WOULDN'T trust a reversed battery, so don't just reverse the wires and
keep using it.
An acid battery can go through polarity changes when its reached its
full life cycle, discharged, and if the ground or positive wire is
separated from the vehicle to break the electrical circuit.
If the charger is toast, return it for a replacement or refund (it's
Wal-Mart - they do that kind of thing). They battery might have
similar warranty if it's a name brand unit.
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